Dan Lanning asks Dan Lanning a question at Oregon coach's Monday press conference
Every Monday evening, Dan Lanning takes the dais inside Oregon’s football facility and looks out at a room full of media to answer questions. His latest press conference happened to fall on Halloween night, so when he looked out into the crowd on Monday he saw a number of costumed reporters in their seats.
One of them looked familiar.
A through-the-looking-glass moment just now in the weekly Monday press conference as “Coach Lanning” — aka @haydenherrera — asks a question of @CoachDanLanning on Halloween night. #GoDucks pic.twitter.com/zXssDKGSBt
— Rob Moseley (@DuckFootball) November 1, 2022
That’s KVAL News Sports Director Hayden Herrera, who donned his best football coach getup and did his best impression of the Duck progrum’s leader.
Lanning loved it.
Game recognize game. #GoDucks @CoachDanLanning 🤝 @haydenherrera https://t.co/vZsMCo6MTh pic.twitter.com/etGKm9Gi1A
— Oregon Video (@QuackVideo) November 1, 2022
Lanning’s M.O. is to hit his chair and just immediately jump into his opening statement, welcoming reporters to the press conference and setting the tone for the rest of the back-and-forth. On Monday, that meant that as he was talking, he was noticing costumes in the crowd. He sort of broke character midway through when he realized what Herrera was wearing.
“I see some outfits out there, that’s awesome,” he said as a big smile flashed across his face.
The vibes in Eugene are excellent right now as Oregon has ripped off seven straight wins. The Ducks sit at 7-1 on the year and are the only remaining unbeaten team in Pac-12 play (5-0). Lanning has inspired more and more confidence with each passing week that this can be a special kind of partnership at Oregon.
That probably won’t be the last of the Lanning costumes around town going forward.