Saturday update> It's happening. For real. Per multiple reports today and our sources confirm, Dan Lanning will be the new head coach of the Ducks.
Oregon is set to hire Dan Lanning as the next head Duck, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports Friday. [Editor's insert> However, see update at bottom.]
Lanning is in his third season as Georgia's defensive coordinator, where the Bulldogs will face No. 2 Michigan in an Orange Bowl semifinal three weeks from today. Lanning and Oregon are currently negotiating whether he will remain with Georgia through a Playoff run that could last through Jan. 10.
The 35-year-old has had a meteoric rise through the coaching profession. A former linebacker at William Jewell College, Lanning was a position coach at a Kansas City-area high school as recently as 2010. His first college job came as a GA at Pittsburgh under Todd Graham in 2011, and his first on-the-field job was coaching defensive backs at FCS Sam Houston in 2015.
Lanning took a GA job on Nick Saban's Alabama staff in 2015, which led to the inside linebackers job at Memphis in 2016. By 2018 he was the outside linebackers coach at Georgia, and the following year he was the Bulldogs' coordinator.
Lanning follows in the footsteps of a fellow Kirby Smart understudy in Mel Tucker, who left the Georgia DC job to be the head coach at Colorado. He is now the head coach at Michigan State.
The Lanning hire is interesting because the belief was, after losing Florida-native Willie Taggart to Florida State and Miami-native Mario Cristobal to Miami, Oregon AD Rob Mullens would hire someone with West Coast ties. Lanning is not that.
He would be the first Oregon head coach without prior head coaching experience or Oregon ties since Rich Brooks got the job in 1977.
However, Oregon reporter James Crepea says that, while Lanning is a candidate, his hiring is not imminent.
UO source says Oregon has NOT offered nor has the job been accepted by Dan Lanning or anyone else. Georgia DC is a candidate, but is NOT hired. At least not yet.
— James Crepea (@JamesCrepea) December 10, 2021
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.
Update> Sources tell FootballScoop the AJC's report is not accurate at this time.