Kirk Herbstreit shares admiration for Oregon ahead of 1st CFP rankings of 2023

Oregon has a lone blemish on its record through nine weeks of the 2023 season: A one-score loss to Washington on the road. And having called that game of the Ducks and watching them otherwise, ESPN college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit shared his high opinion of Oregon.

The Ducks are fresh off a beat down of Utah on Saturday in which the Ducks looked dominated for 60 minutes. Herbstreit took to social media to laud their efforts so far and lay out that he thinks Oregon will be a difficult team to beat the rest of the way.

“These boys are LEGIT! Don’t care what the rankings show tonight. If Oregon stays hungry and focused will be a tough out down the road!” Herbstreit said on social media, reposting a video from the Ducks video and social team showing behind the scenes of the road win.

And the video shared by Oregon is an impressive feat, similar to the video that the Ducks released after thrashing Colorado.

The latest video uses portions of head coach Dan Lanning’s Friday remarks to his team, when they went through the opening script of the game and hit on other key plays and calls they wanted to make. Those bits from Lanning are cut up with clips from the game showing Oregon players executing the plays that Lanning had described a day earlier.

Further, the video included snippets of the audio from the coaching headsets, offering a direct window into the operational world of Oregon football — at least against the Utes on Saturday.

Ducks vs. Them: Game 8 Cinematic Recap#GoDucks pic.twitter.com/P0Xa1PyPyY

— Oregon Football (@oregonfootball) October 31, 2023

Lanning dished on how he goes about pregame speeches

While his on-field knowledge has been the base of Oregon’s success, Lanning’s ability to motivate the Ducks has helped them remain among the best teams in the country. One of the ways he does that is through his pregame speeches.

They’ve taken on a life of their own, with Lanning going viral during Oregon’s victory over Colorado earlier this season. Speaking with the media, Lanning explained what goes into those moments, and provided some fascinating background information.

“I don’t know, I didn’t really give speeches when I was a third grade basketball coach,” Lanning said. “You know, I did take a speech class at college, so I mean, we always want to find a message that we feel fits our team, and where we’re at in the season, and what we want to accomplish.

“I feel like maybe you’ve seen some glimpses of that, throughout this season. But yeah, it’s more about, what’s the message for our team that week.”