Breathe easy, Oregon fans. Your head coach isn’t going anywhere.
Amid some tremendously loud rumors that Dan Lanning was the favorite to replace Nick Saban at Alabama after the Hall of Fame coach retired on Wednesday, Lanning posted a video on Thursday morning quickly dispelling that notion.
The clip showed Lanning getting his Ducks focused for the 2024 season and telling players they should come to Eugene if they’re worried about their coach leaving for another job. The screen then cut to Lanning triumphantly puffing on a cigar.
It was barely breakfast time on the west coast when Lanning dropped his announcement, but you can image there’ll be plenty of fans lighting victory cigars with their coach after watching this.
— Dan Lanning (@CoachDanLanning) January 11, 2024
The 37-year-old rising star will likely have another title contender in Oregon next season, but his previous ties to the SEC (Georgia defensive coordinator from 2019-21 and Alabama grad assistant in 2015) had many worried the Crimson Tide would be able to woo him back to Tuscaloosa.
That’s certainly no longer the case.
“The grass is not always greener,” Lanning said in a voiceover. “In fact, the grass is damn green in Eugene.”
Lanning is sticking around Oregon to lead his team into the Big Ten and keep the program on the national stage.
