Dan Lanning: ‘The portal is revealing the character of programs’

Dan Lanning had some honest thoughts about the NCAA transfer portal, saying it reveals who teams really are. Of course, many programs have to play the game at this point in time, taking in and letting go of transfer players.

The biggest news regarding the portal over the last week was Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava hopping in. Amid wanting a bigger NIL deal, he and his reps were not successful in landing one, leading to his departure from the program.

So, is the character of Tennessee, as Lanning talks about in general, saying the team is above an individual? Seems to be the case, but Lanning gave an interesting take.

“How many snaps am I going to play for Oregon next year? Zero,” Lanning said on Bussin’ With The Boys. “It doesn’t matter what I know. It’s about what your players know and what they can execute. There’s a lot of negatives around what people talk about, like the portal and how that exists. The truth is, the portal is revealing a lot of character of programs, right? And here you have a relationship with your coach, there’s connection. You feel like you can talk to this guy about stuff beyond football, right? And I think that relationship is really important. It’s not coach-player, right? It’s coach-player, and that’s the guy that has to go execute. That means he has to love the guy that he’s playing for. He’s got to believe in what we’re doing.” 

Lanning wants to consistently create belief at Oregon in his players. He hasn’t won or reached the national championship yet, given the expectations, but he’s close. Lanning’s taken a step in the right direction each year and that is a credit to his program and culture.

“How do you create belief,” Lanning said. “Guys want to know the ‘why’ today, right? You know, 20 years ago, we would have ran through any wall, whatever the coach said. And I’m not trying to run gassers after practice because I did it wrong. Now, it’s not about establishing fear, it’s about establishing a true relationship of this guy’s making me better, he’s making me improve, and if I have a question I better ask it or I’m going to mess it up on the field. And our guys, they certainly feel that here.”

Lanning is 35-6 in three years at Oregon, winning the Big Ten last year and earning the No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoff. Oregon goes into 2025 coming off a 13-1 season, losing at the Rose Bowl in the CFP quarterfinals to eventual national champion Ohio State.