A FishDuck Primer: Prepare for Football Season–Learn about Lanning!

Charles Fischer, Mr. FishDuck Editorials

So many readers check the site on a hit-or-miss basis in the off-season, and I want to be certain you do not miss all the articles about new head coach Dan Lanning to prepare you for what to expect this next football season. The majority of these details about Coach Lanning have not been at the other Oregon fan websites, and even though I was enjoying learning in the football off-season about NBA predictions–I wanted to make certain that you were aware and had access to these informative articles.

You can click on the titles for the links to the articles, and do share them with fellow Duck fans. Let’s get ready for fall!

Lanning Laws: “That Won’t Last a Week at Oregon”
This first article answers some major questions about how Coach Lanning views discipline within the team, (different than what we’ve had before) and answers how to inspire 5-Star recruits to play their best. This “De-Recruitment” process is a new term on the West Coast, and after reading of it and Bulldog examples–it will make it that much more interesting to watch him implement it at Oregon.

Learning Lanning Laws: “Today We Create HAVOC”
This concept/metric for measuring defensive success is new for us Duck fans, and this article explains how it is crucial in how Coach Lanning builds his defenses. We receive some tremendous feedback from Georgia defenders in this article about the HAVOC RATE, and now we know how it helped vault these defenders to a very high NFL Draft position. A large building block in how Coach Lanning operates!

Dan Lanning at 2022 Spring Game.

Learning About Lanning: Georgia’s 2021 Secret to Success
This article delves into the mantras, what Georgia players would say to each other, believe in and win with. This was a big part of the culture that Lanning was a part of–how is it different from other teams? This article also digs into the “Skull Sessions” that were crucial to building team unity, and what many identify as “the” major reason for their national championship. Whew!

Coach Lanning: “Judge us by What we DO” (What was THAT About?)
We discuss some curious phrases that surfaced in Coach Lanning’s introductory press conference, and ponder the meaning of them. I think some key conclusions can be drawn about his character, and his accountability to Rob Mullens, his team and Duck fans. Do you agree after reading it?

Learning About Lanning: “This is a VERY HARD Program”
Heard about the former 5-Star Georgia players transferring out? Oregon fans will want to know just what kind of rigors the team will be under, and what to expect from Coach Lanning in Eugene. I received a ton of input from Georgia fans, and not all of it was pretty. Good to know in advance!

Will Coach Lanning Duplicate Georgia’s Leadership Program?
How do you create good leaders on your team who nurture the growth of others? Again, this is different than what I’ve heard from other programs and it makes sense to be aware of, and watch the impact of. Like a few items mentioned above–each of these components woven together creates a champion. Can Coach Lanning duplicate it at Oregon?

The players are clearly having fun again…

Lanning Love: “Football is Fun Again!”
In the end…what really matters is how the players feel about their head coach, and I was fortunate to get a report from an upperclassman who spilled the beans on his thoughts, and that of many of his teammates about Coach Lanning. This article is amusing, and will lift your spirits a bit!

Does Oregon Have a New “Saban” in Dan Lanning?”
This article is not reporting what I’ve learned from Georgia sources, but is an accumulation of “FishDuck Philosophies” of what it takes to make a great head coach. What are the major components, and how does the current and past coaches at Oregon measure up? In the case of head coach Dan Lanning, it is too early yet, but we can examine what has been done thus far, and consider extrapolating forward?

There you have it! Eight articles that will tell you a ton about what was the winning formula at Georgia, and what to look for in the coming seasons from Coach Lanning and the team. It will be fun to watch these elements explained above begin to materialize in this current Oregon team, and celebrate the emergence of what you learned from before. Discuss them in “the forum with decorum,” because we will see much of the Georgia principals applied in Eugene!

Truly a labor-of-love by yours truly, as even I like to review them and contemplate what I’ve watched surface already since I wrote those articles. So much fun because…

“Oh, how we love to ponder about Our Beloved Ducks!”

Charles Fischer   (Mr. FishDuck)
Eugene, Oregon
Top Photo by Gary Breedlove

For the Exciting 2024 Football Season….

We will be publishing between four and six articles per week during the football season, as we skip Saturdays with all the distraction of GameDay for us. Check through the week, and in particular check for Analysis articles on most Fridays.

The Our Beloved Ducks Forum (OBD) is where we we discuss the article above and many more topics, as it is so much easier in a message board format over there.  At the free OBD forum we will be posting Oregon Sports article links, the daily Press Releases from the Athletic Department and the news coming out every day.

Our 33 rules at the free OBD Forum can be summarized to this: 1) be polite and respectful, 2) do not tell anyone what to think, feel or write, and 3) no reference of any kind to politics. Easy-peasy!

OBD Forum members….we got your back.  No Trolls Allowed!