Fear (of Dan Lanning) and Loathing in Las Vegas
1-on-1 with the Oregon coach at Big Ten Media Days.
LAS VEGAS — I didn’t need Matayo Uiagalelei to warn me, but it did help to know I wasn’t alone.
I had just finished up with Oregon’s junior in Mandalay Bay’s South Convention Center when I asked the edge-rusher for a little advice.
Hey, I got Coach after this for 15 minutes. He’s already done three interviews today. What can I ask him that’ll actually get him talking?
Uiagalelei laughed. Then, for the first time in my sports writing career, I sensed a semblance of empathy coming from the athlete across the table.
“We had to fill out some form before we got here and it asked us what our fears are,” Uiagalelei said. “I put tarantulas down. I also put Dan Lanning.”
My eyes widened.
I knew why Lanning gave me the nerves. But this was the first time I’ve heard the same from a 6-foot-5, 270-pound one-man wrecking crew who returns in 2025 as the Big Ten’s top-returning sack artist.
Why?
“OK, I wouldn’t say I’m scared of him,” Uiagalelei backtracked. “It’s just, like, a respect. A fear.”
Say less, Matayo. I follow.
This is my fourth year covering Oregon’s head coach. In those prior three years, I’ve found Lanning to be plenty of the things the public sees. Lanning is cerebral. He plans ahead, thinks a lot about messaging, knows how the internet works and is by and large a players’ coach. Yes, he’ll jump in a pool for a kid’s commitment video — but he’s also a guy, Uiagalelei said, that doesn’t differentiate just for the content.
“He’s never too good for you, or too high,” Uiagalelei said. “You can say ‘Hi.’ You can ask him questions and he’ll give you his attention.”
This was a little of the reassurance I needed.
To be clear: I rarely get nervous for interviews these days. I’m in Year 14 of my career and, not to brag — but definitely to brag — I’ve caught a few bigger fish. I’ve interviewed Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. I’ve interviewed Marcus Mariota and Justin Herbert. Heck, I got through a 20-minute call with the rapper Big Boi back in 2020 not only without embarrassing myself, but I managed to essentially get a “hell yeah, brother,” when I brought up the fact that he once ran routes in a 2005 music video for the song Kryptonite.
But Lanning is a tough cookie to crack. With the current state of Oregon’s football operation, the 39-year-old doesn’t need the media to get his message out there. His own cameras can catch the pre-game speeches and the smashing of helmets at halftime, then combine them into post-game recap videos that have literally won an Emmy.
Lanning doesn’t make headlines when he doesn’t want to. He doesn’t offer up things by accident and there’s little chance that he woke up on Wednesday morning in Las Vegas without knowing:
1. What most people were going to ask him.
2. How he would respond.
Lanning would definitely be asked about the Rose Bowl. He’d be asked about being a leader in the transfer portal, the changing NIL landscape, replacing one of the most experienced players in the sport at quarterback and how he plans on climbing back up the mountain after finishing last season just short of the summit.
I was wondering how I could come at this differently when I arrived for media day on Wednesday, then I saw Lanning at 8:45 a.m., already in his first 1-on-1 of the day and realized I had little chance to be different.
Well, I figured, let’s begin off the field.
How’s the golf game?
“Hasn’t improved.”
Any thoughts on Ozzy?
“Not really.”
What are you reading?
“I’m not on a book. I’ve been asked that three times already.”
It was 9:45 a.m.
At that point, I figured I might as well be honest.
Well, you’re a tough interview, Dan…
A smile grew on his face.
If I ask you direct football questions, you’re not going to answer them…
“Right.”
If I ask you all goofy off-the-field things, you’re going to think I didn’t come prepared…
“Yeah.”
There’s a fine line in interviewing you where you have to thread the needle between the two.
“Well, how about this,” he said. “I saw the F1 movie.”
An olive branch! Common ground!
I saw that. What did you think?
“Brad Pitt is Brad Pitt,” Lanning said.
He really is.
And, Lanning is Lanning.
And, well, I’m Alger, and Alger finally realized that he had 15 minutes in this interview, could ask Lanning whatever he wanted — whether he opened up or not — and it best be taken advantage of.
I asked Lanning what’s the proudest thing he’s been able to share with his parents since taking the Oregon job and he told me about how much he values getting to show them new things and places now that they’re retired.
I asked him if he ever has to think about Bryce Boettcher’s baseball career when the senior linebacker is out there throwing his pads around and Lanning told me “Bryce is well aware of the risks involved" and that “there are some great opportunities for him in football, too.”
I asked him what’s the best play he’s ever called, and he tells me about a game against Tennessee when he was the defensive coordinator at Georgia.
“Called Siamese — it’s like a double-cat pressure — and Eric Stokes sacks the quarterback and it turns into a fumble, and Tae Crowder picks it up and runs it back for a touchdown.”
It was minute No. 9 of the interview, and then Lanning offered something up.
“I was actually having this discussion with a good friend this summer,” Lanning said. “But it was the opposite. ‘Let’s talk about the worst calls.’”
My eyes widened again. His smile returned.
“I won’t hop too much into that.”
Didn’t think he would.
Our interview ended at 9:58 a.m., we shook hands and I don’t think I heard a sound from Lanning when I joked, “Got you out of here two minutes early.” His mind was already onto the next thing, which included a 15-minute speech/QA to the national media in the room as I popped my earphones in and out while transcribing our conversation.
A Lanning transcription can be humbling for one’s ego, but so can a press conference — as I was combing through good, useable stuff that Lanning gave me for stories on Boettcher, Kenyon Sadiq and Uiagalelei, the coach fielded his first question from the presser.
There's a school in this conference that's suing over player tampering. Do you think that's something that needs to be cracked down even more on in college football?
“Yes.”
Anything else?
“No…”
— Tyson Alger, The I-5 Corridor
Excellent! Also, I love your ability to show their humanity and personalities. Thank you for that.
Welp. Dan Lanning is Dan Lanning - and we (mostly) like that. And for what its worth, those media days are long, man. If I had been doing interviews from early in the morning until late at night I might be a little cranky myself.