It's indeed that time of year where coaching vacancies are popping up around college football and the obligatory -- but often pointless -- questions get asked to sitting head coaches about their potential interest in other jobs.
Normally, the response is a concise vague dismissal -- it's all anyone can say in that position -- but one that can soon prove to have held no weight in the first place when that coach does take another job.
Oregon coach Dan Lanning took a different approach Monday night when asked about his name being linked to other jobs (namely Texas A&M).
Lanning was emphatic, thorough and specific in his desire to put such talk to rest and affirm that his future remains in Eugene.
"We talk about outside noise a lot in our program. I guess the reality here is, one, my name and our program would never be a topic of conversation for another school if we didn't have something here that everybody else wanted. And the reason we have something here that everybody else wants is because of what our players, our coaches, the support that exists here at Oregon have created. I think I've been really, really clear here from Day 1, everything I want exists right here. I'm not going anywhere. There's 0 chance that I would be coaching somewhere else," Lanning said. "I've got unfinished here. There's a lot that I want to accomplish here at Oregon. My No. 1 priority is being elite here at Oregon, and we have the resources, the tools -- anybody that can't understand why you would want to be here at this place doesn't understand exactly what exists here, right?
"Like what I've said before, with a 13-year-old, a 12-year-old and a 10-year-old, to be able to raise your family in a community like this, to be able to compete for championships and have the ability to get the resources you need, a lot of coaches hang onto these moments and they don't do anything or they don't say anything -- one, because they don't want egg on their face when they decided to do something else; two, because they're concerned about things I'm not concerned about, like getting a better contract. I'm taken care of extremely well here at Oregon, I have the resources I need here at Oregon to be really, really successful. I'm not motivated by [those other factors] -- I'm motivated by winning, I'm motivated by being elite here. And our players deserve my complete focus, our fans deserve the best product on the field, so it's outside noise. It didn't matter before, it doesn't matter now -- I'll continue to say it until I'm blue in the face. I want to be here at Oregon. That hasn't changed. That won't change."
That should settle it then -- at least for now.
In late July, before the start of his second season with the Ducks, Lanning signed a contract extension through the 2028 season with Oregon that paid him $7 million this year and then $8 million through the end of the deal.
