Dan Lanning addresses the defensive line heading into fall camp

New Oregon football coach Dan Lanning is a defensive guy. Evidenced no better than by his job as the defensive coordinator with national champion Georgia in 2021, where his unit set all sorts of records en route to taking home the College Football Playoff trophy. Now, with the Ducks, Lanning is installing a similar system.

How did those Georgia teams really dismantle the opposition? Up front, with a dominant defensive line and front seven. In Eugene, work has already started in building a west coast monster along the D-line. At least according to Dan Lanning, who gave a long and impassioned update on the position at Oregon Football Media Day:

“Yeah, I think, you know, going through the spring, one thing that you notice when you’re banged up. You realize, okay, this is a place where we got to try to make this a strength. You know, Casey [Rogers] and Jordan [Riley], that coach Tuioti had worked with in the past. So we had a really intimate knowledge of them and their work ethic, what kind of players they are. That certainly helped us. But I can’t say enough good things.”

Lanning then singled out one player along the DL he’s been super impressed with so far.

“I’ll tell you one guy that I don’t think is getting enough praise is Brandon Dorlus. You know what? He didn’t go through the spring. But Brandon’s leadership, his work ethic — those guys follow him. I’ve been really excited to see that. You watch a guy like Brandon Dorlus and what he’s done, this summer, to not stay the same, to improve in a situation where he was a little bit banged up. I’m really excited to see what this fall looks like for him.”

Alongside Dorlus, Oregon has plenty of proven playmakers. In addition to a few guys the Ducks brought in. All told, the unit should be one of the strengths of the entire roster the way Lanning sees it.

“Obviously, Popo [Aumaeve], Keyon [Ware-Hudson], having those guys back, is a big piece of our future success. You know, Tony is an extreme perfectionist and Coach Lupoi also has an extensive background in the front seven. Those guys, being able to develop. I can’t say enough for guys that we didn’t necessarily recruit, but they’re buying in. And this season I have really high expectations for that group. Where I’ve been, if you want to play great defense, you got to be good on the defensive line. I think we have the guys to do that if we can stay healthy.”