Dan Lanning breaks down first spring scrimmage for Oregon Ducks

With just a couple of weeks left until the annual Spring Game, the Oregon Ducks football team is finding out a lot about itself and head coach Dan Lanning likes what he’s seeing.

Lanning met with the local media on Saturday and discussed a variety of topics and while coaches always see things their team can work on, Lanning says his Ducks are in a good place at the moment.

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There’s some stiff competition on the field between the offense and the defense, but that competition is breeding great team chemistry off the field, which has never been a problem while Lanning has been in Eugene. Right now, the team is relatively healthy, which is always good to see, and with spring camp winding down, players are looking forward to getting better over the summer and to being ready for fall camp in just a few months.

While there are a lot of returners from last year’s squad that made the College Football Playoff semifinals, the Ducks feature plenty of young talent on the roster that is expected to contribute in a meaningful way sooner rather than later. That learning curve for those freshmen and redshirts is becoming shorter and shorter as the years go on.

Opening Statement

Dan Lanning: All right, really good day at practice. Thought the guys did a good job of being physical. I mean, we were tackling out there today, and they were doing a good job of protective teammates, but still maintaining the physicality necessary to go out there and have success and good back and forth, some good competition throughout the day. So really good opportunity to give to the film and evaluate that.

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Dante this spring vs Dante last spring

Question: Can you compare from last year going into the spring game, the first spring scrimmage with Dante (Moore), to this year, having a year under his belt as the starter? What are some of the differences you saw without looking at the film?

DL: Yeah. I mean, again, he’s been operating all spring. So you know, quarterback is the position that maybe doesn’t change quite as much as it does ultimately, for some other positions. They’re going to get tackled to the ground. We’re not tackling our quarterback to the ground, you know, but decision making, process, ability to make checks, all those things are operating at a high level right now for him.

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Offensive line gelling during spring camp

Q: With the turnover at the position, one of the questions was the offensive line and how it’s going to be made up. What did you see from that group today, and how are they starting to piece things together?

DL: Highs and lows. There were some positive things, and I think there always will be, until we solidify, “Hey, this is that group that we’re running out with. Here’s the guys that are playing above the line football.” It’s tough when you mix our groups as we do. What I do see is you see a lot of guys that have ability to play here, and some young guys that are stepping up and really advancing quickly.

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Continued improvement throughout camp

Q: What are some of the early takeaways in terms of what next week that needs to be better in terms of just maybe some basic stuff?

DL: A lot of early notes. I mean, ultimately, I think we had six penalties today in the scrimmage. That’s not necessarily high, but ultimately we want to be able to clean that up, more operational stuff from the coaching staff, things that we got to be able to do a good job of on both sides of the ball, right? Coaching situations a little bit better, being a little bit cleaner, and execution, the rotations that we want to see out there on the field, from a player standpoint, just assignment, knowing my job, right?

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We like being a team that can do multiple things out of multiple personnel groups, right? Guys have got to know what that looks like when they get out there. But today’s about evaluating who can play football, who can tackle, who can block, who can catch. So we saw some of those moments today, and there’s gonna be some opportunities to improve there.

Jeremiah McClellan’s growth as a player

Q: Jeremiah McClellan had such an impressive end of the season last year, second half of the season last year. What’s the next step for him and what have you seen from him in these three weeks of spring practice?

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DL: Jay Mac actually talked to the team today after practice. You know, he’s got unbelievable passion and energy, you know, and sometimes that can be your greatest strength, and sometimes that can be your greatest weakness. He knows that. He’s self-aware of that. So I think just continuing to like, own that temperament of “I gotta be the guy that can get high when I need to get high, but also be neutral when I need to as well.”

He’s made some outstanding catches in practice so far, but he’s also blocked his tail off right when the moment, you know, provides that opportunity. So, I’m really impressed with his growth. And if we want to be the team we want to be, he’s got to be a guy who keeps making strides because we’re really counting on him.

Evan Stewart getting back to the field

Q: What have you seen from Evan Stewart this spring as he comes back from injury?

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DL: He’s getting more fluid every single day. I think he’s a smart player. We’ve been able to move him around. He’s played a lot of positions here, you know, for us, and that’s showing up this spring, whether it’s in the slot or an X or Z. So that versatility has been really good to see. There are times where we’re really conscientious of what we’re putting him in situationally, you know? So we can make sure we protect them and get them there to the season. But want to be able to see that physicality show up, you know, as we continue through spring ball. But he’s been the player we hoped he would be.

Bonding as a team

Q: How is the team bonding through challenge or competition and being under evaluation, but still trying to create relationships?

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DL: I think that’s something that happens naturally here. You know, when the ball’s getting snapped out there, it’s offense versus defense, and those guys are battling each other, but they appreciate the fact every guy on offense, if you ask them, they want to have a great defense, right? And every guy on defense wants to have a great offense. So when you have, you know, those groups going hand in hand and really battling each other, I think that’s going to create great that’s going to create great competition in practice. When we step off the field, we got to take an opportunity to go become best friends off the field, and those guys, we spend a lot of time with each other outside of football, and I think that’s the separator.

Level of play on both sides of the ball

Q: Typically at this point in spring and even in fall camp, you know defense is ahead of offense. But with the amount of talent, the amount of weapons that you guys are returning on that side of the ball is the starting point a little bit, you know, higher than you’ve seen it in the past?

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DL: It’s probably higher on both sides of the ball, right? Because we really return a relatively good amount of people on both sides of the ball. And ultimately, you know, there are certainly days defense has won. There are certainly days offense has won. This spring, there’s been some good back and forth, and forth, and I think it always starts off in spring ball, where defense has a little bit of an edge up, because it’s hard to create that speed, you know, that’s going to show up, you know, in a scrimmage, like setting. But we’ve had good back and forth consistently. And I think our knowledge as a team right now is ahead of where it was last year at this point.

Good moments from young players

Q: You mentioned, with all the newcomers here and you don’t have to get into specifics if you probably don’t want to, but what would you see from some of these guys and the encouraging kind of moments that you did see?

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DL: Yeah, there were real positives on both sides. And I know you guys love to have names. I’m not going to share a lot of names, but I saw young guys out there that proved that they can play, you know, level football. When the meeting started today, I’m showing Nas Wyatt, you know, last year in this scrimmage, what he did and what allowed us to say, “Okay, we need to figure out a way to get this guy on the field at times.” So showed clips of Jordan Davison doing that, and then I showed clips of Kenyon Sadiq saying, “Hey, this guy’s not here anymore. Who’s going to replace that?” Those are the things I need to see today, right? And I think some guys really stepped up.

Tight ends beside Jamari Johnson

Q: What have you just seen, maybe, collectively, the whole spring so far, at tight end, behind Jamari Johnson, and just all those guys and newcomers and the competition that’s kind of growing right there?

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DL: Yeah, I mean, Jamari has been extremely consistent, very smart player. I’m really pleased with his leadership that’s shown up this year. He’s a coach on the field right now for us, but us with those guys, and he’s kind of following suit, like, just like Terrance Ferguson was, and (Patrick) Herbert was, just like Kenyon (Sadiq) was for him right now. He’s doing the same thing for some of those other guys in that room. And guys are making big strides. You know, that first day didn’t look good, and it got better and better and better, and it’s improved. And whether that’s Andrew (Olesh), whether that’s Kendre (Harrison), you know, whether it’s Dayton (Raiola), like there’s been AJ (Pugiliano), you know, all those guys have really stepped it up, and they’re getting better. You can see it.

Will Straton spying on the team

Q: Last week Will Stratton shared for the first time publicly that he was spying on practice. What do you remember from when he got caught, when you guys were passing the notes around that he took, and then, you know, when did you find out after he joined the team that he was that guy?

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DL: I don’t remember when I found out, but I remember reading through his notes, and it was funny. He was like, This guy’s not very fast. This quarterback always stares down his target. I remember reading the notes all right, when they’ve got two guys into the boundary, he wrote down some detailed notes. But I remember that day distinctly, and I don’t think I met Will that day, but Katie’s chasing him around outside the practice field. We grabbed his notebook and take it from him.

I read all his notes, and there wasn’t anything that was going to hurt our chances of having success in the field, but I love that story for Will, and he has been an unbelievable member of our team. He’s been one of our production leaders this spring at linebacker. He’s earned everything that’s come his direction and really proud of his growth. And, you know, glad that God works in mysterious ways. And let’s, let’s guys like that join your team.

Punting and kicking competition

Q: How do you feel about the punt and kick competition that’s going on?

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DL: I feel like it was a clean operation. You know, ultimately, we set it up differently than some places. We don’t really have a look team. We try to make the best team we can on both sides of the ball. So we have the best punt team going against the best PBR team. You know, opt to go watch the film and see what it looked like. And then we got to clean up some of our return game and solidify some of those blocks up front, because we did a good job on kickoff cover today, but the punt operation was good. The punt returners did a good job fielding the ball. We hit some long field goals today as well.

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This article originally appeared on Ducks Wire: Notable quotes from Dan Lanning after Oregon Ducks’ first scrimmage