Dan Lanning dishes about his excitement joining Big Ten with Oregon

The 2023 season was Oregon‘s last in the Pac-12 before the program into the Big Ten. For head coach Dan Lanning, it’s an incredibly exciting time in Eugene.

The Big Ten sits among the best conferences in college football going into the 2024 season, with the defending national champions in Michigan, as well as the addition of some of the top Pac-12 schools, including the national runner-up in Washington.

“Absolutely. All of those things just get me more excited about what we’re doing here,” Dan Lanning said on The Pat McAfee Show. “This place has a sense of direction. We’re joining one of the best if not the best conferences in college football, and watching that game the other night lets you know what you’re playing against.”

Ty Schmit, who initially asked Dan Lanning about the Big Ten, is an Iowa graduate. So, Lanning looked back and reflected on a memory of playing at Kinnick Stadium as a graduate assistant.

“When I was a GA at Pitt, we played at Iowa and I loved that experience. It’s just a special place. We ended up losing that game in the fourth quarter when I was at Pitt, but I remembered that’s their NFL team and it’s really impressive the support they have there.”

In two seasons with the Oregon Ducks, Dan Lanning has compiled a record of 22-5 with the Ducks. In that stretch, he’s made himself one of the top young names in coaching.

That’s also part of why many people thought that he would make an ideal candidate to replace Nick Saban at Alabama. However, Lanning isn’t going anywhere. He made that clear in a recent video.

“I want to be here in Eugene for as long as Eugene will have me,” Lanning said in the video. “This place has everything that I could possibly ever want. This is a little bit of a problem in society today with people looking for what’s next and whether it’s an opportunity, and the reality is the grass is not always greener. In fact the grass is damned green in Eugene.”

Dan Lanning describes the moment when false reports broke he was in Tuscaloosa

There were reports that Dan Lanning was in Tuscaloosa following Nick Saban’s retirement. However, that wasn’t true and became a strange moment for Lanning himself.

“It was a distraction last night. My 13-year-old son Caden, we just started watching the Jason Bourne movie. My phone starts blowing up, it’s like, ‘Dad, it says you’re in Tuscaloosa right now.’ We’re watching Jason Bourne… ‘focus on the movie. Put the phone on Do Not Disturb.’ So it interrupted what we were in on last night,” Lanning said.

“We’ve got great players that we’re looking to sign. All that became a distraction for sure. We’ve got players on our team reaching out. They know where I’m at. Ten toes down.”