DIFFERENCE MAKER FOR OREGON FOOTBALL, PT.2

A difference maker is a game changer on the football field.

They run faster, throw further, hit harder.

It all shows up in video review.

“Look at him go.”

But what if it’s not a player, but a coach?

Last Saturday Oregon football coach Dan Lanning did the unexpected in beating Ohio State.

To rub it in, he also took their spot at #2 in the rankings.

It was so unexpected that I held my breath, unexpectedly, even after the last play and time ran out.

Oregon fans do that sort of thing with a win.

“Is it really a win?”

Then exhale.

Imagine if, after the last whistle, the last bell, the refs cleared the field because the Ohio State coach had signaled a timeout with one second remaining, and they show video for proof.

Imagine Ohio State coming back out and kicking the winning field goal in a riotous Autzen for an all-time ‘In Your Face’ finish.

 

Here’s how it broke down Saturday:

 

With 10 seconds on the clock, and Ohio State facing a 3rd and 25 on the Ducks’ 43-yard-line, Oregon took a timeout. Coming out of the timeout, the Ducks broke up a pass from Will Howard to Jeremiah Smith, but got flagged for an illegal substitution, as they had 12 men on the field.

The five-yard penalty was assessed, making it 3rd and 20, but the four seconds that ran off of the clock during the play were not put back onto the clock, by rule. 

 

Six seconds left for a five second scramble that went one second too long.

I’m still a little breathless.

There was nothing on the Sunday NFL schedule better than Oregon’s game. Monday night, same thing.

 

Chip Kelly, Oregon Difference Maker

Call me superstitious, but I expected the game to come down to something tricky and brilliant from Ohio State Offensive Coordinator and former Oregon Duck head coach Chip Kelly.

He stunned the highest levels of college football during his four years in Eugene with speed and innovation.

He reminded me of the second coming of Jimmy Johnson when he went from Miami to the Dallas Cowboys and through force of will turned them into the greatest team in NFL history.

That’s how I saw Kelly, rolling through a career like Nick Saban at Alabama and lifting Oregon to college football Valhalla.

Call me vision impaired. It didn’t happen and started looking like it never would with head coaching hires who used Oregon to build their careers enough for the job they really wanted.

Oregon was a stepping stone for coaches used to real football in real conferences. (Real meaning school money, TV money, booster money.)

Maybe they were right. They looked right after the PAC12 Conference of Champions fell apart and all but two schools bolted to the Big10, Big12, and ACC.

If Chip Kelly had stayed, Oregon would have rolled into any conference and dominated?

Not if his time at UCLA is any measure.

But that’s not what I expected on Saturday, not UCLA Chip.

I expected reinvented Chip to make is old team, his old fans, wish Oregon had done everything possible to keep him so many years ago.

Oregon was Chippy’s steppingstone, one of many, and the dread of seeing him work the Ducks for a loss grew.

 

The Dan Lanning Difference 

History says you come to Oregon for one reason, you stay for another.

If you don’t come from roots, or grow roots here, roots as in family and memories and love, other places look better.

Early on, people came here for the beaver and sea otter pelts, with ship’s captains trading manufactured goods to the natives for the pelts, which they took to China and traded for tea.

Boston was the beginning and end of the triangle trade with Oregon and China at the other points.

Not long after, people came for the land, the logs, and fish.

And they stayed. In spite of rainy winters, they stayed.

Dan Lanning looks like one who will stay.

Unlike Chip Kelly, he’s got a wife and kids.

When you bring the family, they might like Oregon, too.

What are the chances he makes the right decision?

These guys stuck:

 

Rich Brooks led Oregon for seventeen years and one PAC10 championship.

Mike Belotti led Oregon for thirteen years and two PAC10 championships.

Chip Kelly went four years with three PAC12 championships.

Mark Helfrich followed with one PAC12 title.

Willie Taggert got the one year he needed to bounce to his dream job.

Mario Cristobal had four years and two PAC12 championship before leaving for his dream job.

Dan Lanning has a chance to connect Oregon football to the legacies of the greatest teams in college football history.

If he stays here for twenty years he could match Yale with their 18 championships. And he’s off to a good start.

Yale won it all beginning in 1874, their last in 1927.

Sixteen more years and he’ll match Alabama, who started in 1925, their last big win in 2020.

Princeton chalked up fifteen between 1869 and 1922.

I love the old teams, especially the team pictures.

I’d like fans to look back on Oregon football pictures in a few decades and remember the Dan Lanning Era.

 

In The Beginning

Lanning is a young coach; the game won’t move away from him.

He’s got more than a little of that,, ‘You think you’re better than me,’ going on.

He knows the landscape of college football as only a former on-campus recruiter does.

In every interview he’s proving something. You can see the results.

This is where I see a Jimmy Johnson connection: he sees how a player might develop over the years, from good, to great, to all-timer.

Here in Oregon we see Dan Lanning on the same track. Nothing passes him by.

 

Q: Did you kick the onside kick so hard and bounce it off a guy on purpose?

A: We practice that all the time.

Q: Did you put twelve men on defense for the second to last play of the game on purpose?

A: We practice for situations all the time.

 

Take it from Rick Neuheisel, it’s a sign of brilliance in coaching.

It’s the results of a student of the game recognizing situations.

Is this the year Oregon follows the lesson plan to a national championship?

I’m recognizing that situation more and more each week.

We’ll see the results in the Dan Lanning Dynasty.