Dan Lanning on stopping Cam Ward: 'It's going to be a challenge'

The No. 9 Oregon Ducks are back at home in Week 8 for a huge Pac-12 showdown against the Washington State Cougars. The Ducks are eager to bounce back from their Week 7 loss against the Washington Huskies and have shown a high level of intensity during practice leading up to Saturday’s game.

Just before kickoff, the ESPN team covering the matchup caught up with Oregon head coach Dan Lanning to get his thoughts on a few topics; one of which was how he anticipates his team to start off the contest.

“Intense. I’m so proud to coach this team,” said Lanning. “These guys are bringing it today. We’re gonna see it.”

As mentioned above, the Oregon players were intense early on during the week as they prepared for this Washington State matchup. So much so that Lanning, who is a fan of the intensity, had to tell them to dial it down a bit.

One of the reasons why the Ducks were more amped up in practice this week is because, on defense, they had to stop one of the top quarterbacks in the Pac-12, Cameron Ward. And as Lanning explained before kickoff, stopping Ward will be no easy task for Oregon.

“It’s going to be a challenge. He’s a hell of a player, but we’ve gotta have fresh rushers on the field. When they get out there, they gotta go eat.”

Lanning shares Oregon’s intensity level in practice preparing for Washington State

As Lanning mentioned above, this week in practice, the Ducks have ramped up their intensity level. But according to their headman, that amped-up level might do more harm than good.

“Yeah, I see the passion and intensity was a little bit too much yesterday,” said Lanning. “And we got to level that out because there’s a rule of diminishing returns where when you have so much juice, you cannot focus on the job at hand. Today, that was much better. There was definitely intensity out there on the field, but it’s the leveling that out and feeling where that passion is at.”

Oregon will be back at home on Saturday following their tough road defeat against a Washington State squad that is licking their wounds following their embarrassing beat down at the hands of the Arizona Wildcats. The Ducks will likely need that intensity on Saturday to take down the Cougars. But, as Lanning pointed out, they might want to dial it back a bit in practice and level it out before they take the field in Week 8.