Dan Lanning left Ohio Stadium on Saturday night with a 41-28 win, a 38-point run that wiped out a 14-0 deficit, and a few words for the coach on the other sideline. The Oregon Ducks had just beaten the Ohio State Buckeyes in Columbus, and one of the first subjects Lanning took up in his postgame news conference, in a clip Big Ten Network posted afterward, was Ryan Day.
Dante Moore’s season-ending concussion at USC forced Oregon to rebuild its offense around Dylan Raiola, and the Ducks lost two of their next three games, the second of them to the Illinois Fighting Illini on Oct. 24. Back-to-back wins over ranked teams followed, and Saturday’s was the loudest.
Aug 30, 2025; Eugene, Oregon, USA; Oregon Ducks head coach Dan Lanning runs out to the field before a game against the Montana State Bobcats at Autzen Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Troy Wayrynen-Imagn Images
“Coach Day is an outstanding coach… That was me, that was me two weeks ago, like you guys felt that in our building, and it’s hard, really, to overcome… You just try harder and harder to fix things and you can’t fix everything… I know it’s hard when you change what you think you’re going to be throughout the year, and somebody gets injured. It takes a while to kind of figure that out, and in college football, you just don’t have time. We went through some growing pains ourselves, and figuring out OK, how do we become the team that we want to be? And I feel like we saw glimpses of that,” Lanning said.
Lily Crane of Sports Illustrated reported that Lanning had shown his players Day’s recent news conferences during the week. He had sat at his own podium after the Illinois loss facing the same questions about a season slipping away, and the answer he gave about Day came from that experience.
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Ohio State’s version of that problem began when Julian Sayin fractured his elbow, which put freshman Luke Fahey in charge of the offense. Fahey threw for 360 yards and two touchdowns Saturday, and Jeremiah Smith caught a touchdown among his 133 receiving yards. The Buckeyes still gave up 38 straight points after going up two scores, and they had not lost a game after leading by 14 since 2001 against Wisconsin.
The loss was Ohio State’s second straight, following a 30-18 defeat at USC on Oct. 31, and its third of the season. Day had never lost three games in a season in his eight years running the program.
Ryan Day’s Bold Claim of First and Second Rounders Reflects How Ohio State Gets Down, Says National Analyst (Imagn Images)
The previous meeting between the programs came in the Rose Bowl quarterfinal in January 2025, when Ohio State beat top-seeded Oregon 41-21 on the way to the national title. Lanning praised Day’s preparation that night, and on the winning side this time he kept the same tone toward him.
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Oregon is now 6-3 and No. 23 in the College Football Playoff rankings, with two wins in a row and its quarterback situation steadier than it was a month ago. Ohio State, also 6-3, hosts the Northwestern Wildcats next.
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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: Sports.yahoo.com
