JUMP TO:
- Did Dan Lanning ever play football?
- Dan Lanning William Jewell College
- What position did Dan Lanning play?
- Dan Lanning college stats
- Did Dan Lanning play in the NFL?
- Dan Lanning career timeline
Oregon head coach Dan Lanning is no stranger to college football. He's been an assistant coach within the sport since 2011 and was hired at Oregon in 2022.
Prior to becoming one of the biggest head coaching names in college football, Lanning played football himself. He played his college ball at William Jewell, which is in Missouri, playing on the defensive side of the ball.
Let's take a look back at Lanning's college football career before he got into coaching.
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Did Dan Lanning ever play football?
Yes, Dan Lanning played football, on the defensive side of the ball. Lanning also primarily coached defenses as he made his way to Oregon.
Dan Lanning William Jewell College
Dan Lanning attended college at William Jewell, which is a Division II school located in Liberty, Mo. Liberty sits roughly 20 miles northeast of Kansas City.
The school is quite small, with an undergraduate enrollment of just 969 students as of 2024. William Jewell's sports teams, whose mascot is the Cardinals, play out of the Great Lakes Valley Conference.
Lanning was recruited by former Cardinals head coach Dave Bassore before Fran Schwenk took over.
“At the time, we considered it the Harvard of the Midwest,” Lanning's college teammate Benny Palmer, said via The Oregonian in 2022. “You hope that (Bassore) saw guys that loved the game, loved to play the game. Selling them on the fact you can come here and you’re going to be loved by the people that cheered you on in high school. You’re going to be loved by the same people that have always been there for you and they’re going to be able to see you play.
“You hope he saw good people and thought they’d all mesh together. He had a good grasp. We had a little bit bigger aspirations on some different spots, but Jewell was right there. Jewell had a good name to it and everybody saw it as, ‘If we go there we could really win if we all went.’”
In 2023, Lanning was awarded a William Jewell Citation for Achievement from his alma mater:
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What position did Dan Lanning play?
Dan Lanning played linebacker for the Cardinals. Via the Oregonian, Schwenk called Lanning a "good, typical NAIA player," and added that he was around 200-235 pounds when he was playing college football.
Dan Lanning college stats
Unfortunately there are not a ton of collegiate stats readily available from Dan Lanning's playing days, but the Oregonian states that Lanning had had 57 total tackles,10.5 for loss, plus 4.5 sacks, a forced fumble and a pass breakup. He was named an all-conference player for the Cardinals, as well.
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Did Dan Lanning play in the NFL?
No, Dan Lanning did not play in the NFL. After his playing career ended, he joined Park Hill South High School in 2008, and remained in coaching.
But Lanning has coached several NFL stars, including the likes of the Philadelphia Eagles' Nakobe Dean and Jordan Davis. He has coached eight future first-round picks, including Broncos quarterback Bo Nix, Patriots cornerback Christian Gonzalez and Packers linebacker Quay Walker, among others.
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Dan Lanning career timeline
2008-2010: Park Hill South High School
Lanning's coaching career began at Park Hill South High School, which is located in Kansas City, Mo. At Park Hill, he started by coaching the wide receivers and defensive backs.
2011: Pitt
Lanning's college coaching career began at Pitt in 2011, where he spent one season as a graduate assistant under then-head coach Todd Graham.
Believe it or not, Lanning landing at Pitt was partially due to the head coach's own persistence. After Graham was hired by the Panthers, Lanning drove from Park Hill to Pittsburgh to meet with Graham, who he had met previously at coaching clinics. Via an ESPN feature on Lanning in 2024:
Lanning got to Pittsburgh around 5 a.m. and made it all the way to the Pitt lobby before a graduate assistant, Eric Thatcher, told him the bad news: The coaches were at a clinic at Penn State. Lanning would have to wait a little longer. He got a room at the local Spring Hill and returned the next day to meet with defensive coordinator Keith Patterson. Lanning made an immediate impression on him, as well as on Graham.
Above all, Graham remembered Lanning's persistence, which led him and Patterson to allow Lanning to stick around and volunteer. The door was now ajar -- Lanning drove all the way back to Kansas City and resigned from his high school job the same day.
"He'd saved money for a year to do this, and his wife stayed in Kansas City. He wouldn't take no for an answer," Graham said. "Then he immediately starts outworking everybody in the building."
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2012-2013: Arizona State
Graham left Pitt after just one season with the Panthers, leaving for the Arizona State job in 2012. Lanning followed his head coach to Tempe, where he spent two seasons with the Sun Devils.
Although Lanning was a graduate assistant his first season at ASU, Graham promoted him to recruiting coordinator for the 2013 season.
2014: Sam Houston State
Lanning left Graham and ASU to join Sam Houston State, located in Huntsville, Texas. Graham said he still regrets letting Lanning leave his staff at ASU:
"Dumbest thing I ever did was let him do that," Graham said of Lanning leaving via ESPN. "I should have fired somebody and hired him. I should have hired him there and kept him there."
2015: Alabama
He was then hired to join Nick Saban's staff in 2015. He spent one season there as a graduate assistant. The Tide finished 14-1 that season, defeating Clemson 45-40 in the CFP National Championship.
That's a big reason why Lanning was expected to land in Tuscaloosa when Saban retired in 2024, but he remained with the Ducks instead.
After Kalen DeBoer was named Saban's replacement, Saban admitted that he wanted to hire back Lanning later in his coaching career.
“Dan Lanning is a really good coach and I actually wanted to hire him,” Saban said in August of last year.
“My theory about having all these young guys on my staffs and develop them was to get them a job at Memphis State and then be able to re-hire them,” Saban continued.
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2016-2017: Memphis
Lanning went on to spend two seasons at Memphis, coaching the inside linebackers and was their recruiting coordinator. With the Tigers, Lanning was able to reunite with current Florida State head coach Mike Norvell, whom coached with Lanning at ASU.
2018-2021: Georgia
He then spent three seasons with Kirby Smart and the Georgia Bulldogs, serving as the outside linebackers coach and defensive coordinator. In 2021, Lanning helped lead the Bulldogs to their first national championship since 1980.
In three seasons under Lanning's defense, Georgia was first nationally in scoring defense (13.6 points per game) and rushing defense (75.7 yards per game), and finished second in run defense, allowing just 284.3 yards per game.
2022-Present: Oregon
Lanning has been at Oregon since 2022, and has compiled a 39-6 overall record. Last season the Ducks finished a Big Ten Champions and a 14-1 record, falling to Ohio State in the Rose Bowl semifinal.
Oregon has finished with Top-10 recruiting classes in his last three cycles, including the No. 3 ranked overall class in 2024.
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