Dan Lanning reveals Oregon secondary using boxing gloves to help prevent penalties

The Oregon Ducks are in a position to make a run to the Big Ten Championship Game and the College Football Playoff. Ahead of that run, head coach Dan Lanning has been working on cleaning up some of the team’s issues, including penalties.

While speaking to members of the media ahead of Oregon’s game against Wisconsin, Lanning shared that the Ducks have been practicing being cleaner. In particular, he wants the secondary to cut back on penalties.

“We had five today,” Dan Lanning said. “We had 13 last Wednesday. So it was cleaner, but it can still be cleaner than it is.

In the secondary, Lanning shared that there’s been a specific method of practicing to help with penalties. He’s having the defensive backs use boxing gloves in practice. That way, they can’t grab jerseys and become reliant on using their hands to cover.

“They’ve been wearing boxing gloves all week,” Lanning said. “That’s helped.”

Oregon is 25th in the country in penalties to this point in the season. That’s on the back of 5.5 penalties for 43.9 yards per game. So, the Ducks could have it worse in penalties. However, there is still room to improve.

Prior to becoming the head coach at Oregon, Dan Lanning came from a defensive background, working as the defensive coordinator for Georgia. Prior to that, he had several stops as a defensive assistant, primarily as a linebackers coach, though he did also coach the secondary at a couple of stops. Now, he’s leaning on Oregon defensive backs coach Chris Hampton to get that unit playing at as high a level as possible.

Oregon’s next game is scheduled for Saturday, November 16th at 7:30 p.m. EST on the road against the Wisconsin Badgers.

Dan Lanning shared an injury update on Jordan Burch, Jordan James

The Oregon Ducks have been without a few of their key players due to injury. Now, Dan Lanning shared where edge rusher Jordan Burch and running back Jordan James currently stand in their recovery.

“Continue to evaluate, get those guys back,” Lanning said. “Right now, early in the week we’ll take a lot off of them and then see how they feel. But I anticipate that we should be able to see them.”

Burch went down with his injury ahead of the win over Ohio State and, unfortunately, has been limited since that time. For his part, James had just one carry in the second half against Maryland.