Dan Lanning evaluates physicality of Oregon’s first scrimmage

Oregon Ducks head coach Dan Lanning wants the team to play physically this season, particularly on the defensive side of the ball. However, earlier in Fall Camp, Lanning explained that the team still had work to do.

After Oregon’s first scrimmage, Lanning admitted that he wanted to see improved tackling, in particular, from the Ducks.

“It needs to be better at times,” Dan Lanning said. “You know, I thought we started slow, right. We operated like we were gonna be in thud mode today and then those guys didn’t go down — we’ve got to tackle.”

Prior to Bo Nix getting banged up against Washington, Oregon’s biggest issue last season was the defense, which ended the season 71st in total defense. Dan Lanning, who made his name as the defensive coordinator at Georgia, certainly wants to improve on that by becoming a more physical team.

Still, Lanning knows that change isn’t going to happen overnight. So, the Ducks need to keep practicing to become a more consistently physical team.

“The only way you can get good at it is practicing it. Now, it came on and some physicality showed up throughout practice, but we have to continue to take that to another level.”

At the same time, Oregon has had to battle poor air quality this Fall Camp. This is a problem that Dan Lanning has had to adjust to on the fly.

“Good day today, change of scenery a little bit,” Lanning said. “We’ve been going outside but we had to go in the indoor today just because some of the smoke. Had some really good situational practice stuff at the end, end-of-game scenarios that our guys handled well. But certainly some stuff to clean up.”

Dan Lanning has been impressed with the eagerness of the young players

In his second season with the program, Dan Lanning has noticed that the younger players in the program have been playing with tons of eagerness to learn. That, he feels is going to help the program, especially when combined with the team’s veterans.

“More than anything, probably the eagerness to learn,” Lanning said. “These guys are they all operate as professionals. When they get here, they take great notes and meetings. They do the extra when it comes to prehab rehab, things away from the field. I think that really sticks out. And we’ve got a good group of veterans that’s trying to grow them along that they are really receptive to.”