Oregon football head coach Dan Lanning spoke to the media on Sunday about the Ducks facing James Madison’s Bob Chesney in the College Football Playoff on Saturday, Dec. 20 at Autzen Stadium.
The Dukes’ head coach has been with the program two seasons and earned a Sun Belt championship with James Madison before announcing he will take over the Bruins next season. Ducks Wire wrote a story about Lanning discussing the College Football Playoff and going against Chesney and James Madison. Here was what Lanning said.
“I know our players are excited to play this team. Just really getting started, hopping in, and evaluating these guys better. Watch them a little bit this afternoon. Obviously, they have a really talented team. Coach Chesney has done a really good job with these guys. They’ve been really successful in several games, you know, just looking through it this morning, I think they’ve had nine games where they rushed forward 200 yards, and that’s a common component for them and their success. Played really good defense and really good special teams. So excited about the opportunity.”
What Chesney has done with the Dukes has been impressive to say the least, but the talent differential between them and the Ducks should be on display in their meeting. However, James Madison has put together a solid season and has been a force in the Sun Belt as they marched to a 12-1 overall record.
According to ESPN, JMU was the sixth most productive run game with 245.8-rushing yards per game. A big proponent of the ground success was junior running back Wayne Knight, who had 10 games this season with over 80-rushing yards, four games with over 100 and in the Sun Belt Championship game, he had over 200 yards.
It seems that Lanning has pinpointed the ground success as their strength, which means Oregon will try to take that away from Chesney. It should be intriguing to see how the Ducks plan on stopping Knight and the rest of the ground game or if Chesney will get the best of his future Big Ten conference opponent.
This article originally appeared on UCLA Wire: Oregon’s Dan Lanning has high praise for new UCLA head coach
Reporting by Ryan Lorenz, UCLA Wire / UCLA Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
