Dan Lanning reveals the thought-process surrounding Kenny Dillingham's hire as OC

Dan Lanning landed the Oregon head coaching job because of his accomplishments as a defensive coordinator at Georgia. Of course, his last and most recent team posted historic defensive numbers across the board and was the primary reason the Dawgs wound up winning the 2022 National Championship.

So when he took the Oregon job, Lanning knew he needed a brilliant offensive mind to run the show on that end of the field. So he turned to a wunderkind play-caller among the college ranks in Kenny Dillingham.

It’s easy to see why Lanning tabbed him to run the offense, even at just 32 years old. Dillingham has basically coached football since he was 17. While in college at Arizona State — where he first met Lanning — he helped coach a high school team. An experience he parlayed into an assistant role for Mike Norvell, who was the OC at ASU. He then followed Norvell to Memphis. Eventually, he became the OC there, helping turn the Tigers into one of the nation’s best offenses in 2018.

After a few more higher-profile stops at Auburn and Florida State, Dillingham is now back with Lanning as the two are in control of things in Eugene. And his new boss had nothing but good words to say about Dillingham at Pac-12 Media Days:

“Kenny is a guy I obviously have a ton of respect for. We’ve been around each other since Arizona State. We worked together at Memphis. A guy I talked ball with every off-season. We see the game very similarly. He’s a teacher. He’s a guy that came up from grassroots, but obviously is extremely intelligent, sees the game in a unique way. Really thrilled to bring him aboard.”

Dillingham also served as a quarterbacks coach at his previous stops, which was a key part of why Dan Lanning wanted to hire him.

“There’s a lot of people that obviously wanted to be a part of our program. Kenny is the guy that made sense when it came to QB development and see the game the way I saw the game, having a system. Excited about the direction of our offense and the job he’s done with our offensive staff.”

Lanning also singled out several other members of the offensive coaching staff, who he thinks will make for a great unit for the Ducks.

“Obviously there’s some great pieces to that puzzle on that offensive staff with him. Junior Adams, Drew Mehringer, Carlos Locklyn, Adrian Klemm. Great experience on that side of the ball that’s going to help us be dynamic.”