As search for Nick Saban’s successor begins, everything Dan Lanning has said about his commitment to being Oregon’s football coach

Dan Lanning has repeatedly shot down any notion that he would leave Oregon for another job, including multiple opportunities in the SEC. His words will likely again be put to the test as Alabama begins its search for a successor to Nick Saban, who decided to retire from Alabama on Wednesday after 17 seasons.

Immediately, every potential candidate list and even the betting market lists Lanning, 37, as a leading candidate to be the next coach in Tuscaloosa.

Fiesta Bowl media day on Dec. 30 was the most recent time Lanning was asked whether he intended to make Oregon his home.

“This will be final job as far as I’m concerned,” Lanning said.

Lanning is 22-5 in two seasons as head coach for the Ducks and signed a contract extension in July that includes a $20 million buyout through the duration of his deal, which was automatically extended through January 2030 after Oregon won its tenth regular season game this season. He earned approximately $5.85 million in salary this season after earning an annualized $4.7 million through July and annualized $7 million through the end of this month, plus $583,333 in deferred compensation and $450,000 in performance bonuses, and is due $7.2 million in salary and $1 million in deferred compensation beginning Feb. 1 through January 2025.

Lanning was also asked on Dec. 30 what about Oregon suits him so well after he emphatically shot down rumors about his candidacy for the Texas A&M job earlier this season.

“Oregon gave me an opportunity that no one else gave me, to start there,” Lanning said. “They saw something in me that not necessarily anybody else saw. Beyond that, there was an opportunity at this place to do some things that I thought — I had everything in front of me as far as accomplishing the goals that I wanted to be able to accomplish.

“When you work with an administration like ours, a guy like Rob Mullens, you see the alignment within the university of the things that you want to accomplish, all of those things exist at Oregon. Innovation; college football is changing so fast and Oregon is willing to be on the cutting edge when it comes to that. For me, I don’t take that lightly and I feel like I have unfinished business here. There’s a lot that I want to accomplish here. Then, maybe more importantly than any of that, my kids, right? I have lived in eight different states. I’m tired of moving, right? You’ve got to change, like, license and all that stuff. It’s just not fun and probably even less fun for my wife. So we love Oregon. It’s been everything that we wanted. We get to coach great players, get to be around great people and this makes a lot of sense for us.”

Below are the previous instances in which Lanning addressed rumors of his candidacy elsewhere, discussed being Oregon’s head coach or referenced his time as a graduate assistant at Alabama in 2015:

Nov. 13, 2023: Regarding rumored candidacy at Texas A&M: ‘Zero chance I would be coaching somewhere else’

“We talk about outside noise a lot in our program, I guess the reality here is (No.) 1, my name and our program would never be a topic of conversation for another school if we didn’t have something here that everybody else wanted. The reason we have something here that everybody else wants, that’s because of what our players, our coaches, the support that exist here at Oregon have created. I think I’ve been really, really clear here since Day 1, everything I want exists right here. I’m not going anywhere. There’s zero chance that I would be coaching somewhere else. I’ve got unfinished business here; there’s a lot that I want to accomplish here at Oregon. My No. 1 priority is being elite here at Oregon and we have the resources, the tools — anybody that can’t understand why you would want to be here at this place does not understand exactly what exists here.

“Like what I’ve said before, with a 13-year-old, a 12-year-old and a 10-year-old, to be able to raise your family in a community like this, to be able to compete for championships and have the ability to get the resources you need. A lot of coaches hang onto these moments and they don’t do anything or don’t say anything, No. 1 because they don’t want egg on their face when they decide to do something else, No. 2 because they’re concerned about things that I’m not concerned about, like getting a better contract. I’m taken care of extremely well here at Oregon. I have the resources I need here at Oregon to be really, really successful. I’m not motivated by that. I’m motivated by winning. I’m motivated by being elite here. Our players deserve my complete focus. Our fans deserve the best product on the field. It’s outside noise — it didn’t matter before; it doesn’t matter now. I’ll continue to say it until I’m blue in the face: I’m going to be here at Oregon. That hasn’t changed. That won’t change.”

Oct. 13, 2023, Andy Staples On3: Regarding Nick Saban saying Kirby Smart beat him to hiring Lanning by two days in 2018

“It was a little after the fact. I had accepted the job and was actually driving to Georgia while Georgia was playing Oklahoma in the Rose Bowl. Ended up seeing coach Saban there because I got there for the Rose Bowl, I saw him in the national championship game, but it was after I had already accepted the job at Georgia and certainly couldn’t go back on my commitment there. I’ve got a lot of respect for coach Saban. I probably learned more in football than any other year in my career in that year working for coach and obviously was fortunate to get to go and work for Kirby and learned a ton from him.”

Oct. 5, 2023, Next Up with Adam Breneman: Regarding what he was thinking when he was offered the Oregon job, what it was about UO that he wanted to take the job, being a GA at Alabama and what he took from Saban

“You never think that your first job as a head coach could also be your last job as a head coach. For me, it’s the excitement of knowing like that this is a top 10 team. This is like the best of the best. Blessed and fortunate, I’ve been around a lot of great coaches, I’ve got to work for a lot of great coaches. For this to be my first opportunity, I’m pretty lucky to be in this set.”

“When I think of Oregon I think of innovation. I think about being on the cutting edge. College football has changed so much in the last three years, last 10 years, that I always felt like they were going to be ahead of the curve. They were always going to have a plan for what’s next, how do you adapt and I remember being a GA at Arizona State and we played against Marcus Mariota and Oregon and what that meant. My first time ever being here was when I landed here on the plane; I’d never been here. But I knew from afar that’s what Oregon was and was becoming. When you figure out the support that exists for the program, the alignment with the administration, the narrow single vision of where it’s headed, every box checked. Then maybe most important for me is I wanted to be somewhere where I was excite to raise my family. You move a bunch as a coach so getting to be somewhere you can say I can here forever, that’s what made this place check.”

“When I was a GA at Alabama I was getting $1,200 a month. I had three kids. It didn’t make a lot of sense at all and I’m just grateful that my wife never said no. … Being a graduate assistant at Alabama with that staff that we had was extremely special.”

On what he learned from Nick Saban: “The definition of consistency. At times you almost feel like you’re dealing with a robot because of how methodical he is in his approach. Doesn’t get flustered. Watching the demands that he puts on his program and how he was able top bring that every single day, when I was there I always said, ‘The sun’s going to come up tomorrow at 7 a.m. in Tuscaloosa and Nick Saban’s going to be in that office at 7:30 and he’s going to be eating the same snack in the morning and you’re going to have a staff meeting.’ But the level of consistency in his approach that you got to see every single day, and then the decision-making that he would make, getting to be a fly on that wall and watch how his process of we’ve got to fix this, how are going to make it better? I always felt like him and Kirby both, they didn’t care who you were, if you had some sort of value that you could add to the program, they wanted to know what you knew. If you were a janitor int he corner of the room and you had a blitz package that was going to be good versus this team, he wanted to see it. I always valued that. It didn’t really matter who the person was, if you could bring value to the organization he wanted to tap into it.”

On what he took from interviewing with Saban: “When I was interviewing with coach Saban I never in my wildest dreams anticipated him asking me my philosophy on punt and what I thought. I was interviewing as a GA he was asking me my philosophy on punt and what I thought the right approach was on punt. t this point they were still running the NFL style spread punt. I kind of talked a little bit about shield punt as far as having more guys. I had an answer; I don’t know if it was the answer he was looking for but I had an answer. I always appreciated interviewing with guys like Nick and Kirby and knowing that you weren’t goinh to have the answers to thee test when you go in for this. You weren’t going to pull up a PowerPoint slide and say ‘let me tell you about my family and here’s where I worked and this what I did here.’ It was no, it’s you, it’s the whiteboard, it’s the film and just go talk. Those are the interviews I always enjoyed.”

July 31, 2023, Oregon media day: Regarding the importance of his buyout to his commitment to UO and why fans should believe he won’t leave

“As a coach, all you ever really want to focus on is being in a place where you can win, and you can raise your family. Since the day I got here, it’s been no secret that I want to be here. I’m thrilled about the opportunity that was given to me to become the head coach at Oregon. It means a lot to me. I know I’ve never taken it for granted. I wake up every morning and I pinch myself. But ultimately, my love for this place and what it provides for my family and a place that they can be and have some consistency. I’ve got three kids, they’ve lived in eight states. It’s nice to be able to see them graduate from the same school. And when there is a bold vision for what’s next, when you know that there is opportunities for more things down the road, you see the commitment and alignment of our university. As a coach, you’re willing to sign up for that because you know winning, that’s a priority here. And we have what it takes to win. So we have what it takes to win and you have some consistency for your family, I think that shows how, again, back to my opening statement, how much belief there is in Oregon and what we’re about to achieve. The other part of that question is what’s coming next, there’s a lot. So sit back and watch.”

On why Oregon fans should believe he won’t leave for another job: “You got $20 million? Look I don’t mind, we talk about when you cook breakfast, the chicken, you pop out an egg, he’s committed. But the pig, he’s all in. That bacon, it takes a little bit more. Coaches so often, it’s not fair in college football in my opinion, when a university makes a commitment to a coach but a coach doesn’t make a commitment to that university. I want to be here. Believe or not believe whatever you want, I mean there’s no secret, that this is what I want. I said before the grass isn’t always greener. Like I have everything I want here snd there’s a vision for this to continue to grow. We’re able to get elite players, I think it’s no secret. As long as we can continue to recruit at a high level, develop and continue to have world-class facilities, continue to push the bar in everything that we do, everything’s here that’s necessary for us to be successful. It’s something I want to sign up for. It’s not something I shy away from.”

Nov. 8, 2022: Regarding unsubstantiated rumors of his candidacy at Auburn

“First, I will say things like this are going to come up when you have team success and when you do your job and things go the way they’re supposed to go. That’s a credit really to our team. That being said, I think there’s a little bit of a problem in society today with people looking for what’s next and where there’s an opportunity and the reality is the grass is not always greener. In fact, the grass is damn green in Eugene and I want to be here in Eugene for as long as Eugene will have me.

“This place has everything that I could possibly ever want, my family could ever want. I’ve got an 11-year-old that’s lived in eight states; the last thing I ever want to do is leave. I want to enjoy this opportunity here. It’s been a phenomenal place for us and when you talk about things that align, things that match your vision of what you’re looking for as a head coach, Oregon checks every box for me. … I think history maybe shows that this is a great place to be and not a great place to leave. I want to be here. Hopefully that’s the last time I have to really address it.”

Dec. 13, 2021, introductory press conference at Oregon: Regardingputting fans at ease about his willingness to stay at Oregon long-term

“Ultimately, I said the same thing to our player yesterday, I’m not asking for you to trust me, I’m asking for an opportunity to earn your trust. But I also say my situation is unique. If William Jewell College comes calling, I love William Jewell College but I’m staying at Oregon and I’m going to stay at Oregon as long as I can stay at Oregon and as long as Oregon will have me. This is no other for me. This is a premier job in the nation, not just this league, in the nation. It was going to take a premier job for me to leave the situation I was in. I’m thrilled to be here because I know what we can do here. There doesn’t have to be a next step for me. This job can be the final step.”

On what he’s learned while at Alabama and Georgia: “Building back on that lifelong learner approach. Whether it be Kirby Smart or Nick Saban, any of the coaches I’ve been around. The best coaches I’ve been around are willing to adept, willing to reassess. Whether it be the way we do a walk-through or what hotel we stay in before a game we’re going to quality control everything we do in this program and we’re going to make sure that we find the best approach. That’ll carryover to the weight room, that’ll carryover to the football field, that’ll carryover to the meals we feed our team. Every piece of that i think is really important and every detail matters. That’s one thing I’ve definitely taken from those places.”

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