For the third week in a row, questions – and concerns – about the Oregon Ducks’ quarterback position stole the spotlight during Dan Lanning’s Monday press conference.
Without starting quarterback Dante Moore still recovering from a concussion sustained against the USC Trojans on Sept. 26, Lanning again fielded questions about whether he’s cleared concussion protocol.
“I'm not able to tell you that,” Lanning responded.
Meanwhile, Lanning spoke in depth about Brock Thomas vs. Dylan Raiola entering a Big Ten road game against the Illinois Fighting Illini. He discussed the decision to bench Thomas in favor of Raiola in the fourth quarter against the Nebraska Cornhuskers.
“Why didn't you switch him right then? If we switched every time somebody made a mistake, we'd have a lot of switches within ball games. That's just not the way it works,” Lanning said. “Players have to have an opportunity to get in a rhythm. Brock wasn't in a rhythm. We weren't effectively moving the ball. But it was a tight game, right?”
"But Dylan came and gave us a spark. He played with great confidence and did an unbelievable job. But there will always be competition,” he added.
Lanning opened his presser by addressing a situation that didn’t meet the team’s standard. That came amid receiver Evan Stewart’s reported DUII charge, although he notably didn’t mention Stewart by name.
The coach also broke down how injuries change the upcoming matchup against Illinois, the quarterback battle between Thomas and Raiola, as well as how true freshman offensive lineman Tommy Tofi played against Nebraska.
Everything Dan Lanning Said Ahead of Illinois
Opening Statement:
“There was a incident this weekend that didn't match our standard here in our program. There will be appropriate action taken. Still gathering some details with what the situation looks like, but that'll be handled internally.”
“I'm not going to respond to any other questions about that. Going to handle that with our guys. There's an expectation of what you have to, how you have to act, and how you need to perform. And our program kind of overshadows the success that we had on Saturday, which is disappointing. But that will be handled by us internally, and it's not something I'm going to speak on publicly.”
“Right, going back after reviewing the game, obviously it's tough to win. I said that postgame in college football, especially when you're playing a good defense, and Nebraska is outstanding. They held Indiana obviously to six points through three quarters. It's a tough.”
“It's a tough team to go get touchdowns against, and we saw that for us. That being said, just like I said after the game, there's a lot that we can get better at, and some that's based on what we need to be able to do with our personnel and how we can improve there.”
“I did think after watching our defense played extremely well, but there's some warts that we can clean up there as well, especially on third down penalty right before half. Special teams same things.”
“There were some really good moments with the field goals, but there's also some poor decision making and poor execution at times in some of our receiving units in that, so going forward, you look ahead at Illinois, and what do you notice immediately? It's a really well-coached team.”
“Coach Bielema always does a phenomenal job. They've obviously had this previous week to really prepare for us, get healthy. So, I know they've been looking at us for a little bit, and you feel like you're behind a little bit when you start looking at a team like Illinois and the skill set that they have.”
“They've dealt with a lot of injuries this season, but they've done a good job of taking advantage of the personnel they do have and creating explosive plays. You immediately recognize what they're able to do on offense.”
“They have some playmakers and some weapons, and they do as good a job as anybody in football as far as getting their guys the ball and taking advantage of those weapons. What they do on defense is extremely unique.”
“You don't see a ton of teams playing the three-three stack the way that they play it, so it creates some different guys to identify in the back end, a lot of different pressure variables, and really kind of hard to get a bead on what they're doing at times.”
“So, something we have to be really sound against, find effective answers, and then obviously you know play well to have success in this game. So that being said, definitely, definitely excited to go get on the field again, and anxious for the body of work that's ahead of us this week.”
Message to the Community With a Reported DUII Occurring Twice in Seven Months:
“Yeah, man, I'm not discussing that any further. Like I mentioned already, to think that there isn't things that happen in our program to prevent it would be wrong, right? There are, but that doesn't mean that bad things don't happen. But I'm not answering any questions into that.”
Decision to Not Stay With Quarterback Brock Thomas in the Fourth:
“There's always competition in positions, right? There's always competitions in positions. Obviously, it's funny; the week before, you guys were wondering why did I take so long to switch to Dylan, right? And this week it was: Why did you take so long, or switch to Brock?”
“And this week it was why did you wait so long to switch to Dylan, right? There's a body of work that happens between Monday and Friday that is used to evaluate that. Brock the week before went 11-for-15, and you can say, oh, the first series, he threw two incomplete passes.”
“Why didn't you switch him right then? If we switched every time somebody made a mistake, right? We'd have a lot of switches within ball games. That's just not the way it works. Players have to have an opportunity to get in a rhythm. Brock wasn't in a rhythm. We weren't effectively moving the ball. But it was a tight game, right?”
“And we felt like ultimately protecting the ball was going to lead to an opportunity to have success. He had protected the ball better in the week, similar to what I said in my previous conference here Saturday after the game.”
“But Dylan came and gave us a spark. He played with great confidence and did an unbelievable job. But there will always be competition, right? And it's again, it's always about the body of work. But the way things finished there, Dylan played well. He did some things really well, you know. So, I think the hot hand, kind of like it played into Brock's ability to be the guy that could certainly play into this week as well”
Whether Risk of Turnovers With Dylan Raiola Outweighed Brock Thomas’ Struggles:
“It was the same guy again that went 11-for-15 the week before, right? So, did I think every turnover matter drastically in this game? Absolutely. And was I assuming that Dylan was going to turn the ball over? No, right. That wasn't the assumption.”
“But you look at the – I mean, there's only been three touchdowns scored against that defense the last two weeks, right? I think we'd also-I don't know the questions that other programs are getting about it, but through three quarters, like I said, Indiana had six points, right? They rushed for 54 yards, I think, in that game.”
“They've been averaging 250. It's a hard team to run the ball against. They're an extremely good defense, so that's not just an indicator of success, right? And with your defense playing well, protecting the ball is super important.”
“We made the change because we thought it gave us our best chance to have success and win. So, I don't know what else to say other than that's when we felt comfortable. Let's make the change. It was getting more evident that we need to be able to throw the ball down the field, right, to have some success.”
“And the reality is, they probably played Dylan a little bit different when he came in the game, and it opened up some run lanes for us as well. So, they're a really good defense. That all said, I think I've said it multiple times. We need to be better on offense and create some more success. I want to ask about the timeout usage in the second quarter.”
Taking the Timeout on Third-and-22:
“Everything weighs into it, but like a field goal could have won that game at that point, right? And we've been really good in two-minute situations this season. I think over the last 10 years, third-and-22, it's probably an average of six percent success rate, right? Meaning that they actually convert on third-and-22.”
“The one area we didn't play great defense, right, on Saturday night was third-and-long, right? I think if you look at their success. We were really good on third down.”
“We weren't good on third-and-long, and we have a coverage that is supposed to be covered, and it wasn't. But no, I absolutely don't regret that decision with a minute and 12 seconds.”
“When a field goal matters, your kicker's been 100 percent on the year. Like, to give him an opportunity for a long field goal at the end of half is something I would do 100 percent of the time. You know, and again, there's probably three calls in that game that I would say are really interesting.”
“If it's called differently on the field, is it reversed the other way? I mean, I've watched that touchdown several times. I don't know that gets called a touchdown, right? You've watched Jordon's fumble, which we got to be better with ball security in the red area. I don't know if that gets called a fumble.”
“If it's called the other way initially, there's one where we get the ball out at one point, and it wasn't. It was blown dead. Does that look different? But at any point, the sweet spot in two minutes is really a minute and 20 seconds to two minutes, right?”
“So, with us being able to get if we get a stop on an incomplete pass there, we're gonna have a minute and seven seconds to get 30 yards to have an opportunity to potentially kick a field goal. So, 100 percent of the time, I'm gonna definitely take a timeout there. I mean, analytics would tell you any third and eight plus, you're definitely taking a timeout, right? And that was third-and-22, right? So that's a no-brainer for us.”
“You can't, again, live in, oh well, it didn't work, so that's a bad decision. Like, I'll do that every day of the week. And then again, if they had a successful third-down play, then you don't call a timeout. They didn't have theirs. We had ours. We still had two, right? Which is really a minute 10. It's like an eternity, right? With two timeouts, right in the game.”
Rumors on Players Involved in a Separate Speeding Incident:
“I was talking about the same thing whenever we I first addressed it. No, I'm saying there's an incident that we're taking appropriate action on, and I'm not going to have any further comment on that.”
Offensive Lineman Tommy Tofi’s Performance vs. Nebraska:
“I mean, he's big. He can move bodies, right? There's some real positive in some of those moments. What he was able to create at times in the run game, being able to get some movement on some guys up front. There's also some misses that he has.”
“That going to come with more time and more experience. What you have to weigh in our situation with a young player like Tommy, that he's going to be really, really good. Is there's going to be mistakes that happen within there as well, especially with the variety of defenses you can get.”
“So there were some positives, and there were some things that weren't good enough. And he knows that, but if he continues to get more reps, more time, I think he's going to be able be a really, really good player for us.”
“And again, I think I said it last week. Like, there's competition. There's a lot of competition right now in our offensive line, and not a lot of separators right now of like this guy's distinctly better. They kind of all have different skill sets that they're good at. So, Tommy's going to be a guy that's right in the mix of that.”
Challenge That Illinois’ Passing Attack Presents:
“Yeah, it's tough. I mean, again, they do an unbelievable job of scheming guys open, right? And even if a guy's not necessarily open, what they do a great job of is creating touches. I think their screen game is really effective as well as their shot game down the field, and those guys are dynamic players.”
“I know they're, obviously, they find ways to make sure that the players that need to touch the ball are touching the ball in their system. So, we have to be aware of where they're at all times. They have good speed. They're complete wideouts. They're not guys that can kind of do one thing. They can run good intermediate routes. They can take the top off. They're positive and in the screen game as well.”
Effectiveness of the Run Game in the Fourth Quarter:
“Yeah, there's a couple tells that I thought we had that affected us in a negative light. And again, it's something you just have to continue to evaluate every single week, as far as they were able to take advantage of things that we've seen in our stances that guys fell back to, and they were able to use for their ability to close on runs, things like that.”
“And then also we were able to find they had an empty check throughout the game, so if you notice, we'll start an empty at times, and then we're able to recreate some runs and take advantage of that in the second half. Also, I thought they started to play for pass a little bit more.”
“Like I said, when Dylan came in the game, and that created their weak safety did a really good job fitting runs for them internally, and we just didn't get as much movement up front on some of our double teams. So, we came to some schemes that were going to give us better movement.”
Defensive Coordinator Chris Hampton’s Changes Since Oklahoma State:
“Yeah, I think the entire defensive staff has done a really good job and I think that's credit to continuous improvement and the opportunity to keep working and finding things even after that game, they're going to be the most critical of themselves.”
“They're receiving a lot of praise, I'm sure, right now, deservedly, for playing well. But we're thinking about the penalty that we got on the third down before the timeout that Zach didn't think I should call, right? In that situation, we're off the field.”
“We get the ball back even earlier, right? We're thinking about the third-and-22, or the third-and-17, or the third-and-10 scramble pass that we can improve in. We're thinking about playing with a little bit better technique on a deep shot.”
“So, I think the key is never get infatuated with praise, right? There's growth in there somewhere, and that's what the defense is focused on is continue to grow, and hopefully don't spend any time reading your press clippings because we can play better than we did.”
Handling Calls That Don’t Go They’re Way:
“It's gonna go both ways, right? So, like, ultimately with Jordon's fumble, if you blow that dead and say it's down, then you can't get frustrated when the other play gets blown dead and isn't ruled a fumble, right? When you felt like it was, so it definitely goes both directions. You can't have your cake and eat it too. It just felt like a lot of those went the wrong way for us on Saturday.”
If It’s the Point In the Season Where the True Freshmen Are Getting Their Feet Under Them:
“Yeah, I mean, there's no timeline for any players, but it's awesome that when you can have young players that are able to contribute and make an impact on your program. And we've had some guys that are able to show up.”
“Sometimes that happens earlier for some, and sometimes that happens a little bit later. Sometimes that happens the next year, which is harder and harder to get that to happen in college football. But it's great to be able to have young guys that are able to contribute.”
“I think we went through it in our staff. We have 83 percent of our snaps right now this season have come from guys that started here as high school players, right, and are playing football for us, which is huge is a great example of there's development over time here, where guys can go make an impact.”
Experience Managing Travel in the Big Ten in Year Three:
“Yeah, I mean we've had a ton of success on the road, right, in the Big Ten, and I think every time we travel, we still tweak little things, right?”
“But rest, recovery is really important. What you're putting in your body is really important. Ultimately, traveling time zones. I think you just have to have, hey, this is kind of our mantra, and this is how we do it, right?”
“And we kind of have our system based on how many time zones you're traveling. When's the game going to be played? What that looks like. So, we've kind of stuck to kind of our guns on some of those looks and been able to do well so far in our travel in the Big Ten.”
Where He’s Seen Progress Between UCLA and Nebraska:
“Yeah, I think as much as you won't be able to see it, the process itself of developing what we're going to do, I think improved. I think the communication was distinctly different and improved.”
“Ultimately, the execution has to be better, and then I think, as in general, we have to be a team that does a better job of playing without the ball. You have to. We have to do a better job on the perimeter, right, and blocking. There's some opportunities that are missed, and then just taking advantage when you have the opportunity to get the ball down the field. We got to take advantage of those opportunities as well.”
Experience Dealing With Injuries in 2025:
“Yeah, it's beneficial. It's been beneficial for us too because it's looked different for the guys that we've had out there, and we've talked about it before, where if we need to be an 11-personnel team, we'll be an 11-personnel team.”
“If we need to be a 12 team, we'll be a 12 team, a 21 team, so we can change, we can adapt, right? Where that can become more of a challenge is as coaches. All right, we call it this formation when we want this guy here.”
“We call it this formation we want this guy here, and then how much parity and how do you practice that well based on what happens within the sequence of a game or an injury might happen, right? We've had injuries in pregame this year, where that totally kind of changes what you prepared for and how you plan it.”
“So, you got to make sure that guys have enough reps at certain positions, and it's that balance of carrying volume that has answers, right? Versus what can you execute at a really high level well.”
“There was a couple plays that were huge for us in the Nebraska game that we practiced three or four times in practice, and then they ended up being game-changing plays for us within the game where we were able to have some success. So that's always tough, but I think you try to stick to kind of some of your camp rules and some of your day one rules of what successful plays look like, and make sure that you carry those.”
Scouting a Backup Quarterback With Little Game Play:
“Yeah, it's harder with how the body of work that you can actually evaluate. You watch high school film, right? You get an idea of, again, I don't think very rarely there might be wrinkles, but very rarely do people change like the identity of their offense based on a change in a position.”
“So, you prepare, and then you make sure you have answers for what you think that skill set is, and you kind of plug, pull and figure out what fits based on the scheme. All of a sudden, when they run six-man protection, right, the six-man protection is still going to be different. The question is, how do you control the guy that's back there?”
“When you when you're attacking certain runs, the point of attack of the run doesn't change. Unless maybe the quarterback's carrying it. That changes things. So, there's some things you prepare for slightly different. You try to evaluate the player and what's his best skill set, but you have to really go a little bit more off the system than the player.”
Where He’s Grown the Most:
“Yeah, I mean, I think it's hard to pick one area for me, and I hope I continue to grow because I'm still not, I hope not, the best version of myself. But I think a lot of pieces. Again, we talk about analytics.”
“And there's things that it says you should do or shouldn't do, right? That that's there's been a different philosophy for us this year based on results and our success rate and what we're able to do. You talk about personnel and how do you utilize personnel in different ways.”
“I think that's better. I think communication style, with whether it be coaches, players. I think that's an area where I've grown. And then just recognizing there's truths, and then there's reality, and then there's things that just aren't reality. Being able to figure out what's what and what actually gives you solutions to answers, I think, is something that I'm better at.”
Whether His Demeanor Has Changed Since UCLA:
“I don't know. I mean, you guys probably pay attention to that a lot more than me. I'm trying my best to give thoughtful answers to you guys because you guys ask questions, and I realize not every coach does that, right? And yeah, I don't know. I guess I'm just trying to give you the truth. Does that work? Yeah. So, if you were around me all day, you might not feel like that, but appreciate it.”
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