Dan Lanning cites consistency as lesson he's taken away from Nick Saban

Oregon head coach Dan Lanning now enters his third year as the head coach of the Ducks and a new challenge ahead of him with the program entering the Big Ten Conference this upcoming football season.

In just two years time, Lanning has established himself as one of college football’s best young coaches. That included reportedly receiving consideration for Alabama‘s vacant head coaching job in January following the retirement of legendary head coach Nick Saban, who played a crucial role in Lanning’s career.

Lanning spent one season as a graduate assistant under Saban at Alabama in 2015, which eventually led to the first FBS position coach job of his career and later his first head coaching job at Oregon. And on Tuesday during an interview with Collin Cowherd, Lanning opened up on the biggest lesson he learned from Saban.

“Getting there and being around Coach for a year, you realize this guy’s a robot. The definition of consistency,” Lanning said.

“You know the sun’s coming up in Tuscaloosa tomorrow and he’s gonna have a staff meeting at 7:30 a.m., and just the consistent approach that he’s going to eat the same thing for lunch, he’s going to do the same thing for breakfast.”

Saban was known for his signature daily breakfast of two Little Debbie Oatmeal Cream Pies during his coaching career. And also known for winning, regarded by most as the best college football coach of all time with seven national championships, 11 SEC titles, and a 292–71–1 overall record during his college head coaching career.

But Lanning learned far more from Saban than just consistency, speaking on how he was also taught about the importance of growth, improvement, and evolution as a successful head coach as well.

“But within that, the ability to learn from others and always seeking an edge and I think Kirby [Smart]‘s elite at that as well. Like how can we do this better? Where can we grow?” Lanning asked. “And I think both those guys you see a level of consistency, operation, when it comes to recruiting, when it comes to development of the players. That’s certainly something I took away from Nick.”

The title of the greatest coach in college football has seemingly been handed down from Saban to Smart following his retirement. But Lanning’s impressive 22–5 start with Oregon paired with his vocal dedication to the program and the lessons he’s learned from the best could poise him for a shot at the crown in the near future.