Dan Lanning addresses Spencer Webb death, honoring his legacy

As Oregon gets ready for the 2022 season, it’ll be without Spencer Webb, who passed away last month in a cliff diving accident. At the Ducks’ media day on Wednesday, Dan Lanning addressed how the program got through the tough situation and how it’s honoring Webb.

Lanning said the players did a great job helping each other after Webb’s sudden passing. The Ducks have added ways to honor Webb in practice and meetings as they get closer to Week 1 against Georgia.

“It takes interaction outside of football,” Lanning said. “I can’t commend our players enough for handling extremely tough situations in really unique ways. There’s work to be done. There’s not a day that goes by that our program doesn’t remember Spencer and there won’t be a day going forward that we don’t remember Spencer. Like I said, we start every team meeting off [by] recognizing him. It’s the first thing we do. And that’s not going to change.

“But we want to live a life worth living and make sure we do it honoring him, and I think that’s one thing that our players have really embraced. There’s going to be days that football’s hard, but there’s work to be done and I think each one of our guys want to make sure they do a good job of honoring him by the way that they work.”

Dan Lanning explains Oregon’s emotional ‘void’ following loss of Spencer Webb

Oregon head coach Dan Lanning brought a powerful message with him to the podium at Pac-12 Media Day on Friday. While discussing the changes the team has faced since the end of last season, the former Georgia defensive coordinator noted the void left by the passing of Ducks tight end Spencer Webb two weeks ago.

“One thing that’s certainly changed for us this offseason is our team has a void,” Lanning said. “We’re missing a brother in Spencer Webb who we lost in a tragic accident. We spent a lot of time together as a family, mourned his loss. It’s something you certainly cannot replace.

“I’ve talked to our players about that moment and Spencer, on your tombstone, there’s a day you were born and a day when you passed, but what made Spencer special was how he lived that dash in between those two numbers,” Lanning continued. “We want to live and create a dash that’s meaningful. I think our Get Real sessions have been really beneficial to our team. We finished our summer workouts with a climb up Spencer Butte, which will be an annual tradition to honor him. Our theme this season as we honor Spencer is growth.”