What Oregon had to say about Arizona State

Kenny Dillingham will get to face his old team, the Oregon Ducks, this week as they make the trip down to Tempe.

Oregon football head coach Dan Lanning and Oregon quarterback Bo Nix had plenty to say about Arizona State football from Kenny Dillingham to the state of the ASU program itself.

Dan Lanning about the ASU offense and its personnel

Lanning:”It’s clear that Kenny and his staff, they can think outside the box, and you know Kenny’s similar to me. We’re both high school coaches before when you have you know different personnel. You try to figure out how you can utilize them the most and try to create something that your opponent hasn’t prepared for obviously. He was able to put some things on film that other teams haven’t prepared for and I expect him to give us some of that too. It’s going to be about us being able to in-game adjust [and] you know, have a great plan for what he goes out there to execute. But he’s trying to put his team in the best position they can to win and he had some success you know doing some unique things.”

What Lanning remembers about working with Dillingham in their early coaching days at Memphis

“Just those challenges were always fun of you know us you know whether it’s ‘hey how would you attack this’ or ‘what takes this away this’,” Lanning said. “We were able to bounce a lot of ideas off each other early on. I think that carries on to some success in his career and certainly some success in mine.”

Knowledge of what Kenny may run on offense

“Well, it depends on how much he comes out in gate formation, if that’s going to be 17 plays a game we’ll see,” Lanning said. “You know we expect to see some of those DNA trait type plays that they’ve always had, that he’s carried in the system when he was here, that we still utilize today. And then we expect to see some new wrinkles but he’s doing a good job with his team creating advantages with numbers and I think we just have to be sound that’s a big key in this game.”

Oregon coach Dan Lanning talks about Arizona State football

Lanning speaks on what Dillingham is doing at Arizona State

“He’s doing exactly what I anticipated him to be able to do,” Lanning said. “(He’s) bringing the energy to a program, you know thinking of ways to win in innovative ways. So I’m seeing a lot of those same traits that I expected to see from him and we’ve certainly been in contact throughout the season, this week we’ll probably talk a little bit less.”

Speaking on Dillingham’s effort despite bowl ban

 “Well, just great effort on film they, they consistently have great effort on film,” Lanning continued. “I think they play disciplined football. They’re not a team that really hurts themselves and then they have wrinkles each week to make them you know tough to defend.”

Oregon QB Bo Nix addresses the media

Does this game have any extra weight to it facing Kenny Dillingham?

Ultimately you know he’s done a great job just in my development working with him for two years,” Nix said. “But at the same time, it’s just another game and now he is the opponent and he’s thinking the same thing about us. So I think it’s just cool to play against him. It’s cool to play against another coach that you’ve worked with for so long, but I just think it’s it’s another opportunity for us to go out there and put together a complete game.”

Has Nix kept in contact with Dillingham?

“Yeah, we’ve always been in contact since my freshman year,” Nix continued. “What are those conversations like anymore it just kind of depends on the situation, to be honest with you. In season and out of (season), he has a great personality so I mean they’re always enjoyable conversations.”

Nix’s thoughts on Dillingham as a coach

What does Nix like most about Dillingham’s QB teaching abilities?

“I think his willingness to meet you where you are and coach you from there,” Nix stated. “…His willingness to meet you where you are and coach you from there. I think his story was how he had to kind of work for everything he’s gotten, I think has really helped put him in a position to see the perspective of every quarterback and see where they are. I think that’s one thing he really does well.”

Does Nix think it is an advantage to know what Dillingham may do?

“It’s good I think,” Nix stated. “It’s not a disadvantage, that’s for sure. It’ll be interesting to see what he does to change things up, but our defense is really good at game planning and scheming and adjusting on the fly during games. Ultimately they’re just playing really well. They’re tackling really good in the open field, they’re getting pressure on the quarterback, they’re stopping the run and that’s all you can do really from a defensive standpoint.”

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