Lanning to Stay For Playoff Run, Succession Plan Announced

With Dan Lanning taking the Oregon head coaching job, Kirby Smart released a statement announcing his succession plan at defensive coordinator.

News broke Friday night that Georgia defensive coordinator Dan Lanning is the expected next head coach at Oregon, replacing Mario Cristobal. The latter left the Ducks this week for the head coaching job at Miami.

After Lanning's departure was confirmed on Saturday evening, Kirby Smart issued a statement regarding Lanning and his family.

"We are so happy for Dan and his family. He and Sauphia have been an important part of our Bulldog family for the last four years, and we thank them for all they did for Georgia Football and the Athens community. Opportunities like this are a testament to a successful program. While he will coach with us for the upcoming College Football Playoff, we will move forward with Glenn Schumann and Will Muschamp as co-defensive coordinators. Dan and I are both looking forward to preparing for the CFP."

Smart officially put an end to any speculation regarding who the successor to Lanning would be, immediately announcing that current staffers Glenn Schumann and Will Muschamp will share the role after the season's end as co-defensive coordinators.

Muschamp joined the staff this past offseason as an analyst in an off-field role before being promoted to on-field as Georgia's special team's coordinator once Scott Cochran stepped aside for personal reasons.

On the other hand, Schumann has been with Smart since the very beginning, joining the coaching staff in 2016 and helping produce two Butkus award-winning linebackers, Roquan Smith (2017) and most recently Nakobe Dean (2021), as the inside linebackers coach.

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