Dan Lanning takes clear shot at USC: ‘I haven’t seen a game packed yet’
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At the beginning of the college football season, the USC Trojans were the source of some rather unsavory headlines after the team failed to fill its stadium for its season-opening showdown against San Jose State. Now, after a dominant win over the Trojans in Los Angeles, Oregon coach Dan Lanning took a pretty clear shot at the USC program.
In the aftermath of the 41-27 win, Lanning claimed that this was the first time he’s seen USC’s stadium full all year and said that you should only go to USC if you “want to go to a Chris Brown concert” over winning football games.
‘It was packed tonight’
USC does typically struggle to fill its stadium on an average Saturday, but that was not the case on Saturday night.
The average attendance for the first four home games of the season in Los Angeles was 51,806. The crowd on Saturday night totaled 75,500. Lanning was quick to take credit for giving the Coliseum an attendance boost.
“I’ve watched three of their TV games,” he said, via Jordan Mendoza of USA Today. “I haven’t seen a game packed yet, but we were here, it was packed tonight. So I guess when the Ducks show up, that’s how you fill up the Coliseum.”
Lanning then had an even more pointed shot at USC as he sent a message to any recruit considering both schools.
“Three wins against these guys,” he said, via Max Torres of Scoop Duck. “I guess if you’re interested in winning football games, you’re from this area, you should go to Oregon. You want to go to a Chris Brown concert, you should go here.”
Lanning Not Happy at ‘Disgusting’ Hit
The biggest storyline of Saturday night’s game was the injury to Oregon quarterback Dante Moore, who was knocked out of the game by an illegal hit from USC linebacker Desman Stephens, who was seen celebrating the play even as Moore was unconscious and being attended to by the medical staff.
Lanning did not see Stephens’ celebration in the moment, but he wasn’t happy about that or the hit.
“You know, I didn’t see any of that. If that’s the way somebody else was operating, it’s really disappointing,” Lanning said after the game via Bri Amaranthus. “In that moment, for me, I challenge myself to focus on the moment and what I can control. Their team has absolutely nothing to do with what I have to do, or we have to do. We try to have a singular focus.”
Lanning went on to express his displeasure that a player would celebrate a hit that caused serious injury like that and made it clear that he would not expect his players to do that in that situation.
“Our guys respect the game. I don’t think you’d ever see that from our players. I don’t think you’d ever see that from our coaches,” Lanning said. “I don’t think that’s necessarily an indictment on Coach Riley, because I can’t speak on what I didn’t see. He was quick to voice his concern for our player. So I appreciate that from him.”
That said, he did not mince words when discussing the play itself.
“It’s a disgusting play,” Lanning said bluntly. “You don’t want to see it happen. It’s disappointing that it happened. I’m praying our player’s healthy, and I’m praying their player can learn from that situation, because that’s not a moment you want to be a part of.”
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