Still unbeaten on the year and coming off a dominant 38-9 win over Illinois, the No. 1 Oregon football team will head back out on the road to take on defending national champion Michigan this Saturday.
The game is set to kick off at 12:30 p.m.
Here are some highlights from Oregon coach Dan Lanning’s weekly press conference Monday night.
The Wolverine run defense has struggled at times this season, but it hasn’t been because of its two star interior defensive linemen.
Juniors Kenneth Grant and Mason Graham are both expected to be top picks in the upcoming NFL Draft next spring, and both earned heavy praise from Lanning during his Monday presser.
“They’re game-wreckers,” Lanning said of the pair. “They’re guys you have to have a game plan for … They make an impact consistently in a game. They beat single blocks there, they’re certainly good against double teams and they’re good against the run and the pass. They’re guys that you have to spend time and effort for.”
Grant has five tackles for loss and two sacks, along with two fumble recoveries through eight games this season, while Graham has six tackles for loss and 3.5 sacks.
Michigan’s offense has had major issues throughout the season, specifically with finding consistency in its passing offense.
The Wolverines have played three different quarterbacks but have seemingly settled on Davis Warren to be their starter moving forward, with Alex Orji coming in as a change-of-pace runner.
“It’s different based on who is in the game,” Lanning said of Michigan’s offense. “They’re both capable and they can win in different ways. (Warren) played well in the last game and I think getting in a rhythm and finding some consistency is probably important for them. But they both can beat you in different ways.”
Last week, in a 24-17 win over Michigan State, Warren threw for 123 yards and a touchdown while Orji added 64 yards on the ground and another score.
Through eight games, Michigan’s quarterbacks — which included Jack Tuttle before he medically retired this week — have combined to complete 62.2% of their passes for just 1,044 yards, eight touchdowns, and nine interceptions.
Though Lanning has never been to Michigan Stadium — aptly named the Big House for seating well over 100,000 fans — the third-year head coach is excited about the opportunity.
Despite Michigan’s struggles this season, he expressed his excitement about facing the defending national champions in their home stadium.
The Wolverines were at one point ranked highly in the national polls before back-to-back losses to Washington and Illinois on the road knocked them out of the top 25.
“We’re getting the opportunity to play the reigning national champions,” Lanning said. “In this conference, it’s hard every single week. So we know we’ll get their best. We’ve gotten to play in some games that are fun for us so far this year and challenging and this will certainly be a challenge.”
Alec Dietz covers University of Oregon football, volleyball, women’s basketball and baseball for The Register-Guard. You may reach him at adietz@registerguard.com and you can follow him on X @AlecDietz.
