Oregon Ducks head coach Dan Lanning teamed up with Pat McAfee for a wholesome moment ahead of the team's Week 2 matchup.
The Oregon Ducks are taking on the Oklahoma State Cowboys in Week 2 of the new college football season.
This will mark the first away game for the Ducks, giving them a chance to go 2-0 to open the year. But before kickoff, Oregon head coach Dan Lanning teamed up with ESPN analyst Pat McAfee for a wholesome moment.
McAfee gave Lanning a chance to earn a donation of $500,000 to a charity of his choice if he could throw a football to hit the crossbar. Lanning took him up on this, and he eventually made it happen.
Lanning said that the charity he would be choosing would be the Sam Day Foundation, which is a childhood cancer research group. The Oregon head coach also said that he would be donating $50,000 of his own money to the foundation as well.
This was a really cool moment before kickoff between the two men, helping to get everyone in the spirit for the contest.
Oregon enters this game against the Cowboys with something to prove after surviving a scare in Week 1 against the Boise State Broncos. Boise State came close to knocking off the Ducks, which would have been detrimental to Oregon's title chances this year.
Luckily for the Ducks, they were able to get out of the game with a win. But the way they played against Boise State was certainly a wake-up call for Oregon.
While Lanning wasn't happy with the way that his team played, the veteran head coach does believe it could help the Ducks out. Getting an early-season challenge like this could push Oregon, showing them that they have to take each game seriously; otherwise, an upset could take place.
"You love having a challenge early," Lanning said. "At times you want to get a win in every situation. It's going to be a win that we can learn from, right? There are things that we can attack and improve coaches as well. I think that's what will show up."
Against the Cowboys, the Ducks will need to control the crowd, not allowing the Oklahoma State fans to get rowdy enough to impact the game. Oregon is one of the best teams in the country, and after a long week, they have seemed ready to set the narratives straight for the rest of the year.
Oregon shouldn't take any team for granted the rest of the way after the Boise State contest. If anything, this could help the Ducks in the long run, but for now, this team will take things game-by-game.
