Oregon Ducks Head Coach Dan Lanning Georgia Postgame Press Conference

Dan Lanning fell to his former team in his debut as a head coach.

On Saturday, the Oregon Ducks fell 49-3 to the Georgia Bulldogs in their season opener, a game that also served as the Chick-Fil-A Kickoff game. 

Head Coach Dan Lanning met with the media following the game.

Opening statement: "Tough game, obviously, credit to Georgia. They did a phenomenal job preparing their team for us. They out-coached us. They out-played us today. They did a really good job. That being said, I think our players, that locker room, is hurting a little bit, but they're ready for an opportunity to grow, anxious to get back on the practice field. Certainly a lot of things that we can clean up and fix. You talk about Game 1s, it comes down to turnovers, it comes down to penalties, it comes down to missed tackles. We really lost a lot of those battles tonight. Didn't have a lot of success stopping them. They did a really good job on the perimeter, and their players played really well. Stetson played really well. They have good guys. You can't afford to play poorly against a good team. That showed up today."

Question: "When you speak about not beating yourselves, two interceptions, particularly the second one when it's a 14-point game, and you guys are heading into the red zone there at that point and that swing. And then 9-of-10 on third down when that was such a point of emphasis in terms of not beating yourselves and we could argue that you really did beat yourself when it was competitive?"

Lanning: "Both those things obviously really hurt us. The takeaways were bad, and they dominated us on third down. We just weren't able to get off the field. Obviously, the takeaways, that was the second takeaway is one that Bo would certainly want back. They were playing buzz coverage into a quads look and forced a throw we don't need to force. Bo knows that. He knows that the minute he walked off the field. On third down we have to do a better job preparing our guys. Again, they got the ball in the perimeter, and we didn't have great answers for it."

Question: "On the coach's show you mentioned missed tackles, penalties, and turnovers are the three things really that show up. I think all those things bit you early kind of. What's the teaching moment there in terms of correcting tackles, in particular?"

Lanning: "I think the biggest thing for our team is seeing that. We have to go back and be great self-evaluators. We have to pull up the film and evaluate exactly how we performed. I think every one of our players will tell you they have more in the tank and they can do a little bit better. Same with our coaching staff. This is 100% on me and our coaching staff to do a better job preparing our guys, but we have to create those moments in practice. If you don't do it in practice, it's not going to show up in the game. So, we can do it better in practice."

Question: "You just said it was kind of a tough locker room in there, but I'm just curious, how are you feeling, especially with all of the lead-up to this game? People have been talking about it for months. Just how did it feel to meet Kirby midfield there and just have this one under your belt now?"

Lanning: "Everybody knows I have a ton of respect for Kirby. I told our coaching staff before this morning, before we ever played the game, we had a staff meeting, and I said every single one of our goals is going to be ahead of us regardless of how this game comes out. Win, loss, draw, every one of our goals is still right here in front of us. Our players feel the exact same way. Tough locker room because we have competitors. Not a bad locker room. A tough locker room because we have competitors that want to win. Those guys are hungry to go get better. I think if you asked our players, they would go right back out to the practice field today because they want to compete. There was no quit in them, but certainly getting to go against a good team, it's a great gauge of where you're at. They're a good team."

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