Oregon athletic director Rob Mullens discusses Dan Lanning hire in fan-led Twitter Space

Just one week after Mario Cristobal left Oregon for Miami, athletic director Rob Mullens on Monday will introduce the newest Ducks head coach: Dan Lanning.

Lanning is currently Georgia’s defensive coordinator, and he will coach the Bulldogs through the College Football Playoff before moving to Eugene. Oregon officially announced Lanning’s hiring on Sunday, and the press release said that Mullens will introduce Lanning to the media in a 5:00 p.m. ET press conference. However, Mullens already addressed the hiring and answered some questions about Lanning — albeit, in an impromptu, informal setting, with only Oregon fans listening.

An Oregon fan opened up a Twitter Space on Saturday titled “Oregon New Coach Dan Lanning,” inviting fellow fans to speak, and the space was live for just north of 15 hours. It carried into Sunday and had well over 1,000 total listeners, featuring former players, families of current players, alumni, fans, donors, national media and more. The Twitter Space, which became a bit of a phenomenon, took an even wilder turn when Mullens, the very athletic director that made the hire, joined from his wife’s Twitter account.

“I want to echo what (another Twitter user) said: I really appreciate all the support. What a great forum for parents, and all these loyal Duck followers to hop on,” Mullens said in the Twitter space. “I’m really excited for Coach Lanning to get here. I can’t believe I just walked in on this (Twitter Space) and learned what it was. I just jumped on, so I appreciate you guys getting the chance to say thank you.”

The Twitter Space first opened in amid conflicting reports, confusing both Oregon fans and the media. A report by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution confirmed as early as Friday that Lanning would be Oregon’s next head coach, but several separate reports said that claim was incorrect. Instead, Oregon-based media said that Mullens had not yet offered anyone the job.

After Mullens’ first comment, Oregon fans thanked Mullens conducting the search promptly and landing on a candidate they liked. One fan that spoke up even identified herself as the mother of four-star linebacker Keith Brown,

“Excited for all our student-athletes. I received a lot of messages of support,” Mullens said. “This is a special, special group of young men, who have built an incredible culture, who have really stuck together and I’m really anxious for them to meet Coach Lanning in-person and start to continue what they’ve built here.”

One fan then spoke up and asked Mullens to sum up why Oregon eventually landed on Lanning.

“There’s a lot of things obviously. His track record of success, he’s got an incredible work ethic just about in every phase and the importance of leadership. And then we got a chance to talk to him. He just exudes energy,” Mullens said. “Obviously, we do deep dives on background checks in talking to people, and everywhere we turned it was just — what a wonderful human being; he values his student-athlete experience, the relationships and then obviously you can look at the historic defenses he’s been a part of and see what kind of coach he is.”

In a subsequent question, Mullens was asked whether Oregon had discussed offensive coordinator candidates with Lanning. Mullens did not provide names, but he did say that the support staff is “obviously” one of the things you talk about in a long-ranging interview.

“What I’ll say, and Coach Lanning will relay all of that at the right time, when you spend time with him — and he’s given this a lot of thought for a lot of years, he’s been planning for this opportunity and it just matched up — I am fully confident in his relationships, the thoughtfulness and the connections he has that he’s going to assemble a phenomenal staff,” Mullens said.

“Not quite sure who started this,” Mullens said of the 15-hour-long Twitter Space. “But really, it’s quite neat. Let’s stay together and keep building.”