EUGENE – Oregon football coach Dan Lanning ranked No. 9 in a list of the top-25 college football coaches in the Power Five – now Power Four.
Oregon Ducks fans generally hold coach Lanning in extremely high regard and will find this ranking too low, comparative to the coaches ahead of him on the list.
Coach Lanning’s prowess on the recruiting trail, on the field, and in player retention should’ve made him a strong candidate to be higher on the list.
Coach Lanning has also been instrumental in promoting Oregon’s name, image, and likeness collective Division Street as the Ducks adapt to the new landscape of college football. Players like quarterback Dillon Gabriel and wide receiver Evan Stewart are among the highest earners in college football and coach Lanning has expressed support for this development, unlike some other prominent coaches.
After a 10-3 season in his first as a head coach, the Ducks went 12-2 in 2024 with losses only to College Football Playoff runner-up Washington. This alone should place Lanning firmly inside the top 10 before considering his off-the-field acumen and noticeable upward trajectory.
Coach Lanning is five and six spots behind LSU’s Brian Kelly and Clemson’s Dabo Swinney, respectively, in this poll. Swinney is easier to understand as he’s a multiple-time national champion with a track record of high-profile National Football League players, but some will point to the program’s recent decline and complete lack of use of the transfer portal.
Clemson was one of just four major college football teams to not take a single player in the transfer portal and what’s more damning is that the other three are all service academies. Regarding Kelly, the former Notre Dame head coach hasn’t had a better season than Oregon just had since 2018 and many have questioned his fit at LSU in the process.
Kelly’s LSU team fielded one of college football’s worst defenses in 2023, worse than in Kelly’s first season. This will be hard to grapple with for Oregon fans who saw a marked improvement on the defensive side between coach Lanning’s first and second year.
While some will point to coach Lanning’s lack of experience and top-level achievement thus far as reason for his relatively low ranking, there are plenty of reasons to believe he should be well above where he’s slotted now.
LINDEN HILE
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