Post-White Out double-overtime, I had a choice to make: James Franklin’s post-game press conference and the inevitable explanation of an unexplainable 4-21. Or Dan Lanning’s, and hear what college football’s most dynamic coach had to say.
Forty-four years ago, I was faced with kind of the same choice, in the same stadium: On Nov. 14, 1981, Alabama had just defeated Penn State 31-16 to give Bear Bryant his historic 314th victory, breaking the then-all-time career record held by Amos Alonzo Stagg.
I went with Bear and history over Joe, and literally squeezed into Bryant’s post-game presser — held in a dingy, dirty abandoned echo-chamber of a forgotten room in the bowels of Beaver Stadium. I sat next to Dave Anderson of The New York Times, which was a thrill in and of itself for a Penn State junior aspiring of a career in sports journalism. Despite Bear’s gravelly mumblings, I knew I was witnessing something special.
(I had already gone to Burnham, where Alabama was headquartered, a few days prior for Bryant’s rare presser in advance of the contest. I recall running into Bear and his state trooper outside what was then the Holiday Inn, and Bear telling his security guy he needed to find a place to pee.)
So, on Saturday night, I chose the 39-year-old Lanning. And did not regret it. His post-game presser was held in a tiny tent jammed with about 18 media types. It was incredibly and jarringly loud with rowdy fans just a few feet away, and much more embarrassingly JV than the post-game set-up about which James Franklin complained — ironically enough — after the Nittany Lions lost to Oregon in the Big Ten title game at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. Forty-four years after the Bryant presser, the Beaver Stadium 2025 post-game interview set-up was four times worse.
It was the right decision.
I was the only Penn State beat reporter out of dozens to opt for Oregon, though State College-based AP stringer Travis Jonson went the Lanning route as well. In his 10-minute, 28-second post-game press conference, Lanning — now 40-6 (.869) in his four seasons at Oregon — not only broke down the win, he subtly (and unintentionally) pointed out the differences between the two programs. And yes, I get there is a big difference in that Oregon’s payroll is higher, with more NIL money. Still, Lanning’s presser was a master class in messaging. Watch it in its entirety here.
NO DUCKING IT
For this week’s Top 10, here is how the Ducks were — and are — different, as I heard directly from Dan The Ducking Man after Oregon’s 30-24 double-overtime win over Penn State in Beaver Stadium on Saturday night. In the spirit of the epic contest, I’m giving you two overtimes. (For more coverage, don’t forget to follow me on X/Twitter and, new this season, on Instagram. BTW, starting on Wednesday I’ll be in LA for next Saturday’s Penn State-UCLA game in the Rose Bowl.)
1. They won The Big Game.
2. They came to win and didn’t play it safe. Lanning: “We were coming here to be aggressive…We were really clear before the game that regardless of the result, all of our goals are in front of us. Regardless of what happens, we’re coming here to win and we’re coming here to be aggressive.”
3. They had messaging that worked. Lanning: “We said the White Out was really going to be a white canvas for us today, and was going to be an opportunity to paint our masterpiece. And those guys did it.”
4. They didn’t duck the non-conference schedule. Oregon entered Saturday’s game with a 4-0 record, including no bye weeks and an ultra-aggressive, take-this thumping of Power 4 opponent Oklahoma State and its dearly-departed coach Mike Gundy, and a 2,138-mile road trip to Chicago to play Northwestern, a legit conference foe.
5. They handled the journey. Oregon traveled 2,695 miles from Eugene to Beaver Stadium, including a quick 94-mile roundtrip to the Blair County Convention Center.
6. They game-planned well, despite playing last Saturday. Lanning: “Unbelievable effort by our players, our coaches. Our coaches had a great game plan going into this game.”
7. They definitely had the best quarterback on the field. And maybe in all of college football. Oregon QB Dante Moore was 29 of 39 for 248 yards, with three TDs, rushed for 35 yards, and enviably had zero turnovers and sacks. In that atmosphere. Lanning: “I think we got the best quarterback in college football. I mean, anybody who watches that game…maybe I don’t see everybody else, but that guy’s composure, his poise…”
7a. Their quarterback adjusted on the fly. Lanning: “I mean even the big play at the end of overtime. We’re about to throw a screen and Dante has the wherewithal to not throw it to the boundary and get it thrown back to the field and get a fourth-and-1. Ended up getting the fourth-and-1. That’s just one example in that game of the poise and the command he had of our offense…I remember one time I came up to him and said, ‘Hey, if we go to a fourth down here, this is what I’m thinking. And he said, ‘Let’s just get the third down.’”
8. They were consistent from whistle to whistle. Lanning: “Our players played their asses off from whistle to whistle, and that showed up.”
9. They handled the big moments and the White Out. Lanning: “They handled the environment, and it ended up not being a factor.”
• “The crowd is probably worth seven points. And they really weren’t tonight. I didn’t feel that. The only time we got beat is when we beat ourselves.”
• “I think our players handled the crowd. The crowd didn’t make a single play, right?”
9a. They handled the pressure of overtime. Lanning: “We talked all week about getting a cut. Death by a thousand cuts. We just had to get another cut. Eventually, that cut was going to be to the jugular and that interception [in overtime by Dillon Thieneman] was to the jugular.”
10. They went two better on fourth downs, at 5 of 7 vs. Penn State’s 3 of 3. Per Oregonlive.com, it was the most fourth-down conversions in a game for Oregon over the past 10 years and the most allowed by a Big Ten team since Northwestern also went 5 of 7 against Illinois in 2020. Lanning: “We’re coming here to be aggressive…We went through the Rolodex today. We had 5 of 7 fourth downs. We were going to be aggressive in this game. They were 3 for 3 on fourth down. Those extra two for us mattered in a big way in this game. We didn’t just go to our normal bag; we stepped outside of the box and went to some stuff that we hadn’t run this season and it ended up being winners for us…Every one of those fourth downs mattered.”
OT. They adjusted on defense, down to the very last play, and won the chess match. Lanning: “We were really struggling with their speed motion sweep series. We thought they were going to run what we call a score route off of that. So, we wanted to have a good answer for the speed sweep and a good answer for the score route, if we got it. They ended up throwing the score route and we intercepted it. Penn State came out in 12 personnel and we went nickel, which we really hadn’t done all game. And our guys executed really, really well. Unbelievable job by our defensive coaches game-planning it.”
2OT. They had immense respect for Penn State. Lanning: “I think that was the best game I’ve ever been part of. Regardless of who won that game, an unbelievable amount of back and forth. Penn State is a damn good football team…We’ll see them again.”
White Out Bonus: Best moment, for me, of the entire White Out weekend experience was running into Kirk Herbstreit and his faithful companion Peter during my morning walk around campus Friday with my pal Sam Brungo. Herbie could not have been nicer — not just to Sam and me, but with a college student who wanted a pic of Kirk and Peter, and he encouraged her to be in the shot, too. Class.
