Oregon coach Dan Lanning has been in the crosshairs of the media after his program’s shellacking of Deion Sanders and Colorado over the weekend. Specifically, a pregame speech from Lanning went viral as he was recorded pumping up his team by calling out Coach Prime and all the hype the Buffaloes have been getting. Lanning said that Oregon was playing for wins while Colorado was only playing for clicks.
Of course, there was some irony in those comments given that Lanning was doing it in front of the cameras and considering Oregon’s history of gaining notoriety by having 1,000 different uniform combinations and the support of Nike. Given the video Oregon shared of some of the pregame interaction and trash talk, maybe there was a reason for it all.
Nevertheless, there seemed to be a certain intensity to just how intense Lanning and Oregon were in their blowout victory. After the game, Skip Bayless and others called out the vitriol that they saw in Lanning in his attitude towards Sanders. Bayless even said, “there is a deep-rooted, venomous vengeance that is starting to manifest itself against Deion among white coaches.”
Lanning had his chance to respond on Monday and didn’t hold back in his answer to Bayless.
“I don’t know Skip at all, I’ve never had a conversation with him. I’ve watched him enough to know how often he gets it wrong so that sounds about right,” Lanning said.
Lanning defended his speech by saying that it was purely meant to motivate his team and also had some positive words for Sanders and how he’s changing college football for the better.
Maybe some of that is seen in how empowered coaches have been to go beyond coachspeak and turn college football into a true sports entertainment experience. Whether it’s Ryan Day going at Lou Holtz or Dan Lanning responding to Skip Bayless or even the Jay Norvell-Deion Sanders tiff, coaches aren’t afraid to mix it up with the media and each other so far in the 2023 season. Given some of the extra juice it’s bringing to the sport, we’re here for it.