Oregon Coach Dan Lanning: "I Can't Say Enough Great Things About That Team That We Just Played," Believes Ohio State Will Be "In Great Shape the Rest of the Season"

"Anybody got a heart rate monitor?"

That was the first quote Oregon head coach Dan Lanning gave at his postgame press conference as he sat down in his chair following the Ducks' prime-time win over Ohio State on Saturday night by a 32-31 final score. Minutes earlier, Lanning also gave an on-field interview to NBC correspondent Kathryn Tappen in which he declared the Buckeyes to be "a good football team" and "hard to stop."

This is why you come to Oregon.

Coach Dan Lanning speaks after his teams MAJOR win over No. 2 Ohio State. pic.twitter.com/CEoAF9qjPE
— NBC Sports (@NBCSports) October 13, 2024

Lanning continued in his presser to give Ryan Day and Ohio State a great deal of credit for their effort in the closely contested football game. Although he made sure to emphasize the success of his own players, the Ducks' head coach refused to acknowledge any shortcomings or weak points in his team's opponent after narrowly emerging victorious at home.

“i can't say enough great things about that team that we just played. That's an Elite FOotball Team That We just Played. They're Really Really Talented, They Don't Have Weaknesses, But our guys did just enough tonight to be able to edge it out.”

Oregon's head coach felt two of the keys to winning against Ohio State would be winning the rushing battle and giving the Buckeye offense bad field position to work with, both of which ultimately manifested by the end of the game. The Ducks finished the game with 14 more team rushing yards and an averaged greater than half a yard more per carry than OSU. Oregon also did not turn the ball over and never allowed Ohio State to begin a drive anywhere further up the field than the Buckeyes' own 26 yard line.

“We Talked about coming into this game, We Have to out-rush our opponent, we have to out-physical our opponent. we out-rushed Ohio State. We talked About Field Position in this game and how important that was going to be, I thought we gave them some long fields.”

As for the rest of the season, Lanning lightly hinted that these teams may very well meet again in a more neutral environment some time in the future. Given the new College Football Playoff format and expanded Big Ten Conference, a rematch between these teams for some sort of postseason glory certainly does not remain out of the question. Lanning relayed his anticipation that Ohio State will put themselves in the best position to make the most of the current campaign even after tonight's result.

“a lot of credit to coach [Ryan] Day and the team that he's assembled and put together. they are really really good... we talked about before this game even was played, regardless of result, everything is still on the table for both teams. I know that they're Gonna put themselves in position to continue to compete and be in great shape the rest of the season.”