Three Things Oregon Coach Dan Lanning Said ahead of OSU’s Trip to Eugene

Dan Lanning’s Monday night response to some of quotes Mike Gundy gave earlier in the day had everyone from ESPN to Football Scoop putting out stories.

Oklahoma State heads to Oregon for a 2:30 p.m. (CT) Saturday kick in Autzen Stadium. Here are three things Lanning, the Ducks’ coach, said at his Monday news conference.

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On Gundy’s Comments about Oregon’s Spending

This sort of feels like a big nothing burger, but it undoubtedly took most of the headlines from Lanning’s news conference.

So, at his Monday news conference, Gundy said this of Oregon:

“They’re a good football team,” Gundy said. “Oregon is playing really well. I think they’re well coached. They’re spending a lot of money. They’ve put a lot into that organization, and you can see. They’re a good football team.”

Notice, money was the fourth thing Gundy mentioned there.

Then Gundy went to his radio show later in the afternoon, where he discussed the  financial side of college football a little deeper. The main quotes getting pulled from his radio show are that he said OSU has spent about $7 million on its roster across the past three years while he thinks Oregon paid about $40 million last year alone. Gundy also said that it was going to take a lot of money for the Ducks to keep hold of quarterback Dante Moore.

Here is what Gundy during his radio show said before that.

“The truth of the matter is eventually they need to get a grasp on how they distribute the money across the board, which it’s still hard for me to say that,” Gundy said. “Because my fear is long turn. My fear is that if there’s a lopsided amount of money to 10 or 12 schools in the country, then how does that affect the everyday fan that wants to turn their television on and watch a game between two teams. They want to see a good football game played hard, and they don’t wanna know who’s gonna win. Nobody likes to know the ending of the movie. My concern is they need to get a grasp at some point because what I hear chatter from coaches around the country is that nonconference scheduling — and I never thought anybody would say this — should be based on the financial situation for each school. …

“If you have schools, Oregon is paying a lot, a lot of money for their team. So, from a nonconference standpoint, there’s coaches saying they should play teams that are spending the same amount of money.”

OK, so there’s all of that context.

Then Lanning held his news conference after, where he was asked about Gundy’s comments.

“Like I said, I’ve got a ton of respect for Coach Gundy,” Lanning said. “Ultimately, how blessed are we to be in a that’s invested in winning. If you want to be a top 10 team in college football, you better be invested in winning. We spend to win. Some people save to have an excuse for why they don’t.

“Ultimately, he’s a great coach. They’ve done an unbelievable job, but I want to be a team that’s competing at the highest level. We’re really fortunate to be in that situation, so I can’t speak on their situation. I have no idea what they’ve got in their pockets over there. I’m sure UT-Martin maybe didn’t have as much as them last week, and they played. So, we’ll let it play out.”

Lanning made some fair points, like pointing to OSU just playing UT-Martin, and maybe some others that weren’t.

The line, “We spend to win. Some people save to have an excuse for why they don’t,” has been picked up the most. While it sounds cool coming out, it also sort of reads like, well, why doesn’t every team just spend as much as Oregon? Well, because they don’t have that type of money, that’s why.

Like I said, I lean on the side that this is all a nothing burger. Is Oregon spending more on its football team than OSU? Yes. Is it within the rules of modern college football? Also yes. Is it good for the future of the sport that this is the way things are? Perhaps not.

Lanning Compliments Cowboys’ Culture

Before Lanning discussed the financial topics, he was uber complimentary of the program Gundy has built.

Here is what he said when asked about the difficulties of preparing for a team that has experienced so much turnover.

“Certainly a lot of change,” Lanning said. “I’ve got a lot of respect for Coach Gundy. The guy’s won 170 games. He’s been one of the best of the best in the business and adapted with times. Any time you’re able to be somewhere as long as he’s been, I think he’s only had two seasons where he didn’t have winning seasons in his time there. So, that speaks a little bit.

“Their culture, I think, it’s derived from him and what they do. They’ve always been innovative, always been really good on special teams, so I think you have to look at that piece kind of wholistically of what’s made those teams good in the past and then recognize there’s some changing parts. There’s a new coordinator on offense, new one on defense, some carryover there on special teams. But a lot of new faces, but does it still carry the same flavor of what those teams have been in the past.”

Prepping for Flores

Lanning was asked about prepping for Zane Flores after Hauss Hejny went down with a broken bone in his foot early in OSU’s season opener.

The Ducks will have three quarters of film on Flores, as the redshirt freshman quarterback made his college debut against UT-Martin. He finished with 136 passing yards while completing 65% of his 20 attempts.

“That’s college football,” Lanning said. “You gotta prepare for what you see on film. The system is the system more than it is they’re gonna completely change what they do as a player. They have compliments where the quarterback can run the ball or throw the ball, so they carry that in their system. Might make them a little more reserved to run the quarterback based on that situation, but ultimately you see a player that can play an execute and an offensive scheme that’s tough to defend.”