At his Monday press conference, Oregon head coach Dan Lanning was asked about a report from over the weekend linking him to another possible coaching job. He just shook his head and smiled.

A report from a Sports Illustrated affiliate site over the weekend cited sources saying Lanning and Auburn had ‘mutual interest’ in the Tigers’ vacant head coaching job. Multiple well-respected Pac-12 insiders immediately shot down the speculation Sunday night, but Lanning took it a step further on Monday when he met with reporters.

“First off, I’ll say things like this are going to come up when you have team success and you do your job and things go the way they’re supposed to go. That’s a credit really to our team,” he began. “That being said, I think there’s a little bit of a problem in society today with people looking for what’s next and where there’s an opportunity.

“The reality is the grass is not always greener (elsewhere). In fact, the grass is damn green in Eugene. I want to be here in Eugene for as long as Eugene will have me. This place has everything that I could possibly ever want, my family could ever want. I’ve got an 11-year-old that’s lived in eight states. The last thing I want everyone to do is leave. I want to enjoy this opportunity here. It’s been a phenomenal place for us. When you talk about things that align, things that match your vision and what you’re looking for as a head coach, Oregon checks every box for me.”

That is as emphatic a repudiation of the report as Lanning could have possibly given.

The Ducks are ranked sixth in the latest AP Top 25. They’ve won eight straight games in Lanning’s first season as a head coach. They’ve gotten better every week, shown new wrinkles each time out, built on strengths, and buttoned up weaknesses. Like Lanning said, when you do things like that as a coach, you’re going to be a popular name that gets tossed around anytime jobs come open.

Auburn fired its head coach on Oct. 31 less than two years after hiring him. The Tigers might have the allure of the SEC, but Lanning has it pretty good in Eugene.

Longtime Pac-12 columnist John Canzano — one of the first to discredit the Auburn report Sunday evening — had an interesting nugget in a column on Monday:

Willie Taggart’s record at Oregon was 7-5. He’s 63-73 as a head coach away from Eugene.

Mario Cristobal’s record at Oregon was 35-13. He’s 31-52 as a head coach away from Eugene.

Those are the last two coaches to leave Oregon for another Power Five coaching gig. Because of that, some have suggested Oregon is a stepping-stone kind of job.

Lanning disagrees.

“I think history shows that this is a great place to be and not a great place to leave,” he said. “I want to be here. Hopefully that’s the last time I have to really address it. The reality is this is a destination not just for me but for elite players.”