"He's not new to the punchline culture game": CFB insider takes stand for Dan Lanning amid Oregon's rising dominance in Big Ten

Dan Lanning is a man of a no-nonsense attitude. He will be heading into his fourth season as head coach of the Oregon Ducks and expectations are sky high. Earlier, he was viewed as somebody who loves punchline culture and media attention. But over the last three years, he proved himself to be a vital aspect of Eugene and the results proved that he is on par with some of the legends of the game.

Last season proved quite vital for Lanning when the team played its inaugural campaign in a new conference. Due to conference realignment, Oregon had to relocate from the Pac-12 to a highly competitive Big Ten.

The Ducks dominated, winning every regular-season game. J.D. PicKell of On3 claims that all these accolades make Lanning special. He is well aware of punchline culture and knows how to use it to his advantage.

“To pin the Oregon postseason shortcomings on a head coach who wasn't even there for Oregon, or make him deal with that is foolish,” PicKell said on his On3 podcast on Friday. “But I do think that Dan landing overall, he's not new to the punchline culture game. Remember, a year ago, what were people saying about Dan landing? Not a great in-game coach. I mean, he goes for fourth down against Washington. What does he do? In the first half against Washington for a two point conversion, and came back to fight him." "Similarly, in the game against Ohio State in the regular season where Oregon beats Ohio State, we're sitting here rewriting the rule book because of an in-game coaching decision that Oregon made from Dan Lanning and ended up being a massive differentiating factor for them in the fourth quarter of the bottom of that game,” he added.

Dan Lanning will have Dante Moore as potential QB1 for 2025 season

The Oregon coach will have a new starter in 2025 after Dillon Gabriel left for the NFL in this year's draft. After coming to Eugene in 2022, this will be his third quarterback taking over the starting role.

Lanning did not give a final verdict on his QB1 while keeping the options open for Austin Novosad. He mentioned that all prospects will have an equal opportunity to compete before the season finally kicks off on August 23.

Looking at the current scenario, it's most probably Dante Moore, who starts for the team, with hopes of winning their first-ever national championship title in 2025.

Edited by Krutik Jain