Dan Lanning's Pregame Speech at Ohio State Is the Perfect Depiction of His Leadership

Dan Lanning is a lot of things as a head coach as he works his way through the fifth year as the head coach of the Oregon Ducks, he is in the midst of likely his best coaching job.

The Ducks' year has been a disaster in every sense of the word. Injuries, losses, firings, off-field issues, and so much more have defined this season- until it didn't. Two weeks ago, things turned in the right direction when they orchestrated a comeback against the Northwestern Wildcats. It's been trending up from there. 

The Ducks rolled into Columbus, Ohio last week and were ready for war. It was the game of the week infront of a packed house in Columbus, and the Ducks approached it like trained assassins. It's no wonder when you saw behind the scenes of what their head coach said in the pregame locker room.

We have seen Lanning raise his voice; we have seen him scream, yell, and get the boys fired up. This time, he was calm and delivered a stern message. Exactly what his team needed. 

He said that the world said this story was already written, that everyone had written it off. Calmly, he said, "Rip the script, man." Then he dropped one of his greatest lines ever. 

"There are 102,000 witnesses today, and I want every one of them to leave here and tell everyone what they saw."

Gives me chills watching this clip because this is just so good from a head coach who knows exactly what his group- this group- needed. It is this type of stuff that makes Lanning such an insanely good coach.

In the midst of his toughest season, in the biggest game, he responded with an assassin's calmness as they took on the biggest challenge.

It is this approach and this mindset that have the Ducks within striking distance of the College Football Playoff, even with three losses. 

It is certainly not a foregone conclusion that they are going to make the playoffs, but the path is in front of them. They must win out in three games that they are going to be massive favorites in.

Then, they need some help. They are the top three-loss team, so the moment that the door to the 11 seed opens up, the Ducks will be the first to slot in. Nothing about the finish to this season is going to be easy, but as long as the Ducks have Lanning on their side, they are going to be the most prepared team on the field for the remainder of the year.