Dan Lanning Talks Offensive Line, Oregon State in Weekly Presser

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Oregon Football coach Dan Lanning was available to media Monday for his game week press conference and discussed Oregon’s offensive line, running back Jay Harris, Oregon State’s backfield, and more. Below are his most notable quotes from the presser as well as my thoughts at the end.

Opening Statement:

“Excited to get back to it. The guys had a good day of prep but I just want to take the time to thank our fans at Autzen, I thought they were unbelievable this week.”

“I’m obviously very excited to play Oregon State, I know they’ve had some success these first couple of weeks. They do a great job of running the ball and they’re a really well-coached team.”

On young players‘ lack of playing time on the offensive line:

“I don’t know that any of those guys have earned that opportunity in practice. There isn’t a huge separation from the top to the bottom of our group right now.”

“If they were going to be able to help us that would show up in practice before it showed up in games.”

On the feel of the Civil War rivalry without conference implications:

“This game has been fun for us and our players. I know it means a lot to the fans and we’ve had some good battles with the Beavers the last few years.”

On running back Jay Harris’ progress and development in Oregon’s offense:

“Jay’s working his tail off, he’s doing an unbelievable job for us and I know that when his time comes he’ll be able to do a really good job. He’s been practicing hard and he’s continuing to create roles for himself so hopefully that gives him an opportunity to be on the field for us at some point.”

On frequent rotation of offensive linemen through two games:

“We’re going to continue to rotate guys until we find the combination that works best for us, knowing that there may be a rotation throughout the season.”

On the Oregon secondary’s performance early in the season:

“Our guys have done a good job on pass breakups and 50/50 balls. I think we’re playing tight in coverage and that showed up at times on Saturday.”

On Oregon State’s running back room:

“They run really hard. They do a really good job of being patient then creating burst when the hole opens up.”

On relying on speed and explosion from special teams:

“I always want to focus on special teams. I always want to be able to win games with special teams. If we have an opportunity to get gains in returns then we absolutely want to do that.”

On defensive tackle Derrick Harmon‘s immediate impact on the pass rush:

“He’s explosive. He studies his own game really well and he’s very consistent in his approach and he wants to be coached hard. He’s a big guy that moves with speed and he’s someone who can really affect the opponent.”

On rotation of centers through two games:

“We rotated last year so if our best chance to win is having one guy play the whole game, we’ll do that. If a guy snaps the ball better but gets blown off the ball every time then that’s not advantageous.”

Linden’s take:

I thought we got some really good stuff from Lanning in this interview. He seems to have a good respect for Oregon State’s continuity in their soundness and physicality from a year ago.

I thought the most interesting quote he gave was in discussing the younger players on Oregon’s offensive line. It’s a bit disappointing to hear that none of the freshmen have earned the right to play basically any snaps so far and it’ll be interesting to see if that changes as the season progresses.

Lanning touched on the strong backfield tandem Oregon State fields with Jam Griffin and Anthony Hankerson who’ve both had good performances in the Beavers’ first two games. With the way Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty carved up the Ducks’ defense, keeping containment on those two will be paramount this week.