Dan Lanning, Oregon amped for home debut after tough opener

As far as new head coaching debuts go, it doesn’t get much rougher than the one experienced last weekend by Dan Lanning. Oregon had the herculean task of facing defending national champion Georgia in its opener, across the country at a “neutral” site location that could most charitably be described as a friendly neighbor to Athens, Ga.

It didn’t go well.

The Ducks were smacked 49-3 in front of a national audience, plunging all the way from No. 11 in the preseason AP Top 25 to unranked. For Lanning and Oregon, though, the season continues.

Lanning, the first-year coach who arrived by way of Georgia this offseason, will get the chance to notch his first win this weekend with a home contest against Eastern Washington that will kick off at 5:30 p.m. local time.

“I am excited personally to see our fans show up,” Lanning said. “Everybody talks about the experience at Autzen Stadium. I want to see that first-hand on Saturday. I want to see our fans out here, because they can certainly impact our game.”

Home debut could be cure for Dan Lanning, Oregon

The reality for Oregon is that as humbling as last weekend’s loss was, it likely does little to remove any of the season-long goals the Ducks came into 2022 with.

Making the College Football Playoff at this point is probably a long shot, though not completely out of the realm of possibility. However, the demolition by the Dawgs doesn’t impact the Pac-12 title race at all.

Dan Lanning’s Oregon team is still viewed as one of a handful of contenders in the league.

Getting things on track at home will be key to making that vision a reality. Eastern Washington should provide a manageable tune-up before a final non-conference game against No. 21 BYU arrives and then the Pac-12 slate begins.

Lanning is juiced to see what lies in store for him in his debut at Autzen, but he’s been careful not to overly rely on the energy provided by the home crowd. His players can’t focus on that too much if they want to be successful in the long run.

“I haven’t put any of the focus on that for our players,” he said. “Wherever this field is put, that’s where we’re going to go play the game. Right? It doesn’t matter if there’s 100,000 people watching or just us watching. We want to go perform when we play Eastern.”