Oregon’s Rose Bowl loss to Ohio State keeps Dan Lanning up at night.
In an appearance on Barstool’s Bussin With The Boys Podcast with Will Compton and Taylor Lewan, Lanning discussed his mindset following the CFP quarterfinal. The 39-year-old head coach complimented the Buckeyes, whom he called “an unbelievable team," and said he didn’t prepare the Ducks well enough for the matchup.
“After the game is over with, you’re like, ‘OK, how do I make sure that doesn’t happen again?’” Lanning said. “Ohio State is an unbelievable team, really well-coached. Coach Day did an unbelievable job this year. But they’re gonna have a ton of guys drafted. They had a lot of success. So are we. We had a lot of guys go on to the next level. There are things that they did in that game that we didn’t prepare our players well for. That’s the part, like, can you take the medicine? Can you figure out what didn’t go right?”
Lanning said Houston men’s basketball coach Kelvin Sampson and the Cougars’ loss to Florida in the 2025 NCAA championship game is an example of hard-to-swallow medicine.
“Coach Sampson’s been coaching for a long time. That guy is deserving of a national championship for how hard he’s worked – he’s never touched it, which shows how hard it is to get,” Lanning said. “But if you’re motivated the right way, those moments are growth moments. That’s a chance to say, ‘OK, I’m gonna go improve.’”
As Lanning pushes Oregon toward its desired improvement, he admitted that the Ohio State loss causes him to lose sleep.
Read more about "The Greatest Run in College Football History," the story of Ohio State's dominant run to the national championship.
“That medicine, I wake up every night about that medicine,” he said. “We struggled early on beating Washington when I first started here. We were able to get over that hump. We were able to beat them this past season. Right now, I wake up thinking about that Rose Bowl game. Didn’t do it the way I wanted to do it, so it motivates me. It makes me hungry to go back to work.”
While Lanning had no desire to make excuses for Oregon’s performance against Ohio State, he said the team’s three-week break before the Rose Bowl played a role in the Ducks’ loss.
“I’ll never make an excuse, but there’s certainly things that you’d say, ‘OK, how would I do this different preparing for that moment?’ It’s a lot different when you’re playing a game every single week,” Lanning said. “I think there’s a lot of things that college football is trying to figure out. There’s a reason the NFL playoffs are the way they are. There’s been a lot of people doing playoffs for a long time in a lot of sports. It feels like we just decide that we’re always gonna do it a little bit different than everybody else. It’s like, how about we just follow the model that exists? It’s a pretty good model.
“Having a long break – I’ve always been an advocate for the college football season should end Jan. 1. That’s when the next semester starts. If that means everybody starts Week 0 (then fine). I’ve always been an advocate of stay in a rhythm, play on Saturdays, let’s finish the championship. You know, why is the championship on a Monday? Those are things I don’t completely understand, but I’m sure there’s some dollar signs behind it, and it is what it is.”
They ran the table. You run the merch. Two new tees for the greatest run in college football history. https://t.co/lXDXoDb2Tc pic.twitter.com/ngi3GHuY9s
— Eleven Warriors (@11W) April 12, 2025
Lewan, a two-time All-American at Michigan, asked Lanning if there’s a piece of him that blames the Wolverines “for waking up that giant” in Ohio State. Lanning laughed.
“No, I blame Oregon, man. We didn’t take care of business,” he said.
“They kind of really opened up the playbook after they took that loss,” Lewan responded.
“They were hot,” Lanning said. “They were hot.”
Compton then asked if Lanning wishes Ohio State had scored on its final drive in Eugene to beat the Ducks and change the team’s motivations entering Pasadena.
“No, man. No. A piece of me wishes we won (the Rose Bowl),” Lanning said.
