Everything Dan Lanning said ahead of Oregon's showdown with Arizona

Dan Lanning met with reporters on Wednesday ahead of Oregon’s Week 6 showdown with Arizona in Tucson. The Ducks’ head coach discussed a number of topics related to the Wildcats’ high-powered offense.

Here’s a full rundown of everything Lanning said during his press conference.

Opening statement:

“Good day of prep today. We’re still not where we need to be yet for a game; still got more prep work to do. We’re playing a team that’s really getting into a rhythm here as of late, getting more explosive on offense. They’re able to operate really clean right now. So we have to go out there and create some plays and create some negative plays for them. Looking for that as we move forward.

“Today was our red area and third down day, still want to see some sign of improvement there.”

Have you seen the penalties improve in practice this week?

“Yeah, we’re getting better.”

(Troy Franklin) mentioned that there have been up-down punishments for penalties in practice, has that been implemented this week?

“We do skill set work. So if there’s something we can do better from a football improvement standpoint, we’ll make sure we’re able to do stuff that can improve us as football players.”

Was Sean Dollars’ increased role against Stanford part of the game plan?

“He’s always part of what we’re doing, part of our game plan. Certain situations will dictate how much we get to use him. But he’s always part of the game plan.”

How do you guys plan to start fast as an offense against Arizona?

“Yeah, we want to start fast. We talked about being battle-tested this week. And we’ve been in some battles so far this season. We want to start fast. We don’t want to hurt ourselves early on the start.”

How do you prepare the players who have not played at Arizona before?

“I think our players are aware of the history there in this game. Anytime you go on the road in this conference is going to be a challenge. We’re expecting Arizona’s absolute best, but just like we’ve kind of said every week, we’re not playing Arizona. We’re playing Oregon. That’s our focus right now. We’ve got to be the best version of us.”

In what ways has Jeffrey Bassa improved?

“Just becoming more and more familiar with his purpose and what we’re trying to get accomplished. There’s some rules and things that have to take place in this defense, and I think he’s becoming very comfortable with how to execute those rules within the defense.”

How does Arizona’s utilization of its running backs in the passing game influence your inside linebacker play?

“I think we have to do a great job — when we play zone — we have to do a great job of zone-break on the ball. Buddy tackles. When we play man, we have to be able to hug up into our coverage and get hands-on. They’re elusive and they do a good job in the passing game with him. We experienced a little bit of that with the check-down game of Washington State. You know, we’ll see it more and more this season as it goes but definitely have to do a good job in coverage this game.”

Is there an update on Byron Cardwell’s availability?

“Not right now.”

What are you looking forward to most?

“The goal is always to go out there and win the game. So I’m looking forward to walking off the field with the ‘W.’ We got a lot of work between now and then to get there.”

How have you seen (Troy Franklin) grow from his matchups with Christian Gonzalez in practice?

“Iron sharpens iron. I mean, when you get an opportunity to go against a good player every single day in practice, that usually carries over to the field on game day. So, it’s great that Troy and Christian get to go against each other; we have a lot of battles like that throughout our program. I think that’s what makes us better.”

Has your defense improved against “copycat” plays?

“I mean, every week you give up new plays, and you’re gonna see those new plays get carried over. But that’s been pretty consistent regardless of whatever team we’ve played. We’re seeing plays that have hit against us earlier in the season. The question is, ‘Did you fix it or not?’ You usually don’t find out until you actually get out there on the field. But we had some copycat plays in the last game that we were able to take away. I think we’ll continue to see those throughout the season. That’s pretty common.”

How much did you know Jedd Fisch before you got to Oregon?

“Knew of. Didn’t really know well. I’ve gotten to know him much better through Pac-12 meetings and things like that. I’ve got a lot of respect for him and his history.”

You’ve mentioned that you guys try to get better with every road trip, is there anything you’re trying to particularly improve this time?

“Not a lot of changes from a trip standpoint. A little bit later game than we’ve had on our other two road trips, but doesn’t really affect much. We’ve got a schedule and a model that we follow.”