Daily Emerald sports editor participates in Rose Bowl press conferences

Presenter: Ducks Coach Dan Lanning took questions at the Rose Bowl pre-game press conference Dec. 31 in Pasadena. Daily Emerald Sports Editor Brady Ruth:

Sports Editor Brady Ruth (Daily Emerald): Brady Ruth, Daily Emerald. In a game as big as this one, how do you guys balance talking about the importance of momentum and capturing it, but also responding when momentum’s maybe not on your side?

Presenter: With his response, and other responses from the press conference, Dan Lanning.

Dan Lanning (Oregon Ducks, head football coach): Yeah, ultimately, it is about execution over emotion, right? That’s something we spend a lot of time talking about. And your ability to get to the next play is the most important play, right? Regardless of the result.

[00:00:35] So there’ll be momentum swings in this game, just like there are in every game. But it’s just that: It’s just momentum, right? You have to have the ability to either break it or sustain it. And those are things that you try to train throughout the season and throughout practice.

[00:00:46] We always talk about playing the game as many times as you can before you play the game. I think that’s really important regardless of the setting. Whether that’s the meeting room, walkthrough, sitting in your hotel room at night, right? How many times can you play the game before you play the game? You know, trying to picture what the opponent might do.

[00:01:02] And I think if you do that, that gives you the best opportunity to be successful, you know, really on game day when you can visualize, you know, a lot of those different experiences that are going to show up in a game on game day, and if you can do that in advance, that gives you a great opportunity to be able to adapt and adjust when the game comes.

[00:01:17] When you turn on the film, you try to find weaknesses in an opponent. It’s really hard to find weaknesses in Ohio State in all three phases. The way they play on special teams, the effort, the guys they utilize. Right, a lot of places you’ll watch and you’ll see certain plays that they don’t have their best players on the field, you know, Ohio State has their best players on the field consistently. They play hard for each other and it shows up.

[00:01:37] There’s things that Ohio State does really well that I’m sure that they’ll work to do in this game. And there’s things that, that Oregon does really well that we’re going to try to do in this game as well.

[00:01:44] But I’ll say this, every time you turn on Ohio State’s film, you do see new wrinkles. You see Coach Day and his staff coming up with new things that make it a challenge to prepare for. And I think we challenge our coaches here to do the same things.

[00:01:55] At Oregon we talk about trying to be the best version of ourselves towards the end of the season. That’s when you have to play your best ball, and we’ll certainly need to be able to play our best ball, and I expect the same from them at the end of the season here.

[00:02:05] I think this is always one of my favorite parts of the year. We get to watch some historic teams get the opportunity to battle out there on the field. I know our players have really enjoyed every bit of the experience. We’re grateful for the Rose Bowl and the service they’ve provided for our team. It’s certainly a little bit different landscape this year because of how bowl games are set up, but the Rose Bowl has been first class in every way.

[00:02:25] Growing up as a kid, you remember getting to be a part of games like this, so this is one we’re really thrilled to compete in.  It’s something you prepare for throughout the summer, knowing what the season could look like, right? And kind of having a 365-day plan of how do you want to prep for these moments?

[00:02:39] You know, I’d have to give great kudos to our sports science staff, our training staff, our weight room staff,  our team is relatively healthy. Nobody feels great at this point in the season because of the time of season that you’re in, but our players are, you know, putting up some PRs in the weight room, they’re doing some unbelievable things at this point in the season. When you talk about going into Game 14 for these guys, I think that’s huge kudos to our staff and the job that they’ve done making sure they stay fresh.

[00:03:07] Obviously Ohio State’s a great team, and when you play a team like Ohio State, you have to bring your best, that’s kudos to the work that they do in the offseason and during the season. Recruiting is something you’ve got to do every single day. I think both of our programs do that at a high level. You can see that with Coach Day, and the people that they bring into their program.

[00:03:22] Anytime we look to add somebody to our program, we’re looking not just to add what kind of player are we adding, but what kind of character. I know at Oregon, we’re about integrity and what we say is what we do. That’s something we believe in here. You know, from the day that I’ve gotten here, I’ve always felt like Oregon’s about innovation. I talked about adapting as a really important trait right now in college football and being able to adjust on the fly. That’s something that we’re prepared to do, as we continue to move forward. So I’m glad to be in a place that’s on the forefront of that.

[00:03:48] And we’ve been really fortunate to hit, you know, in the portal and have some success. I think what that’s done for our team, it’s created unbelievable competition, not just at the quarterback position, but several positions. And when you have competition, that brings out the best in everybody. It brings out the best in all of our team, and at this point in the season, too, like Coach Day alluded to earlier, it gives you the opportunity to have depth and be strong and have strength in numbers towards the end of the season. But Dillon (Gabriel)’s done an unbelievable job for us, just like Will has done for them. You talk about two great quarterbacks getting to battle it out on the field, that’s obviously really exciting.

[00:04:20] Presenter: With a question, Big 10 reporter Ashley Adamson.

[00:04:23] Ashley Adamson (Big Ten): Hi guys, Ashley Adamson, Big Ten. I know it’s hard to zoom out when you’re so hyperfocused on the task at hand tomorrow, but I just wonder if you could, and think about all the people who have been instrumental in getting you to the stage that you’re at today. Is there someone that you’d like to give a shout-out to that you wouldn’t be sitting here without?

[00:04:40] Dan Lanning (Oregon Ducks, head football coach): How long, how much time we got, right? I mean, I’ll just start with my wife, Sauphia. You know, I think anybody that has, is a coach in this profession, realizes that there really isn’t a balance. I’ve said that before. There isn’t balance if you want to be great, and you need great support structure around you. There’s a lot of people that believed in me and gave me opportunities. I think there’s unbelievable coaches across the country that certainly deserve and would do a fantastic job in this role, that I get to sit in.

[00:05:03] So I don’t take that for granted. I’m very blessed, but as blessed as anything to have the wife that I have at home taking care of those three boys. And I think they got to enjoy Disneyland yesterday. I think she really enjoyed it right around 8:30 a.m. but I think around 8 at night she maybe was ready to get back home. So, even though we had a long day of work, I know she was working her tail off there yesterday.

[00:05:24] Presenter: Daily Emerald Sports Editor Brady Ruth asks about changing the momentum of the game at the Rose Bowl press conference Dec. 31.