Dan Lanning pressed for comment on uncertainty of Daylen Austin's future at Oregon

Daylen Austin has dealt with off-field matter the last year after his arrest where he was charged with a felony after a fatal hit-and-run. Now, while his trial has been postponed until August, Austin is competing for a role in the secondary for next season at Oregon.

Dan Lanning was asked at his press conference on Wednesday about his outlook for the Ducks at nickel corner next season, including a mention in the question of Austin. He said several players are battling at that spot during the spring and will continue to do so once they begin fall practice.

“Yeah, we’ve got a lot of guys competing out there,” Lanning said. “You know, we had one practice today. So, that’s the great thing about spring practice is you use all the spring. We’ll use all of fall camp. We’ll continue to compete.”

Austin was arrested on April 15th, 2024 for the accident that killed a Frank Seaman. Further details were released later on at the time regarding the alleged events of that night with the latest being that the legal proceedings for this incident were postponed from mid-February to mid-August.

Austin did not enter a plea at the time and was allowed a conditional release. However, when he was permitted to play last fall for Oregon, he had to sign an amendment to that release as the original one didn’t allow him to leave the state without permission, among other conditions, which complicated his travel with the team for the six games that they played away from Eugene.

In 17 career games with Oregon, Austin has posted 13 tackles, a pair for loss, and one pass deflection. That includes 10 tackles, with the two for loss, coming this past fall in playing in every game as a redshirt freshman.

Austin, a native of Long Beach, played high school football at Long Beach Poly. He was the No. 109 overall recruit there as a four-star prospect in the 2023 cycle. He also rated as the No. 10 corner in the class and the No. 8 player out of the state of California. That’s according to the On3 Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. With that, Austin committed to Oregon, who brought in a top-ten class with him as the fourth highest-rated signee, after flipping from LSU.

More will come regarding Austin’s future going into next season with his rescheduled trial in August. For now, though, he’ll continue to compete for the Ducks in hoping to take the field again next season.