It’s not Justin Wilcox. It’s not Chip Kelly.
Oregon went to Athens, Georgia and hired the defensive coordinator of the best defense in the country. His name is Dan Lanning.
So, who is Lanning? Let’s start with him being 35-years old, making him the youngest Oregon football coach in the program’s history.
Lanning went to Georgia in 2018 to coach linebackers and was promoted to defensive coordinator a year later. Under Lanning, the Bulldogs led the nation in rushing defense in 2019 (74.6 ypg), 2020 (72.3 ypg) and were third in 2021 (81.7).
UGA led the nation in scoring defense in 2019 (12.6 ppg) and in 2021 (9.5 ppg).
After playing linebacker for William Jewell College, Lanning has quickly risen up the coaching ranks, coaching for a season on the prep level and then at Pittsburgh as a defensive graduate assistant in 2011. Lanning then moved out west to spend two seasons at Arizona State as a defensive graduate assistant in 2012 and the on-campus recruiting coordinator in 2013.
Lanning went to Sam Houston State for a season in 2014 and made a smart move to learn under Nick Saban at Alabama in 2015.
In two seasons at Memphis (2016-17), Lanning coached linebacker and was part of a staff that led the Tigers to their third 10-win season in school history and finished in the top five in the country in turnovers gained two years in a row. On that team, Lanning coached two-time first-team All-American Athletic Conference linebacker, Genard Avery.
In his young coaching career, Lanning has been named a finalist for the Broyles Award twice, which is given to the top assistant coach in the nation. He was the DC for the No. 1 ranked defense in the nation this past year and is widely regarded as a superb recruiter, helping the Georgia Bulldogs to numerous top-10 rated classes.
Now he’s been named as the new Oregon head coach,…
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