Dan Lanning says it was Indiana’s dominance, not just Oregon’s struggles with turnovers, that led to Friday night’s Peach Bowl loss to the Hoosiers.
Oregon quarterback Dante Moore threw a game-opening pick-six and lost two fumbles as Indiana clinched its trip to the College Football Playoff national championship game with a 56-22 win.
“When you have the takeaways, you start off with the pick six, you get in a little bit of a hole. You probably start to press a little bit,” Lanning said Friday. “You get away from some of the success you have in the run game, at times. But there’s moments that we had some good plays.
“But that’s a damn good team. You’ve got to give credit to them, too. It’s not just what we didn’t do. It’s what they did do.”
Lanning went on to praise Indiana as a team without “a weakness in their game” (h/t ESPN’s Nicole Auerbach).
“They run the ball well. They stop the run well,” Lanning said. “They throw the ball well. They defend the pass well. They’re great on special teams. So, you see a really complete team, a well-coached team.”
In terms of his own program, Lanning expressed regret that players out of eligibility, like linebacker Bryce Boettcher won’t be able to play for a national championship as a Duck.
“I really wanted them to be able to enjoy that, and experience that, and they don’t get to. And I didn’t do a good enough job getting them there,” Lanning said.
“They set the stage, where there might be an opportunity down the road where somebody in this program’s able to create something like that again. But he won’t get to share that.”
Friday night’s loss marked Oregon’s largest postseason margin of defeat since the 1996 Cotton Bowl.
Lanning and the Ducks will now head home to regroup for 2026 as Indiana prepares to take on Miami for a national title on Jan. 19.
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