Joel Klatt would buy stock in Dan Lanning among all young college football coaches

Finding and keeping an excellent college football coach is one of the more challenging tasks in college athletics, so when you get a good one, it’s a big deal. Oregon has one in Dan Lanning.

In fact, FOX Sports analyst Joel Klatt recently said that if he could buy stock in any young coach, Lanning is where his money would be spent.

“Now you know how I feel about Dan Lanning. I have said this and I will continue to say it: If I had to buy stock in a young coach right now in college football it would be Dan Lanning,” Klatt said on The Joel Klatt Show. “I love what he does. I love his energy. He has recruited very well. They’ve got the resources. That’s a tough place to play.”

All of those things add up to a recipe that can earn you a College Football Playoff berth. And make no mistake about it: That’s the goal for Oregon this season.

The Ducks have all the pieces, having lured in one of the top transfer quarterbacks in the country in Dillon Gabriel, out of Oklahoma.

The schedule is a bit tricky, highlighted by one game in particular. For Dan Lanning and the Ducks to get to where they want to be, they might need to beat Ohio State in the regular season.

Why?

That’s the most sure ticket to a spot in the Big Ten championship game, where a win can cement you as a playoff team with a bye.

“You think about these teams that are going to need to get themselves in a position to maybe get the bye in the playoff, to win the conference in the SEC or the Big Ten,” Klatt said, “In order to get to that (conference championship) game you’ve probably got to win this game.

“Because of the way the schedules are going to be imbalanced in these conferences, it’s not going to shock me if a team like Penn State or a team like Missouri can kind of get themselves into that second position with all the tie-breakers that are going to happen in these kind of open formats. It’s not going to surprise me if teams like that can, I don’t want to say sneak, but get themselves into position to be in the conference championship game.”

Oregon would obviously like to control for those variables and find itself playing against the likes of a Penn State in the title game. But you might have to win the big one against the Buckeyes to get there.

“Now we all think Oregon or Ohio State are the odds-on favorite to be in that game. We think Texas and Georgia are the odds-on favorite to be in that game in the SEC,” Klatt said. “But without a win in those head-to-heads, it’s not a guarantee. So that’s why those games in the regular season are going to be so important. And we’re going to get to see Ohio State with a new quarterback and a new offensive coordinator in what I would deem as their first real test of the season.”

It’ll also be one of the first true tests for Dan Lanning in Year 3, a year the Ducks are hoping results in a playoff appearance. If Lanning is the kind of coach Klatt thinks he is, Oregon should have a fair shot.