Everything Dan Lanning said after Oregon's win over EWU

Dan Lanning met with reporters following Oregon’s blowout win over Eastern Washington in Eugene on Saturday.

Below is a full transcript from his press conference. You can catch the full video of his press conference here.

Opening Statement

“Tonight’s game was a lot of fun for players. We were talking about things coming to fruition. We came in and talked about executing and being Oregon. What an incredible atmosphere. Listening to ‘Shout’ at the end of the third quarter was great. We came out and got better and executed like we wanted to. I’m excited to get back and watch the film and move forward. The focus and attention now turn to BYU.”

On Oregon’s running back by committee approach

“I said from the beginning that if you are good enough, you are old enough. We are going to find ways to get into a rhythm. If we have players that can play at a high level, we want to let them play. I think each of our guys has a different skill set, and as the season goes on, we will continue to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses. I feel good about that group with a lot of players that can play, and I want to see them.”

On Oregon’s level of execution after last week’s loss

“We said we wanted to do “simple” better. That is what this week was all about. It was about fundamentals and technique. We saw a lot of that show up in the game. With that in mind, there are some plays we want back that our guys want back. It was not the cleanest game in terms of penalties. We can still execute a few things better. We gave up a big kickoff return, and that was disappointing. We have to do better there. We will go back and work on the things that need to get fixed.”

On Cam McCormick’s touchdown and honoring Spencer Webb

“We were talking on the headset on that drive, and Kenny [Dillingham] said, “I think I have a way to get Cam the ball.” I think every single one of us wanted that, especially seeing him where Spencer’s jersey tonight. We were able to dial a play up and get it to him, and he was able to get in the endzone. I think Cam came off the field with tears in his eyes. That was a special moment for him and our team. Spencer will forever be remembered.”

On the value of Oregon’s performance

“I have to go back and watch the film. I think there is a lot where we can certainly improve. Any time you have the opportunity to play football is exciting. We want to get on the field and execute. The benefit of a game like tonight is we get to see a lot of different players that will wear green and yellow. We got to see how they will execute at a high level. There is plenty for us to clean up. We had a bad taste in our mouths from the last game, and we were anxious to play somebody. This game is going to help us move forward as we go on to play more good teams on the schedule.”

On if Oregon addressed the aspects that it was hoping to address

“We are not playing our best football by any means. The ceiling is high, and we can still improve a lot. We saw improvement. We tackled better and were more physical. We were winning the point of attack. We were able to complete passes and not put the ball in jeopardy. Those things were certainly positive, but it will still be challenging as we move forward. It will only continue to get harder, and we have to continue to play better. We have not arrived by any means; we still have a lot of work to do.”

On when he knew that Oregon was capable of Saturday’s performance

“It has certainly never been a lack of effort by our players. They have always been committed to doing things right. That does not always mean we have done it right. That is for all of our coaches as well. The standard is the standard, and we are not going to accept less than that standard regardless of the opponent. This week was about playing ourselves and playing as the best version. Wednesday was not the sharpest practice for us, but hard work pays off. When you combine deliberate practice with talent and skillsets, you will have good results.”

On the confidence of the defense after the Georgia game

“Let’s be honest; Georgia is a phenomenal football team. We asked ourselves, can we play better and tackle better? Absolutely. We are going to play some really good football teams. I know there are fourteen points on the scoreboard that I want back. There are definitely things we can improve. The standard is our standard, and we must continue measuring ourselves up to that. We can certainly be better. It was nice to see us play a physical brand of football. Regardless of who was on the field, our guys knew they had to play the same as the guys who were previously on the field.”

On earning his first win as Oregon’s head coach

“I haven’t even thought about it. I’m already thinking about BYU.”

On Oregon’s offensive success

“That’s kind of the secret to win, right? The more we get into the endzone, the better we are going to be. With that being said, we had some drives last week, we didn’t finish them. I think we found out tonight is when you don’t turn the ball over, you’re able to move the ball successfully, you’re gonna have a chance to win games and we were able to score points because we didn’t turn the ball over and we were able to finish in the red area.”

On Bo Nix’s performance

“I’m anxious to go back and look at the film. I thought he made some really good decisions and operated really well. At times there’s a couple of plays that I want to go back and look at and see what he saw but overall I thought he did a really good job of understanding what we were trying to accomplish.”

On the versatility of Oregon’s running backs room

“It allows you to be fresh, it allows you to play at a really high level consistently throughout, it also allows you that if someone gets dinged where you feel you have somebody you can have go in there and execute at a high level, but what is fun for me, I think this was a lot of our running backs, is listening to the running back that wasn’t in, cheer for the guy that was in. There was a lot of that tonight and I think seeing the guys play team ball, putting themselves behind the team, putting the team first, really led to a lot of success for those guys on the field tonight.”

On what he saw from Ty Thompson and Jay Butterfield

“Ty did a great job tonight; he was fun. Seeing Ty, Bo, Jay and all of those guys really operate — there were a couple of times they made some checks based on lists we had given them during the week and to be honest we’d probably give them once or twice and they were able to give us some good plays. Ty did a really good job on the single-run check. That was encouraging, we’re not there to operate it on where the ball should go on certain plays, and based on the coverage he was able to be the coverage and take the ball where it needs to go, did not have to force anything but execute at a really high level. I don’t think anyone is as excited about Ty’s performance as his teammates. Ty comes here to work every single day, rolls his sleeves up, and did a good job today.”

On the improvement of the offensive line

“I think it’s two different fronts that we obviously played [in Georgia Game], with that being said we didn’t give up a sac in that game and this game as well. We did a good job of protecting up front; I want to go back and evaluate the film, see exactly what they did but there wasn’t a ton of pressure and we also got the ball out quick, it was more short passing game than it was down the field, probably didn’t have to go down the field as much.”

On the BYU-Baylor game

“I haven’t watched them this season yet, Baylor specifically. In the past they’ve certainly done some stuff that carries over, I’m looking forward to hopefully being able to watch that film and to kind of see what they do similar to what we do, we do have some good actions there so once the games are over with that’s something we can definitely evaluate.”