Dan Lanning raves about opportunity to learn from Nick Saban
Ahead of the 2015 season, now-Oregon head coach Dan Lanning dropped a rung or two on the coaching ladder to take an opportunity to learn from the best as a graduate assistant at Alabama.
He’s talked openly about how he was willing to take a step back financially to get, in his words, his “doctorate in football” with the Crimson Tide. At the time, Alabama had Kirby Smart (current Georgia head coach), Mario Cristobal (current Miami head coach), Mel Tucker (former Michigan State and Colorado head coach), Billy Napier (current Florida head coach) and Lane Kiffin (current Ole Miss head coach) on staff.
But, most of all, Lanning got the chance to learn from Alabama’s leading man, Nick Saban, who retired earlier this offseason with seven national championships to his name, including six in Tuscaloosa.
Lanning joined “The Triple Option” podcast — hosted by former NFL and Alabama running back Mark Ingram II, longtime commentator Rob Stone and three-time national champion head coach Urban Meyer — Wednesday and talked more about what he’s picked up from Saban.
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“I just enjoy hearing Coach Saban, Coach Meyer,” Lanning said on “The Triple Option” podcast. “Anytime there’s a coach that I’ve got a lot of respect for, it’s an opportunity for me to learn a little bit. And the way he went about his process every single day was something that I got to watch for a year as a GA with him, but just listening to his thought process for me is always exciting to pick up.
“Even hearing him talk about Mark’s recruitment on that last episode and how involved he gets. Him as an assistant coach, whether it’s doing the grade checks or meeting the girlfriends, that stuck out to me about how detailed that he would be, and then getting that to go full circle, where he gets to coach a former player’s son (Saban was defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach at Michigan State while Mark Ingram Sr. was playing for the Spartans). That’s pretty awesome.”
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Lanning’s respect for Saban is well documented.
The feeling is mutual. Saban joined the Pat McAfee Show in Dublin, Ireland, last week and mentioned the potential he saw in Lanning when Lanning, now 38 years old, was a young GA on Saban’s staff.
“Dan Lanning’s a really good coach,” Saban said. “He’s done a great job at Oregon. He was a GA for us. I actually wanted to hire him.”
Saban discussed his strategy of wanting to eventually rehire a bunch of his lower-level staffers he saw a future in, including Lanning. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t.
Lanning never ended up back at Alabama, but he’s made quite the name for himself at Oregon. Since winning a national championship as Georgia’s defensive coordinator in 2021, Lanning has hit the ground running with the Ducks to the tune of a 22-5 record, two bowl victories and head-turning recruiting success.