With Oregon looking to capture the Peach Bowl for the first time, its head coach, Dan Lanning, is already focusing on the Ducks’ future, making a bold claim for the 2026 season.

On Monday, during an interview with John Canzano, Dan Lanning compared his team’s performance with the goals he set last year and this year, and he assured that his team will defeat one of its biggest rivals twice.

“Last year, I feel like I should have been more specific with some of my goals that I wrote up on the board, you know, because there was our arm on the mirror, because we hit, we hit on a lot of them, and I don’t know, I definitely think it matters,” said Lanning. “… I mean, like, you know, one of the goals last year was to beat UW, beat Michigan, beat Ohio State. I should have put ‘beat Ohio State’ twice. That wasn’t up there.”

Lanning believes that if he sets beating OSU twice as a goal for Oregon, the team can achieve it. As last season, they beat OSU once in the regular season, but a 41–21 loss against the Buckeyes in the Rose Bowl ended their CFP hopes. However, they did win the B1G title in 2024, which wasn’t on the agenda this season.

While Lanning’s bold claim shows he set his mind on winning even before the season began, adjustments can still come when circumstances favor his game plan. Setting goals helps motivate the team to achieve them, but Dan Lanning emphasizes that their focus remains on the outcome. Obviously, this season they reached the semifinal with just one loss, against Indiana, but that’s not the end goal. As Lanning said, there’s more to achieve.

“It’s been pretty consistent this year,” said the Ducks head coach. “Other things we want, and a lot of the goals are really out there.”

Lanning was also asked if he sets goals for himself at the beginning of the year, and the coach responded without hesitation.

“It’s all in my mirror,” said Lanning. “I take a dry-erase marker, and I have it sitting right there by my sink, and I change stuff throughout the year, add stuff throughout the year, and update things right as a game happens, and a score happens or something. I had it.”

It appears the program is focused on beating Indiana and avenging their regular-season loss. If that happens, it would set them up to compete for the championship.

“I still think that’s very important, but I just try to be really narrow-focused with what the goals are and what we want to accomplish,” mentioned Lanning.

This indicates that beating Indiana at any cost must be their focus for the title run. Here, the head coach has also made his intentions clear.

Dan Lanning’s take on the Peach Bowl

The Ducks are gunning for revenge in the Peach Bowl. That’s why minutes after shutting out Texas Tech 23-0, Lanning’s focus was already on what’s next.

“Start trying to evaluate the opponents that we could potentially play,” said the Oregon head coach. “But it always starts with us. I sort of go back and look at this game and say, ‘Okay, what’d we do really well? Let’s go to the doctor. Let’s figure out what kind of medicine we’ve got to take for the next game.'”

Here, Lanning is keeping his team grounded, refusing to let the win create distractions.

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“I think that’s always the greatest indicator of what you have to improve when you start to analyze what you have in front of you,” he said.

The Ducks will use a bonus day to recover before diving into a normal week of preparation, ensuring every detail is covered before facing the Hoosiers, who come off a 38-3 Rose Bowl victory over Alabama.

But at the core of Lanning’s approach is preparation and trust in his team’s work ethic.

“Strength in numbers. Connection to this group, the way they work all year. The sacrifices that they’ve made… They’ve earned this opportunity. I told them to go get their pound of flesh today. They did that today,” stated Lanning.

If Oregon can pull off the rematch, it would underline that Lanning’s non-negotiables are a blueprint for playoff success.