Paul Finebaum suggests Dan Lanning could be successor at Alabama after Colorado blowout

On Saturday, Dan Lanning and the Oregon Ducks welcomed Deion Sanders and the Colorado Buffaloes to Eugene. It was a rude welcome, with Oregon blowing the doors off Colorado and Lanning making headlines both with his pregame speech and halftime comments.

The win left a big impression on a lot of people around the country. That included analyst Paul Finebaum, who went on SportsCenter to praise the Oregon Ducks. There, he praised quarterback Bo Nix, saying he could lead the Ducks to the College Football Playoff.

Finebaum also made some interesting comments about Lanning’s potential future.

“Dan Lanning yesterday, both with his coaching on the field and his comments at halftime and after the game, he has now emerged as one of the top coaches in the country,” Paul Finebaum said. “And the former [Nick] Saban and Kirby Smart assistant may be a successor at Alabama one day.”

Nick Saban’s future has become a major talking point in college football. The legendary coach is 71 years old now and will be turning 72 during the season. Rumors that he might be getting closer to retirement are only growing. Whenever he does retire, Alabama is going to need to find a successor who can keep the program rolling.

Dan Lanning would potentially bring both SEC experience and head coaching experience to that job. He was an assistant at Alabama in 2015. He also became a defensive assistant at Georgia in 2018, later becoming the team’s defensive coordinator.

In 2022, Lanning became the head coach at Oregon. In his first season there, he went 10-3 and won the Holiday Bowl. To this point in 2023, he has Oregon sitting at 4-0.

Dan Lanning says Oregon still has plenty to improve on

Despite dominating Colorado by a score of 42-6, Dan Lanning still sees plenty of things for the Oregon Ducks to improve on going forward this season.

“That they’re ready to get better. They’re hungry to get better. We’re certainly not satisfied. This is one game. Now we’re on to the next one. We gotta focus on the next. There’s a lot that we can improve from that game. Fun, energetic on the field. But our guys have a standard to uphold,” Lanning said.

“They did a good job. They did a good job. You can’t overshadow that. We’re going to face some elite teams. We’re going to play great quarterbacks in this conference right now, so we’ve certainly got some things to get better on but they did a good job today. They upheld the standard.”