Oregon's Dan Lanning Know Stuff Must Change for Ducks to Be Elite

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After what seemed like a very interesting start to the regular season for Oregon, I don't think history is going to look that badly back on this team. As we look now, in three of the first four games that Oregon played, it actually played three ranked opponents. 

That includes wins over USC and Boise State, and a tough road loss to Oklahoma State. However, Oklahoma State has played great football so far, meaning that it isn't crazy to say that it wasn't really that bad of a loss.

At the same time, this is an Oregon team that was expected to be among the best in America entering this year. 

Oregon had a really good chance to be a top-three team in the country, and if things went according to plan, it would have been a shoo-in to make the College Football Playoff. For now, it doesn't feel like Oregon is exactly in the greatest spot, though there's still a lot of football left to be played. 

As for how he's feeling about his team, head coach Dan Lanning doesn't really seem too content about how things have gone.

Oregon's head coach knows that his team hasn't played the type of football that it needs to, and even went as far as to say that the team isn't remotely close.

"Let's just be honest, we're not remotely close to what we need to be — we're not remotely close," Lanning said, per 247. 

"We can't spend a week talking about a game that happened last Saturday. And I get you guys didn't get to see me on Monday, but let's talk about the future here. Our team is a long ways away from being what we need to be."

Lanning isn't somebody who is going to beat around the bush about how his team is playing, which is why this upcoming game against UCLA is somewhat interesting. 

Oregon has a bye week, but will take on UCLA in what's currently a top-25 matchup. UCLA also has a bye week after coming off wins against Maryland and Purdue, so Oregon better be ready to go.

"A lot of guys traveled with their coach to the next stop. It's an extremely well-coached team. You have two coordinators who were with him before, so they've been together for a while. They have a lot of continuity from that standpoint. 

“They're running the ball as well as anybody in college football, and they create explosive plays. They've gotten good quarterback play. Defensively, they're aggressive. They attack. They've got a lot of different looks, and they certainly present some challenges."

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