Oregon head coach Dan Lanning met with the local media on Wednesday before he and his team pack up and head east to Atlanta to face the No. 3 Georgia Bulldogs to open the college football season.
His answers were noticeably short and succinct making sure not to give up game prep information.
Most of the physical work is over and now the Ducks look to focus their efforts on the mental aspect of the game as they inch closer to kickoff against the defending national champions.
“There’s the mental prep with the way you hydrate, but you know in first games you see more guys cramped in the other game of the year,” Lanning said.
“I think it’s really important that we take care of our bodies and we’re conscientious of what that means with the nutrition aspect … do the extra film work so that we got and we got a flight, so we can watch a little more film while we’re on that trip.”
Lanning also said that this is a pure business trip and that there won’t be any extracurricular activities, including using this game opportunity to recruit future talent.
“Normally I’d say that’s probably something that we would look to do this early in the season,” he said about checking out some of the local Friday Night Lights activities.
“That’s not our biggest concern. First time traveling for me,… I want to get everybody familiar with that process.”
Perhaps if the Ducks weren’t playing Georgia and someone that isn’t just coming off a national championship season, Lanning would take his team to see the state capital or even an Atlanta Braves baseball game (the Miami Marlins are scheduled to pitch Cy Young frontrunner Sandy Alcantara on Friday), but the Duck coach said they have a job to do.”
But even as the game looms just three days away, Lanning admits he continues to tweak the game plan here in these final few days also admitting his team can still get better in the leadup to kickoff.
“I still think there are opportunities for us to prepare and get ready and continue to improve in between now and the game, a lot of things that we can clean up,” said Lanning. ,
“And then I think it’s our job as coaches to simplify the game plan as we get closer to kickoff.”
One player the Ducks will have to prepare for physically as well as mentally is All-American tight end Brock Bowers.
Lanning said Oregon has gone away from using scout team players to simulate what Bowers can do. Instead, the Ducks have used regulars Terrance Ferguson and Moliki Matavao to mimic Bowers in practice.
“Brock has a tremendous work ethic,…he catches the ball well, and he runs like a wideout” admitted Lanning.
“You know it’s just really unique,…When you’re talking about a guy that’s over 220 pounds that moves like he moves, he probably would run as fast of a 40 as any of the wideouts that they have, which is pretty impressive.”
WEDNESDAY BRIEFING; DAN LANNING DISCUSSES MATCHUP WITH GEORGIA