Despite devastating postseason blowouts, Dan Lanning maintains high marks in Eugene. Josh Pate weighs the Ducks' championship potential against the growing pressure to conquer college football's elite hurdles.
Dan Lanning has done a lot of winning in his first stint as a college football head coach with the Oregon Ducks.
Lanning, 40, is 48-8 with Oregon through four seasons in Eugene. The record is impressive, and the Ducks have made the College Football Playoff twice in a row. The program won the Big Ten title in 2024.
Still, Lanning is facing criticism, much in the same way James Franklin did at Penn State, for the way the Ducks have finished in the postseason for 2024 and 2025.
Despite having a roster loaded with talent, Oregon was blown out by Ohio State in the CFP quarterfinal at the Fiesta Bowl for the 2024 season before being destroyed 56-22 by Indiana in the CFP semifinal at the Peach Bowl in January.
Lanning can't hide behind those two blowout losses.
However, Josh Pate doesn't think it's all Lanning's fault. He gave the Oregon head coach an "A minus" grade for his performance with the program.
"Job approval rating for Dan Lanning at Oregon amongst the fan base there, I'd say is an A minus," Pate said. "Here's what's going to happen in the comment section. Bunch of people are going to come in and ask, 'What does he want?'
"It's the same people every time. They're not Oregon fans, though. They're not. Dan Lanning's crime is he has failed to clear the highest hurdles that this sport has to offer. A couple of high hurdles he hasn't cleared. Everything else he's cleared.”
It's an important step to clear for Oregon, who is spending money like crazy in a bid to try and win the national championship.
Pate thinks the upcoming season is Lanning's best shot to win a title.
“Maybe it'll be this year," Pate said. "Because I think this is his best shot to win a title thus far at Oregon. But the criticism of Lanning almost exclusively, at least from what I've noticed, comes from outside the Oregon fan base.
"Inside the Oregon fan base, it's not that they view him as perfect, but they view him as a really, really good head coach with the ability to one day be a great head coach. That's the way I view him, by the way. So, a minus.”
It's a fair assessment by Pate. Oregon could do and has seen coaches do worse. With the resources the program gives Lanning, it's hard to see him possibly failing to be a contender in the Big Ten every year.
Still, the Ducks are waiting on Lanning to become elite. And based on the results from January, he has a long way to figure out how to strategize in big games.