ESPN: Dan Lanning on Oregon's NIL success: 'Everyone else is focused on our ice cream cone'

The Oregon Ducks have been one the most successful programs in the NIL era. That’s been to the benefit of head coach Dan Lanning and the team’s recruiting.

Because of that success, plenty of people have argued that the Ducks have limitless NIL support, in particular from Phil Knight and Nike. However, that’s a notion that Lanning did recently push back on.

“The reality is, find a top-10 team in college football right now that doesn’t have great support,” Dan Lanning told ESPN. “Do we have a lot more than everybody else? I think that’d be an exaggeration or we’d never lose. Everyone else right now is focused on our ice cream cone, and if I’m busy looking at theirs, that means mine’s melting.”

Rick Neuheisel, a former Pac-12 head coach, has been one of the loudest people recently pointing to Oregon’s NIL success, saying, “Relative to the rest, it seems like a bottomless pit. Given that Phil is as gung ho as they come. I wish we all had a Phil.”

Dan Lanning just signed the third-ranked recruiting class in the country for the 2024 cycle, according to the On3 Industry Ranking. That came after a season where the Ducks went 12-2, won the Fiesta Bowl, and were preparing to move to the Big Ten.

“I’m sure there’s a correlation, right?” Lanning said. “Is our situation different than other teams in the nation? Absolutely. Is our team’s situation different than the premier teams in the nation? Probably not. And that’s OK. We want to be in that [group].”

Notably, Oregon does have an excellent NIL apparatus, which helps and makes the Ducks a unique program. Being unique is part of the goal for Dan Lanning and Oregon, though, be it changing uniforms weekly or bringing a giant inflatable duck to Big Ten Media Days.

“We don’t want to come in and be a team that follows the trends; we want to be a team that sets the trends,” Lanning added. “That just means studying yourself and how you can improve. It’ll be a learning experience.”

Expectations are high for Oregon in the Big Ten, with the Ducks being picked second in the initial Big Ten media poll. On top of that, Dan Lanning is already viewed as one of the conference’s best coaches and was voted the Preseason Big Ten Coach of the Year.

Oregon HC Dan Lanning talks recruiting dominance, NIL impact

Recruiting has been excellent under Dan Lanning, which is something he recently addressed along with the impact of NIL.

“Seeing this team come together. Every team is unique, it has a DNA in itself and certainly some of the traits that are important to us have to shine through, but these guys have to become teammates really quick. I think we have some really good key ingredients for that,” Lanning told On3’s Steve Wiltfong.

Lanning went on to address the NIL aspect of things but emphasized that the relationship with a player is more important in recruiting.

“I would start with saying what team in the top 10 isn’t powerful in that [NIL] space? I think that you have to be able to operate in that category right now,” Lanning said. “But more importantly, you still have to evaluate the player, still have to build that relationship, you have to deep dive in the circle around that player and find out, do they really love football? What makes them tick? Why are they choosing your school and what would make that a special place for them?”