College Football

Oregon's Dan Lanning explains story of inflatable duck at Big Ten Media Days

Updated Jul. 30, 2024 1:47 p.m. ET

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Oregon made a loud entrance into the Big Ten, placing an inflatable duck in Indianapolis' White River during the conference's Media Days last week. 

As the duck stared at many who walked over the river and to Lucas Oil Stadium for Big Ten Media Days, some wondered how Oregon was able to get the duck in the water. Dan Lanning gave a bit of a backstory on how Oregon was able to get the massive inflatable duck into the White River at the team's media day on Monday.

"I’ve said it a few times, but it’s kind of like the first day of school, you don’t want to just walk in with new shoes, right," the head coach told reporters. "We certainly want to come in and make a splash and I think our marketing team does an unbelievable job of making sure that Oregon’s recognized nationally. They’ve always done a good job from a branding standpoint.

"But we have to go out there and win games. That has very little to do with that, but it creates excitement for our fans and certainly excitement for the Big Ten and Oregon joining that."

Historically, Oregon hasn't been a program that's shy to make a splash, having a unique style that predates the start of Lanning's tenure in 2022.  The Ducks have worn countless uniform combinations over the last couple of decades, while coaches like Chip Kelly brought innovative playing styles to the program over their tenures in Eugene. 

Now, Lanning is looking to leave his mark on the program. After leading Oregon to a 12-2 record in 2023, Lanning was presumed to be a top candidate to replace Nick Saban at Alabama following the legendary coach's retirement in January. However, Lanning told FOX Sports' Joel Klatt in the most recent episode of "Big Noon Conversations" that he didn't want to bolt for Alabama because of what he's building at Oregon.

"For me, it's the first time in my career, I feel like I'm somewhere where I can be for a really, really long time for my family," Lanning told Klatt of his decision to remain in Eugene. "That's probably No. 1. My kids have lived in eight states. I also can never take for granted that Oregon took a chance on me, and that means a lot to me. There are things that I want to accomplish here that I haven't accomplished yet that I feel indebted to this program and the people that support this program that I want to be able to get done and create here."

Dan Lanning explains how Oregon is preparing to play in the new Big Ten

[Related: How Dan Lanning embraced change, learned to adapt in current college football landscape]

As Lanning seeks to leave his mark at Oregon, one of his trademarks might be seeking to find ways to intimidate his conference foes. He shared with reporters at Big Ten Media Days that he wished to have the inflatable duck travel with the team this upcoming season.

"What should the Big Ten know about Oregon? That we're mighty different - mighty different in a lot of ways," Lanning told reporters last Thursday. "You look out there in the pond, you'll see a big ole' duck. I'm hoping we get to travel that duck to all of our away games this year."

Lanning came to the realization on Monday though that bringing the inflatable duck to every game was unlikely, saying, "it's not gonna fit on the plane. I don't know how you build that." 

While the inflatable duck might not be able to travel to different locations in the Big Ten, Oregon's mascot made an unusual trip on Tuesday. "The Duck" traveled to Lincoln for Nebraska's media day. 

The mascot didn't seem to ruffle any feathers. But if it was a ploy by Lanning, it's just the latest example of him trying to find an edge, a standard he feels he has to live up to at Oregon.

"When I think of Oregon and before I ever took this job, outside looking in, you see a place that’s innovative," Lanning said Monday. "That’s really kind of been the mantra with this program, especially for the last 25 years of, ‘How can we be on the cutting edge? How can we do what other people don’t do better? How can we be different?’"

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