Dan Lanning

Obviously, it's not like Dan woke up Saturday morning and suddenly sucked at coaching college football.

So far in Dan's career, he's had quite the storied coaching success, progression, and history ---- which includes having coached on 2 national championship teams.

He then stepped into his first HC role at Oregon and into a program that, by all accounts, was primed and ready for him -- I mean specifically for Lanning. And right now he is sitting on an Oregon winning record of 84% -- which I'm pretty sure gives him the #2 winning percentage record at Oregon for coaches with 3+ seasons.

And the good news is that although we've embarrassingly had the crap kicked out of us over the past few years in some massively huge games, Lanning is only 40.

Meaning, not only is he still learning, but I'm quite confident that he wants to continue learning (especially regarding when not to go for it on 4th down). I'm hopeful our coach is able to put his ego aside a tad bit and be coached himself.

Nearly 100% of great leaders have a coach/mentor (Mr. Saban, any chance you could swing by Eugene for a little while?). One of the absolute most important things I'm looking for in any person I'm considering hiring, regardless of how accomplished they may be, is are they coachable. If I don't believe they coachable, the discussion is over.

I'm not sure there has ever been a college football coach who has been provided more incredible talent, resources, and effectively the keys to a Hummer that has the equivalent of a 1587+ horsepower Bugatti Chiron Super Sport 300 engine under the hood.

And now that Dan Lanning is standing very close to the fire, the guy has an absolutely incredible golden opportunity to discover what kind of football coach he really is.

Fire is an incredible refiner of gold. "Pressure and hardship do not define a man's worth; it reveals it. Fire, at the right temperature, burns away what is false, tests what is true, and leaves behind something much stronger and more valuable."

However, the irony is, if the heat is too hot, gold turns into vapor and the precious resource is destroyed. We walk such a fine line.

Great leaders thrive under heat and pressure. Many live for it. Now is the time, with all eyes on him, that we get to see the football stuff that Coach Lanning is truly made of.

I’m not much of a betting man, but if I were, I’d put good money on Coach Lanning.