This is a very unique situation.
It’s not often a first-year head coach plays his former team, a team that won the national championship, in his initial time out at his new school.
In fact, it’s likely never been done in college football in recent memory.
But that’s what faces Duck coach Dan Lanning as he prepares to have his Oregon team play his former Georgia squad on Saturday to open the 2022 college football season.
“This will be a fun event for our guys,” Lanning said Monday evening during his game-week media briefing.
“Obviously, there’s a lot of mutual respect for this team. It’s one that we have intimate knowledge of but really excited to get out there and play. I know our guys are anxious. They’ve been working really hard. You know, fall camp has been long and it’s time to go play somebody else. It’s been a lot of work and so really conscientious of what we’ve been doing there on the field with a group of guys, but also making sure that we’re game ready.”
The last time Oregon played a game, it was in the Alamo Bowl under a different coaching staff and it didn’t go so well against Oklahoma. By contrast, the last time Georgia played a game, it was defeating Alabama for the national title.
That was almost nine months ago and it seems like nine years ago. Lanning says that playing his former team will be weird, but it does come with some advantages.
“The biggest carryover is going to be I probably have a good feel for what they’re going to do defensively and how they’re going to do things,” he said.
“And on the same note, they probably have a good feel on how we’re going to do things defensively. So I think the challenge of the coach is ultimately, Kirby Smart is not gonna play a single snap on Saturday and neither is Dan Lanning. So it doesn’t really matter what I know, it matters with my players knowing what they can execute.”
GAME WEEK BRIEFING; DAN LANNING DISCUSSES FACING GEORGIA