Dan Lanning Reveals Why He Turned Down College Football’s Top Head Coaching Opening

Oregon Ducks head football coach Dan Lanning took over a Mario Cristobal program that already had a good foundation and turned it into a monster. The Ducks have been forcing their name into the College Football Playoff conversation ever since he arrived in Eugene.

However, there were concerns that he might have left during the offseason after Nick Saban retired from the Alabama Crimson Tide. Lanning told Fox college football analyst Joel Klatt that serving as an assistant under Saban was like earning his ‘doctorate in football’, but apparently that wasn’t enough to bring him back to Tuscaloosa.

“I think it’s more about what exists [at Oregon],” he said. “For me, it’s the first time in my career I feel like I’m somewhere I can be for a really, really, long time for and my family and I think that’s number one.”

Lanning only spent one season with Alabama before moving on to Memphis for two seasons. He spent the next four years as Kirby Smart’s defensive coordinator with the Georgia Bulldogs before taking the head coaching role at Oregon. His loyalty is another reason he says he wants to stay in Eugene.

“I can also never take for granted that Oregon took a chance on me and that means a lot to me," he said. "There’s things I want to accomplish here that I haven’t accomplished yet. I never like leaving a place where I feel like there’s something left on the table and there’s a lot left on the table here at Oregon.”

Lanning’s team is certainly capable of claiming a conference championship and securing a shot at a national championship in the expanded College Football Playoff. He narrowly missed his chance to claim a Pac-12 title, but the Ducks are among the favorites to win the Big Ten.

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