In a clip that has surfaced in the wake of Oregon’s 23-0 win over Texas Tech in the College Football Playoff, many are drawing the conclusion that Oregon coach Dan Lanning was “dunking” on the Big 12. But is that really what was going on in this clip that surfaced, showing Lanning explaining to his team that he thought they were more battle tested than the Red Raiders?
Take a look for yourself. Lanning says, in part, “We’ve been in the battle, we’ve been battle tested. I look at this group and you tell me, as you look through this, when have they been in the battles we’ve been through?”
Here’s the full commentary from Lanning.
Listen, Lanning can gloat all he wants after the way his team played at the Orange Bowl last week. I take no offense to what Lanning said here. He’s trying to give his team confidence by explaining why he feels they’ve been more battle tested in the Big Ten, and notably with their travel, than Texas Tech. And ya know what, based on the postseason the Big Ten is having, he’s probably not wrong about that. Oregon was more battle tested than Texas Tech this season, and it showed in the game last week.
Now Tech’s defense came to play, but the offense obviously couldn’t get anything going in South Florida.
But this is not Lanning dunking on the Big 12, as some have suggested, it’s Lanning hyping up his own guys, which is what any good coach is supposed to do. But, I guess whatever works for clicks, amiright?
Big 12’s Bad Day
Now, there’s no doubt, as I said on the YouTube Channel all week, which you can subscribe to here, that the Big 12 needed Texas Tech to ideally win two games, for the sake of the conference. The Big 12 is clearly destined to be a one-bid league for the foreseeable future, based on how BYU was never seriously considered for the Playoff. But, based on Tech’s performance, it’s hard to suggest that BYU was a worthy CFP team, in hindsight.
I’m the biggest Big 12 homer there is, but calling it like it is is still part of the job. And the reality is the Big 12 Conference still only has one win in the more than a decade of the College Football Playoff. Now, maybe some of that is driven due to access, or lack thereof, but the Big 12 needs to start winning some CFP games, and I for one thought this was the year they could do it and win a couple of games. Instead, we got a performance that actually may have done some damage to the conference.
