The 2024 season had been pretty hard emotionally on the head coaches. The Ohio State Buckeyes lifted the Natty, but before that, Ryan Day was dragged through the mud. The reason? They lost against their arch rival Michigan. And immediately, Day was turned into a hate magnet. ‘Fire Ryan Day’ calls picked up, and even his wife and son were not spared. While the National Championship victory might have healed the wounds, he still carries the trauma deep inside his heart. Turns out that Day was not the only one to have gone through the emotional toil.

Oregon Ducks head coach Dan Lanning also found himself in the same hot seat. Even though the Oregon fans did not go to great lengths to strip down Lanning, he became the victim of his spiraling thoughts. We have seen how the head coach took the blame on himself back in January. Six months later, Lanning took his fans through the dark episode of his coaching journey when his back had hit the wall. 

January 2, 2025, is probably the date that Oregon fans will remember for the longest time. Not for the good reasons, of course. Lanning’s boys got crushed by the Ohio State Buckeyes in a 21-41 disastrous feat. And with this, they had hit a speed breaker on the Natty race track. Time for the fans to dive straight into Lanning’s heart as he opened the doors on the July 30th episode of the NBC Sports podcast, telling about how he ‘turned the page’ from the big loss. “You just go to bed every night thinking about it and wake up every morning thinking about it. Not a lot of processing. Probably need to see a therapist,” confessed Lanning. 

This indeed came off as a blow for the Ducks after they earned the No. 1 seed in the 2024 College Football Playoff. Winning the Big Ten Championship. Coming with a 45-37 win against Penn State. In the loss, Oregon finished with -23 rushing yards, and Ohio State totaled 181. Lanning’s quarterback, Dillon Gabriel, could not do much. Furthermore, on the OSU side, the Buckeyes superstar Jeremiah Smith finished with 187 yards on seven receptions with two touchdowns. No matter how bitter the pill was to swallow, Lanning only had benefits from the loss. 

The Ducks struggled with a poor rushing attack, which is skewed by the -43 yards of sack yardage for Gabriel. On the other hand, Ohio State was the better, more talented, and more prepared team from start to finish. Their prime weapon, Smith’s big-play ability, was unmatched, and his size and physicality when going up and grabbing 50-50 balls were deflating. But that doesn’t mean Lanning has developed bitter feelings for the Ducks. 

He shared, “There’s one team at the end of the year that gets to celebrate that moment of finishing it the right way. And there’s an end-all goal for us. That’s something. But it doesn’t discredit the success that we had last year and what kind of team we had and the success our players had. So excited we got to be a part of it, but certainly using it as a learning experience.” Now, moving into the 2025 season, the water is half hot, half cold for Lanning.    

A stark warning and a silver lining for Dan Lanning

Starting with the news that might cast a shadow on the Ducks. When it comes to Oregon’s offense, till now, Lanning did not have anything to worry about it. Oregon’s offense has been the sharpest blade in the Big Ten. And who deserves the credit for that? Has to be Lanning’s offensive machine in Will Stein. He took up the offensive coordinator role in 2022, and no doubt, he is a better fit for Lanning and co. as compared to Kenny Dillingham. In his first year in Eugene, Dillingham had orchestrated the nation’s No. 4 scoring offense. But what about under Stein?

Well it was even better. Lanning’s offense ranked second nationally under Stein. But good coordinators are hard to hold onto. RJ Young tried to stir the pot a little. On his podcast, he shared a ‘what if’ scenario, “What is going to be more interesting to me is if Will Stein and Oregon go win 10, 11 games once again, or 12 or 13 or 15, is he still going to be an offensive coordinator at Oregon the next year?” While Lanning might go into panic mode thinking about Stein’s impending departure, here comes some good news.

The wide receiver who missed the 2024 season is back to his form. That’s none other than Kyler Kasper. On July 28, On3’s Max Torres shared a clip from Kasper’s interview, which might give away some relief to Dan Lanning. In the clip, the wide receiver assured, “Finally healthy now.” He will be adding to Oregon’s star stacked depth chart featuring Justius Lowe, Dakorien Moore, Malik Benson, among others. Can Lanning finally shake off the ghosts and bring the College Football crown to Eugene?