What Dan Lanning said after Oregon beats Wisconsin

DAN LANNING

“A little bit of a fun environment. Different game tonight. I thought our fans were unbelievable. Ty Burrell kicking us off with Shout there in the third quarter was pretty awesome, something you couldn’t ignore. It became really apparent early in this game what kind of game it was going to be, and we had to figure out a way that we could run the ball effectively. I think after that 99 yard drive, we really saw that. You know, our guys take that by the horns and find a way to be able to attack that’s a good defense. When it comes to trying to rush the ball against them, it’s really difficult and this became that kind of game. We had some really unselfish play from our players. I thought they were engaged the entire game, and it was really clear that it’s going to be hard to be able to throw in some of those conditions. Saw some guys step up when their number was called. You know, Dante got dinged, think he’s going to be in great shape. Was probably in position where he could have gone in. But for Brock to come in and perform the way he did, really excited for him to be able to do that. I know the players were proud of him. To start so poorly on third down offensively, and then turn around and finish so strong in the second half, taking advantage of third down opportunities was big. And then the played lights out today. They did a really good job of controlling Wisconsin, excluding that last score by them. I thought we had some dynamic plays in special teams and certainly some stuff we got to clean up. The nine penalties is troublesome, we’ve got to be better there. And there were some penalties on some penalties on some big plays that could have been difference makers for us. But outside of that, I’m proud of how our players played in a tough environment, in a tough situation, and able to just take advantage of every opportunity in front of them.”

On Brock Thomas’ performance…

“Yeah, proud of the way he performed. He handled some tough snaps. You know it’s tough in a game like that, the balls obviously wet, it’s raining, but to be able to get us in some of those checks, he made some tough runs. Thought Brock did everything that we asked him to do in those moments.”

On Dante Moore’s status…

“I think we could have pushed to get him back in, but he’s good, he got a bloody nose. He got hit pretty good, and he looks like he’s in great shape now.”

On committing to the run game after the 99 yard drive…

“We felt like it was going to be that kind of game. And, you know, there it was so critical with us being able to start off with the ball. Obviously, we didn’t take advantage of the onside kick there to start the game, but to come out in the second half knowing we’re going to get the ball, that was really a big sequence, to flip the middle eight and get 14 points there relatively quick at the end of half, and then the seven at the beginning of the second half. When the defense is playing well, you just realize, you know, points are critical, but it’s okay to use the clock, and we used the clock well today, played the brand of football that was necessary to win this game.”

On Alex Harkey’s blocking…

“Yeah he’s a guy that has juice every single day in practice, and it shows up on game day. I didn’t get to see those particular blocks, but there were some big blocks, and they were doing a good job early on us, not getting hats on hats at the line of scrimmage. They were swimming some blocks for us. I think, you know, the coaches made some good adjustments, but guys like Alex and his physicality is going to show up in a game like that.”

On Jordon Davison…

“I think the most impressive thing about Jordon is how much he’s able to handle. He’s a really, really smart player. We do a lot formationally, and we have a lot of different plays. When the call comes in, he’s doing his job. He’s doing what he’s asked to do, and that’s difficult when you when you have as much volume as we have. And then to play it the way he plays it. He’s a very unselfish player, never ever heard him ask for the ball once. He’s just as excited to go block for his teammates. And we have a lot of guys on our team like that, but Jordon certainly is showing those characteristics right now.”

On making adjustments throughout the game…

“We just had to settle in and figure out what runs we’re going to be able to work. And it’s tough. They’re really well coached on defense. They had some tells that they were able to trigger on certain looks for us. We had to find the look that worked for us and sometimes you’ve got to settle in in a game like that. I don’t know what we had rushing in the first quarter, I think we were negative yards rushing, and to be able to finish the game with 203 yards rushing, I think, shows that we figured it out.”

On meeting their own standards in the passing game…

“I’ll have to watch the film and see what they took away. I thought they played some good defense early on. It took us a while to figure out what’s going to be successful for us, but we missed some opportunities early in the game. We were just a little bit off here and there, but we’ll certainly improve and go attack it. I have to watch the film first.

On the importance of starting off fast…

“I guess it wasn’t that crucial to start off fast since we still won, but I love to start off fast when we can. We were probably feeling each other out a little bit in the beginning of the game. They were playing good defense, we were playing good defense, it was going to be who made the first mistake. You’re not always going to have a game where you score 21 points in the first quarter; it doesn’t always work like that, especially when you look at the defense they played this season. They’ve played pretty good defense. We were going to be aggressive; there were opportunities at the start of the game with the onside kick. We tried to fake punt at the end of the game. I felt like that was something where we were going to get all out pressure, I’m disappointed that we weren’t able to take advantage of either one of those opportunities, but we’re going to continue to try to find edges like that in games like this.”

On when it was clear Brock Thomas could play winning football this season…

“It just shows up in practice every day. We have a lot of quarterbacks who are playing at a really high level, but he has been consistent. He understands the offense; he’s been a part of it for a very long time. He has been the guy down there chopping us up on the scout team. He’s earned his stripes and worked very hard. Nobody has earned that more than Brock.”

On when during the week the idea of starting with an onside kick came on…

“We started looking at film on Sunday and seeing if there might be an advantage. You don’t just do it to do it; we felt like the look was there. It was something we checked for. Coach Fickel has a history of deferring, so we thought there was a great chance that if they win the toss, there would be a chance for us to get the ball in the second half or vice versa be in that situation. I don’t know that we executed it perfectly. We had a lot of guys running down the field with their hair on fire, trying to get the ball, and it worked out.”

On why they ran the play for Gernorris Wilson to score and his confidence level in the conditions…

“We knew it was Gernorris or nothing. Brock was either throwing that ball for a touchdown or he was throwing it away, so we felt confident in his decision-making in that moment. We felt like that was a look that we have been in and run pretty effectively multiple times this year. To be able to have some tendency breakers and play off of that was good. It has looked really good in practice, and we have run that play for seven weeks. It showed up in a moment where we could use it.”

On Aaron Flowers’ being a captain and his growth …

“It is about the work he puts in every single week. If you talk about growth in our program, Aaron has probably grown more than anybody else. It was tough his first year going through it and trying to figure out his role. He has worked so much and has become a guy that we really trust. He plays really physical at the point of attack, gets people lined up, does everything we ask him to do, and all that work is paying off. Aaron is playing great football for us.”

On fans worrying about the backup quarterbacks…

“Our backup quarterback went 4-for-4 tonight and won the game. Tell the fans. They should come to our locker room and see them carry Brock Thomas after the game. Our players see it every day in practice. When has Brock come in and not performed well for us this season? He has done what we’ve asked him to do every time that he’s come in. People should stop worrying about it. They should also know that our other quarterbacks are doing a really good job in practice, too. Brock’s playing well guys. Watch the film.”

On if having a punter as good as James Ferguson-Reynolds allows them to play more freely on offense…

“I don’t think so. We trust our punter, but that doesn’t make us call the offense differently knowing that Fergs’ going to be able to create a play on 4th down for us. He is paying extremely well. Like I said, it was a punting competition today, a little bit, flipping the field back and forth. Ferg has done a great job, like connecting on the punt fake, if we didn’t have the holding call. He has made a lot of big plays for us this season. We have a ton of confidence in him, but I don’t think that makes us call the offense differently.”

On Wisconsin last season holding them to a low in points and what adjustments they made this year…

“Those are two different games. Again, I’ll have to watch the film to see what we adjusted well. I do think we struggled to run the ball in that game, and we ran it 45 times tonight. We weren’t going to give up on the run, no matter what. We just had to figure out what runs were going to be effective. It took all of them for us to get there.”

On the first tie-dye-out in Autzen and collaborating with the Grateful Dead…

“The gear was awesome. I had the officials coming up to me and asking about the swag, so I guess that was a good deal. Overall, it was a cool experience. It introduced me to some music I didn’t realize I knew that I knew. I’m a little more caught up on the Grateful Dead now. This is just a good example of how unique Oregon is and our ability to connect in so many different ways. This is a place that does stuff that nobody else does. We will continue to do stuff that nobody else does.”

On if the Gernorres play is the same as last year and what was going through his mind…

“Similar. It’s either him or no one. We want that ball to be in a place where it’s not necessarily the easiest to catch, and the conditions were a little bit different. He was wide open, and he did a great job coming down with it. I’ve seen that dance in practice a million times, too. I was hoping he would wait to get to the sideline to do it, but it worked out.”

On his assessment of the ball handling of his team in this wet environment…

“I mean, we had some bobble snaps. It was tough in that environment. We did a decent job controlling the ball. We got it out a couple of times, but we didn’t finish with it. In these games, we hope the defense can create it and the offense can protect it, and our offense ultimately did.”

On Dante Moore’s completions…

“I think it starts with how they took the field. We did a coming out period on Wednesday in practice, and we put the ball through minus one. It’s funny how those moments show up in the game. The guys had a lot of confidence. They had juice and energy throughout. I think there was a bunch of unselfish play throughout this game. Every wide out in games like this generally start silently saying, ‘I’m open, I’m open’ but they don’t realize how hard it is to throw. For us to have some critical completions and the ball security that showed up, I saw a conscientious effort from our players to cover the ball up. It was something we didn’t feel great about in the Rutgers game and a couple other moments this season. They did a really good job of protecting it and then continuing to chug forward. Somewhere in that series you go from ‘let’s score quick mode’ to ‘let’s eat up as much clock as we can to not leave the opponent a lot of time’ and we were able to do that.”