Oregon Ducks football coach Dan Lanning had a plan heading into Saturday’s game against the Michigan Wolverines.
As the undefeated Ducks prepared to face off against the defending national champions earlier in the week, Lanning told his players about something he wanted to do when they played in Ann Arbor at Michigan Stadium.
In a “Ducks vs. Them” recap video of the victory, fans saw Lanning call a timeout in the fourth quarter so that he could remind them about this idea.
This is an absolutely incredible clip, I’ve watched it 20 times. You could tell in the stadium something was different when they brought everyone up for the huddle.
Pate state material @JoshPateCFB? pic.twitter.com/cas5BWTa7Q
— Travis Rooke-Ley (@travisrookeley) November 6, 2024
In that video, Lanning is seen telling his players that he told them about “this moment” on Monday. Then, it cut directly to some behind-the-scene footage of a team meeting a few days prior.
During this session, Lanning showed a video of legendary former Duke men’s basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski discussing road victories and what it feels like to watch home fans silenced and leaving early.
Krzyzewski discussed how he would call timeouts to have his players just look into the stands and watch them go home because those are the moments that the student athletes will always remember. Here is more from Lanning:
“I already told you in the beginning of the week. I’m going to remind you at some point in this game. I’m going to tell you to look up at the stands at some point in this game. And you’re going to start to see them empty out. We’ve made the decision before we even stepped on the field.”
When the recap flashed back to the actual game, you could see players wondering where the Michigan fans went. It clearly inspired the roster and everyone seemed excited
This was such a cool idea perfectly executed by the Oregon coach, who currently leads a team ranked No. 1 in the nation.
