Oregon coach Dan Lanning shares nighttime jitters and pregame bathroom tendencies, ‘I’m human’

ATHENS — Oregon coach Dan Lanning is dealing with all the symptoms of football season.

“Do I still wake up in the middle of the night sometimes? Yeah, absolutely, like last night, but that’s normal,” Lanning said. “l did last year some, too, so that’s football season, that’s the way it goes.”

The No. 11-ranked Ducks play the No. 3-ranked Georgia Bulldogs at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Lanning’s routine is such that he has a pretty good idea where he’ll be about 30 minutes before kickoff, too.

“I was the guy that has to pee like five or six times right before the game starts, I love football, and I’m still like that,” Lanning said.

“So I’m sure right before I take the field, I’ll be in the urinal …. heck yeah I get nervous before a game, if you don’t, you’re lying. I’m human.”

Lanning admits there will be plenty of additional emotions for him facing his former team and the unit he helped build into one of the greatest defenses of all-time.

But Lanning said that can’t be the focus, and what matters is how his players are able to perform against what he referred to as “elite” competition.

“It’s a business trip, it’s not about the occasion, it’s about playing the game, and that’s our focus,” Lanning said.

“Kirby Smart is not going to play a single snap on Saturday, and neither is Dan Lanning, so it doesn’t really matter what I know, it matters what my players know and how they can execute.”

Lanning, was hired when former linebackers coach Kevin Sherrer left UGA following the 2017 season to become Jeremy Pruitt’s defensive coordinator at Tennessee.

Smart said he knew Lanning would be a great hire, having been impressed with him when the two were at Alabama together.

“I had a great relationship with Dan when he worked at the University of Alabama, and had a lot of respect for how he went about doing his job,” Smart said. “He didn’t try to be somebody he wasn’t. He didn’t try to impress people. He just worked and he grinded.”

Lanning helped Smart build one of the greatest collegiate defenses of the modern era, a group that allowed just 6.9 points per game during the regular season, and produced eight NFL draft picks -- five of them going in the first round.

Lanning said he’ll be rooting for all of the Georgia players this season, but first things first, there’s Saturday’s game.

“It’s going to come down to takeaways, it’s going to come down to explosive plays,” Lanning said. “Who can out-hit, who can out-hustle, who can tackle on the perimeter, that’s what this game is really about.”

Lanning’s friendship with Smart, meanwhile, has been on hold this summer.

“I would not be sitting in this seat if it wasn’t for Kirby Smart, I’m forever grateful for him and that entire coaching staff,” Lanning said.

“I’ll definitely always lean on him, this is unique, we haven’t talked as much this summer or especially in the last couple weeks or as much as we will down the road.”

Indeed, for now it’s about Lanning and Smart preparing their teams for a game where the pads will do all the talking.

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