Oregon Ducks College Football Pregame Quote, 12/31/2023

SCOTT LEIGHTMAN: As has been our tradition before we get going, I would like to make a special introduction to the mayor of Glendale, Arizona, Mr. Jerry Weiers, who would like to welcome everyone here today. Mayor Weiers, come on up.

MAYOR WEIERS: Thank you, everyone. Coaches, congratulations. This is a big event. We’re very, very excited to welcome you into our city, Glendale, Arizona. We are known as the sports capital of the southwest. So welcome to Glendale, Arizona. Congratulations on where you are at today.

I have something here, gentlemen, if you bring those up ‚Äì a basket from Cerreta’s Chocolates. I can guarantee you, you don’t want to start this chocolate before the game, you want to wait until the game is over. It’s a little token from the City of Glendale. Appreciate you both being here. Wish you both the best of luck.

SCOTT LEIGHTMAN: As we look at tomorrow, 11 a.m. local kickoff on ESPN, out in Glendale at State Farm Stadium, we have Oregon and Liberty. Based on history here at the Fiesta Bowl, it will be an exciting one. Five of the last six Fiesta Bowls have been a one-score game.

This is first time Oregon and Liberty will play and it’s the first time that a Conference USA team has qualified for a CFP New Year’s Six game, due to the coach to my immediate left (Jamey Chadwell).

We’re looking at two of the five best offenses in the country. Oregon scores 44 points per game, and Liberty at 41. Oregon 527 yards, Liberty 515 yards. Liberty is the top in rushing yards at 303 yards per game. Keep your TVs tuned in. It will be a fun one. Oregon has turned it over only seven times this year and Liberty has a nation-best 21 interceptions, so you can see what we are in store for tomorrow.

First up, I would like to introduce the head coach of Liberty, Coach Jamey Chadwell one of four undefeated teams at 13-0. You spent a lot of time at the Division II level and the Big South Conference before here in the FBS. What has that meant to your philosophy and culture?

COACH CHADWELL: Well, one, hats off to the Fiesta Bowl for a great week for our team and our program and our staff. When you are in Division II, you can screw up a lot, and I did, and nobody knows. But you can really build who you are and the values that you believe in and the foundation.

And for our staff, a lot of those guys have been with me a long time. We started there and have been fortunate to work up to this moment. We always look back to remember where you came from. I think that’s important, and the things that you’ve had to overcome, the different adversity.

But we’re here today because of those young men in 2009 when I was at North Greenville who chose to buy into our belief system and our values there, and they helped to propel us to this day. Any time we get to a big moment, I always look back on them fondly.

SCOTT LEIGHTMAN: Coach Dan Lanning led Oregon to an 11-2 record. This is Oregon’s fourth trip to the Fiesta Bowl, with a 2-1 record. Coach was defensive coordinator for the national champion Georgia Bulldogs before taking over in Eugene. I referenced a whole lot of offensive stats here, but as a defensive-minded coach, talk to me about your defense and defensive philosophy with the Ducks.

COACH LANNING: It’s about building and growth, and it’s the same thing across all avenues ‚Äì offense, defense and special teams. We want to be aggressive. Playing a team like Liberty, it makes it challenging. If you are aggressive, they take advantage of it and they make you play on islands.

They tackle well and all of those things are really important when it comes to bowl games. For us, we want guys to play with relentless effort. We want to limit the thinking out there, but hopefully create some confusion for the offense, and accentuate what our players do really well.

Q. Dan, yesterday Coach [Jamey] Chadwell made a comment about how this game is pretty rare with so many players opting in and how in bowl season, that’s a rarity these days. What are your thoughts on those comments and the state of bowl season in general right now?

COACH LANNING: You know, Coach Chadwell and I were talking about it before we came in here. You know, bowl season is supposed to be something that’s really phenomenal and an opportunity for guys to get to play together one last time before a lot of guys’ journeys take different directions and go in different ways.

That’s something that I know he appreciates and certainly something that I appreciate. I know a certain reporter was fighting for us to have a Florida State-Georgia type game. But we love to see our players play. We love to see our guys compete. They’ve signed up to be part of a team for the long haul. They want to go out there with their teammates one last time.

When you have great players like the great players on his team that sign up to do it, and the players that sign up to do it? That’s what the fans want, that’s what the players want, and that’s what bowl season is about.

SCOTT LEIGHTMAN: The week of activities ‚Äì we saw the Liberty team building wagons with Girl Scouts the other day, and the Oregon team was out on the field with Special Olympics and Mikey’s League yesterday. Describe the week. You talked about the bowl experience, but the highlights of the week so far.

COACH CHADWELL: I will apologize to the Girl Scouts. I don’t know if our wagons were any good. I hope we play better than we built wagons, or it’s a long day for us tomorrow.

I think any time you come to a bowl site and you have the opportunity to invest in the local community and give back, young people, we put a lot on them in football. There’s a lot of pressure, a lot of things to do. But also you want to remind them it’s just a game and they are looked up to.

The Girl Scouts, we had a great experience. There was a young girl, her mom was there and they are announcing what they’re doing. She starts bawling because she’s scared and one of our players goes over there, gave her a hug, and said: Hey, you work with me and we’re gonna make it right.

And they actually won the competition. She’s in one of the pictures smiling like it’s best day she’s ever had in her life. That’s what that is about. It was a great reminder for our guys that, man, you have such an impact.

COACH LANNING: Yes, certainly for us, we had an opportunity to work with the Special Olympics group, and I think what it provides is perspective. Our players, we always talk about “Ducks do more” and we try to find opportunities to do community service within our community, but it’s fun to get to do it somewhere else.

I think we made some young men and women’s day yesterday, getting the opportunity to spend time with them, watch them, compete in some football drills and have a lot of fun. I was really proud of the way our players were able to celebrate those moments with the youth in the community here.

Q. Dan, you alluded to the Orange Bowl. Having worked with both of those coaches, your thoughts in general and how that game came to be? And then Kirby’s [Smart] comments after the game saying that things in college football need to be fixed, and people need to ask what they want out of these experiences, even with the expanded playoff next year.

COACH LANNING: I think we all know that at the end of the season, these games are best when the best players get to play in these games and they get to compete. I think what Coach Smart said, there’s a lot of truth to that. When there’s guys getting pulled in so many different directions at the end of the season, I don’t know what the answer is to create some tie-in and buy-in for them to be able to compete in these games.

You play an entire career in college football and then all of a sudden, you are not able to play in your last game? I think that’s sad. These games mean something. They certainly mean something to the school. They mean something to the fans. I think everybody wants to see everybody’s best.

What the answer is to that, I don’t know. I don’t get paid to figure that part out. But ultimately, when you have a great culture, when you have good players that commit, when you have a quarterback like Bo Nix who commits to play in this game, I think it makes other people around him want to go compete ‚Äì and that’s the best of college football when that happens.

Q. Dan, a lot has been noted about what Oregon has accomplished this year and it’s been well-known nationally. What have you learned about what Liberty has accomplished from starting to game plan them to 24-ish hours before kickoff?

COACH LANNING: I know I’m younger but I have coached football for a long time. I haven’t been around an undefeated team very often. That’s a very unique experience.

When you turn on the film and see a team go unscathed through their conference, able to win some close games and then have some blowouts. You see a team that competes at the ultimate level. They play hard for each other in every single unit. They create explosive plays. They take care of the ball. They do a good job of ripping the ball away from the opponent.

So they make it challenging and that’s credit to Coach Chadwell and the job that he’s done. But obviously, they are a really dynamic team that’s one of four teams in college football that has not lost a game. I guess three teams now in college football that have not lost a game. So it speaks volumes to the job he’s done.

COACH CHADWELL: Thank you.

Q. For both coaches, it’s been a month since you’ve played. How do you replicate the physicality that will happen tomorrow and be prepared for that after such a long layoff?

COACH LANNING: Yeah, it’s a fine line, right? I walked in the room this morning and told Coach Chadwell, I’m ready to play. We have been practicing for a long time. There’s a benefit. For us, we had 13 practices where it’s almost an additional spring ball. It’s an opportunity for development for young players and older players on your team.

What always sticks out to me is the very first game of the season. The most missed tackles in the season is game one, right? And then the most missed tackles after that is bowl season. It really shows that people probably are not as physical within bowl prep. They don’t tackle as frequently in bowl prep.

I think that’s something that is a fine line. You have to find that balance of creating what has to happen to be successful in football. But also take care of your players in that avenue. So it’s a little bit like a spring ball for the first few practices, where you are really working development, and then you have to start breaking down and getting into the team that you are about to play.

COACH CHADWELL: Ours was very similar. We ended up having 13 as well and the first four or five were a lot of working on Liberty things that we needed – we do have some young guys that will actually play in the game that were redshirted, and so trying to get them as many opportunities that they can to get them up to speed.

We can’t replicate who they are and what they do when we go in to prepare for them. Obviously, you will put the best game plan forward that you can. But we tried to use it as an extension of some spring and getting some young guys ready ‚Äì and still try to practice physical and get ready for what the challenge is in the game. But it’s hard. I don’t know if anybody has a great answer to that.

Q. Coach Chadwell, you mentioned how special it is to reach a New Year’s Six game with the coaching staff you have been with for so long. How much does it help from a game prep and game-planning standpoint when you have worked with these guys from the very beginning?

COACH CHADWELL: Well, it helps a lot. I try to stay out of the way, to be honest with you, because I mess it up half the time. I mean, when you have worked together and you have continuity and consistency, it’s not like you go in: Hey, what do you think about this? We all have similar ideas of how we want to ‚Äì whether it’s offense or defensive.

So it helps us stay focused on what we know or what we believe can work. It helps with our communication. I think when you have been around each other that long and you know what each other likes, it makes it ‚Äì I don’t want to say it’s easy to game plan for anybody, especially our guys to the left, but you know what your expectations are and how you want to try to play your best.

Q. Coach Lanning, it seems the difference between last year’s squad and this year’s squad which made a New Year’s Six was defensive improvement. How would you dissect the growth of this unit and how they have grown?

COACH LANNING: You have to be a good tackling team to be a good defense. It starts there. I think we have been able to play more players up front, which allows you to be fresh. For us, we don’t talk about having 11 starters. We say if you are good enough, you are old enough. If you’re able to contribute, we want you to contribute.

The more guys you can get involved to play great team defense, the better you’re going to be able to play when you have guys on the field that are fresh. Playing defense in college football is tough. You see so many different looks from so many different teams. What we are about to face versus Liberty is different than any team we have faced this season. Being able to prepare for multiple teams, that takes smart players and great communicators. So all those things contribute to defensive success.

Q. Have you thought much about what your last message to your guys is going to be tomorrow? Do you have a speech prepared? How do you go into something like that, the last game of the year, the biggest game?

COACH CHADWELL: I think just running out. I think the last thing I will tell them is: Be in the moment but don’t be of the moment. It’s the biggest one that our group of people have played in, and I don’t want it to be too big for them. They belong here. They have earned the right to be here. So enjoy it, but don’t let it be too big.

Q. For both of you. But obviously with coaches studying other coaches all around the country, Coach [Jamey] Chadwell being an offensive innovator; Coach [Dan] Lanning coming through the defensive ranks. When did you pop up on each other’s radar as someone to study and watch?

COACH LANNING: I don’t know how much you get time in college football to spend time watching another team. I will say this. I was a GA, I believe, when Coach [Chadwell] was at Charleston Southern there at Alabama.

COACH CHADWELL: And they beat us pretty bad, so don’t take that for what it was. (laughter).

COACH LANNING: We spent an awful lot of time preparing that game. You can’t watch college football over the last few years and not recognize what Coach [Jamey] Chadwell has done and the success he’s had whether that’s at Coastal [Carolina]. He speaks about the continuity with his team. That makes you have to do a deep dive when you walk in.

At time, as coaches, you talk about chasing ghosts. We chased a lot of ghosts this week. We watched a lot of film. We went back to film at Coastal [Carolina] and film from his past, and that continuity makes it awful tough.

But what you see is winning football. I think both of our programs ‚Äì you talk about programs that have had winning football, good teams. It’s something you admire. It’s something that you hope to do as a coach. He’s done a phenomenal job of getting his guys prepared and ready and we certainly want to do the same on our side.

COACH CHADWELL: I would echo, I always look back where somebody came from. Obviously, I tried to get that Alabama game because it was over as soon as the ball kicked off.

But guys that do well ‚Äì I love watching teams that play hard and they seem to play for each other. And he’s obviously got that where he’s at, and he’s been around great people that make that happen ‚Äì coach [Nick] Saban, Coach [Kirby] Smart.

I respect those things. Football is such a hard sport, and to get a group of young people to buy into each other and the culture is hard to do. And the two years that he’s been able to do this is something that’s amazing, to be honest with you, in today’s world.

But really aware of where he came from and what he’s done and what he has been able to accomplish. And I just hope he takes it easy on us tomorrow.

SCOTT LEIGHTMAN: Let’s talk about your quarterbacks, Kaidon [Salter] on one side and Bo [Nix] on the other. How do you utilize your quarterbacks and have that trust in your quarterback as that adjunct leader on the field?

COACH CHADWELL: Well, Kaidon, obviously, has had an impressive season for us. When we got there in the spring, we came out of the spring, and you would think we’re crazy. He’s the conference player of the year, but we didn’t know who we had.

He was a talented individual, but he was not bought into being that leader. He made a complete 180 through the summer as he was earning the right to be the starter, and he’s been a tremendous leader for us on and off the field. He’s no doubt talented running and throwing.

The biggest improvement he made was knowing that those guys count on him to make right decisions. That’s what he embraced and wholeheartedly, that’s the reason why we are here today is because he did embrace that and that he knew that: Hey, these guys count on me to go out and be my best, not only on the game day, but also practicing and coming ready to go, and he’s been tremendous from that aspect. No doubt, that’s why we are here today.

COACH LANNING: Yeah, something I really value in coaches is the ability to adapt and change your personnel. As a former high school coach, that’s something that sticks out to me. You have to be able to take what your guys do really well and accentuate that on the football field. Obviously, we have a tremendous player in Bo Nix, who we have been able to play into his strengths, but he’s also taken the things that he knew he wanted to get better at and improve.

It’s about finding that balance of letting a guy play free within the system, but be a great decision-maker as it happens. Obviously, that’s happened with Kaidon [Salter]. Not only has he done a good job in the passing game, but he’s a 1,000-yard rusher. That’s a unique challenge that that presents.

And Bo [Nix] is the same thing. He’s been able to find ways to do it with his legs and his arm. He’s been a great decision-maker for us. He does a lot of communication on the field that I think is really evident, getting us in the right play. And then, obviously, the way he leads off the field, the kind of person he is.