Oregon head coach Dan Lanning met with members of the media Saturday after his Ducks took down No. 12 BYU, 41-20.

Lanning talked about the growth of Oregon’s offense and the play of quarterback Bo Nix, he talked about needing to be more detailed on defense, and he talked about the lul late in the game when Oregon went to its reserves and then back to the first-team.

Here’s everything he said, with video of the entire press conference at the bottom.

Opening statement

“Well that was fun. That was a lot of fun with a special, special crowd. We knew that they were going to come out there and be there for us. It’s hard to coach at the end of the third quarter during ‘Shout’, so I’ve got to figure that out. I thought we stumbled a little bit in the fourth. That being said, we came out to this game and said we wanted to be a physical team and I think we were that. We wanted to win critical situations, we were good on fourth down and able to stop them and get ours (fourth down conversions) whenever we had opportunities to go for it. We wanted to out-rush our opponent, that’s a brand of physicality we were able to show. We wanted to establish an identity. I think everybody in the stadium at some point probably realized what we were doing when we ran Josh Conerly (Jr.) out there, our big group with three tight ends in the back and we were about to get big and go play ball. We didn’t really care if you knew what we were going to do, you had to stop us. I thought our offense did a great job of that. We had some big defensive stops as well, played contested ball and I thought this was our cleanest game from a special team’s standpoint. That being said, there’s so much we can improve on. We played BYU today, but we also played Oregon. We want to finish games, we want to be able to capitalize at the end. I don’t know that we did as well there at the end as we want to. We’ll continue to grow, we’re about to go play a really good Washington State team and have to get ready for them. That being said, we appreciate Duck Nation for the job they did today.”

On RB Jordan James and his role

“We make a lot of those decisions going into the game based on situations and I think a lot of the situations you saw Jordan in were on fourth-and-shorts. He’s a big back that runs physical and is able to get tough yards, and we had some tough yard situations today where Jordan was able to go have some success.”

On the confidence to go for it on fourth down at Oregon’s 30

“It was a lot of fun for me during this game. We talk about certain situations as a team in front of the entire team. So those decisions are made far away from the field before we get out there. There was one point in the game where Noah Sewell comes up to me when we were on offense and says ‘Coach, why didn’t we go for it there, I thought we’d go for it’, so I told him no, we’re taking the points here. Our guys understand our mentality and what we’re going to do. A lot of those decisions are made before we ever get there. That happens in our staff meeting and pregame meeting before we ever arrive at that moment. Every one of our coaches had confidence in our players to go execute and every one of our players had confidence in the plan.”

On Bo Nix’s growth

“You talk about quarterback, and you talk about decision maker. Obviously we have to go back and watch the film, but I thought Bo made great decisions today. Each week he gets more and more confident in what we’re trying to accomplish. It’s the small things that you guys don’t see that make him a special quarterback. Like letting the play clock go there at the end of the game when a lot of people would just go and hike the ball. He did a really good job of operating and handling what was out there for him today.”

On the execution at the end of the first half being a pivotal moment

“I don’t know about pivotal, but that’s what you hope might play out whenever you defer in the first, where you might get to steal an extra possession and then turn around and get the ball to start the second half. We wanted to come out strong there at the beginning of the second and did a good job there early in the third quarter, and were able to punch it in.”

On if Bo Nix played with a chip on his shoulder

“I think our team is really good at ignoring the outside noise, we only worry about the opinions in our room. There’s nobody in this building that’s lost confidence in Bo, including Bo, and his ability to go play for us.”

On if he has a sense of who they are as a group

“I know this, I know we’ll work. Where we’re at as a team, I still think there’s something to be decided. You’re only as good as your last game and you’re only as good as your last play. We’ve got to live in the moment, we’re not resting on our laurels, we’ve got a lot of things we can go work on, but we’ve got a team that will work. I told the guys in the locker room, the more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war, and that’s because of what you do Monday through Friday in practice. We’ve got to go work on the practice field to be able to achieve in the game. What you saw on the field today was a result of the hard work that happens Sunday to Friday.”

On how he feels after the offense’s performance

“Ecstatic. I asked our group (the OL) if they could have a 14-minute drive there at the end of the quarter, we didn’t, in fact we actually had a turnover. But that being said, I’m really proud of us. We wanted to walk away and create an identity and we’re certainly not satisfied, but we want to find a way to create explosive plays and I think we found some of those today. I think when we go back and look at the film I think you’re going to see some explosive plays, not because the plays were outstanding but because of the outstanding effort. That’s what we’re really looking for: outstanding effort from our players.”

On tempo

“We want to dictate the tempo, we don’t want the people to dictate the tempo to us, right? Part of that is based off success, when you have successful plays you can go fast, but I think you also can see we have the ability as an offense to slow it down at times and that keeps a defense guessing, makes it really hard for the other team to prepare. We want to be able to play fast, when we want to play fast and we want to be able to slow it down when we want to. I thought Kenny (Dillingham) and the offense staff did a really great job of that today.”

On his confidence in Ty Thompson and taking him back out

“Absolutely and Ty didn’t do anything wrong, other than I thought we were in a position as a team that we needed to buckle up, and knuckle up, put our first group back on defense, put our first group back on offense and it was time to make a stand. You know you want to get an opportunity to get other guys opportunities. Ty absolutely didn’t do anything wrong, I have the utmost confidence in him but that was a decision for our entire team there as a unit to go put our ones in, to set the standard, and set the model for how we finish the game.”

On the run defense

“The most physical team is going to win, right? I think we’ve all heard they play a physical brand of football, that a good football team, they’ve beat good teams, they’ve played in tough environments, we knew it was going to take our best. Ultimately, if you can protect yourself against shots against that team, shots down the field, and you can stop the run, you’re going to have the chance to be successful so those were our two goals going in.”

On the injury front

“Byron (Cardwell) was day-to-day throughout practice this past week and he tested himself wanting to be able to push on Thursday, he’s a warrior wanting to go to work. Came out wanting to go through warm-ups and I think it was still lingering, you could see he still wasn’t kind of 100%, didn’t want to jeopardize his health. In that situation if we ask Bryon to, I promise you he would’ve and that is a great example of his character and what he is willing to do for this team. With that being said, we don’t want to put our guys in a position where they are not going to be healthy. Really the same thing for Justin (Flowe), if we had to push Justin and he was able to go through warm-ups today, he could’ve definitely contributed for us today and helped us. With that being said, the next guy up in both those situations, those guys prepare really hard, they earn their moments in practice, you earn the right to go play football with the way you practice and the next guy up in both those positions did a really good job. Seven (McGee) was able to go for us at times but we were in a lot of personnel groups that didn’t always put him on the field, and i think his unselfishness is a great example of Seven saying, ‘I don’t care how we do it, I just want to win the game.’”

On the team’s efficiency

“It goes back again to the way you work in practice, having a really good detailed plan. We identified some things that we thought we could have success on earlier on the week, i give credit to our offensive staff for finding some stuff and we said if they don’t adjust to this in certain ways, then it’s going to be successful and we’re going to do it until they stop us and I think that’s what you saw today. We were going to run some stuff and do some things until we weren’t able to. That’s two gameplans put together when it goes the way you think it’s going to go, what we have to figure out now is when it doesn’t look the right way, are we able to adapt and grow.”

On Jahlil Florence and Dontae Manning

“I’ll have to go back again and watch the film. You know we always see those guys and if you’re able to touch the field for us, we see you as a starter. I know Dontae was able to break up some contested balls there at the end, but I want to go back and evaluate the film and see where we’re at. I know that there were some times where we had some good coverage throughout and we gave up late, so we’ve got to figure out how to work those finishes better.”

On refocusing after “Shout”

“Well, does anybody remember the next play after ‘Shout’? We gave up a third down for a first down, so I don’t know, I’ve got to figure that out. We talked through what we were going to see, what we were going to play, we didn’t finish on the sack, lost contain of the quarterback so I’ve got to get better on coaching in that situation. We got some really good dancers on this team, right? That’s apparent but I hope we can figure out a score margin or rule that you can dance on ‘Shout’ based on what the score is. I love that our players have energy and passion for this game, this game is meant to be fun and our guys had fun out there today, but we’ve got to be detailed and finish and that next play we didn’t finish.”

On the team’s identity

“We want to be the team that you don’t want to play again, we want to be the team that when you walk out onto the field you are sore and you’re feeling it, felt physical, we are relentless, and we just continue to nag at you. There were certainly some moments where I saw today where we showed that and there certainly were some moments where we could have finished, and we didn’t. So, looking for moments of growth but relentless is biggest word I would look to use.”

On Nix’s decision-making

“I think Bo is proving he can do whatever we need him to within a game. That means still operating within the system, but I think every offensive coach would tell you that there’s certain plays that have elements of risk or more risks than others. I think at times we want to take the ball down the field like we did today and at times we want to be able to let our playmakers make plays in space and get the ball out quick. There’s certainly some plays that are going to be more risk-oriented than others and games like today where you get an early lead, you don’t necessarily have to work those risks.”

On the connection between Nix and Terrance Ferguson

“I think it’s really shown up in the last two games. Terrance is a really talented tight end and I think the other tight ends in that room are very talented as well. He’s been on the right end of the right call and the right coverage to allow him to go make a play. But obviously there’s a level of trust there for Bo and the rest of those guys that he’s throwing to.”

On where this team is at headed into Washington State…

“I’ve got a lot of respect for their head coach and I think what they do, they’ve proven to be a tough team that can go win tough games. I know they had a battle with Wisconsin, I know they had a battle with Idaho and were able to go out there and compete and do a really good job. They present some different stuff, especially offensively. I’m anxious to get into the film, I’ve been able to glance at them a little bit already, but I’m looking forward to touching base on them even more.”

On presenting a different look defensively

“Ultimately, we’re going to match personnel with personnel and what they do. They’re a 12 team that lines up in 12 formation, so we’re going to play with our bigger people in that scenario. To speak on how we played, I’ve got to go back and watch the film, I know there’s some plays I want back that weren’t right. We lost leverage a couple of times and want to do a better job there. We weren’t able to finish the quarterback as much as I’d like, and that’s also a part of how they play the game, they don’t allow you to. We’ll go back and evaluate it, but we want to match our personnel up with their personnel.”