A narrow-body Airbus A320 with turbofan engines carrying the University of Oregon football team left Eugene just after noon PT on Friday. The team charter is estimated to land in State College, Pa., right around 8 p.m. local time.
Football coach Dan Lanning spent his late afternoon on Thursday at his home, relaxing. Well, mostly. Oregon’s coach and I spoke for 20 minutes on the phone, then Lanning jumped in his SUV and headed to a nearby youth football practice to see his son, Titan.
“I get to see the family a little bit,” Lanning said.
When the Ducks played an early-kickoff Saturday game at Northwestern two weeks ago, they flew to the Midwest on a Thursday. Given that Penn State is a 7:30 p.m. ET kickoff on Saturday, Oregon decided to wait and fly eastward on Friday, a day in front of the game.
“We visited with Bill Nye (the Science Guy) about it and got his opinion,” Lanning told me. “No, really, we talked with NFL teams and sports-science people. We kind of developed a plan this summer about when these games would be played and our thought process. If it’s a night game, we don’t necessarily need to travel an extra day in advance.”
Lanning isn’t happy with the Big Ten schedule makers. The Ducks played the Civil War game at home last weekend. Penn State was idle and enjoyed a bye week. It’s one of seven occasions this season in which UO’s opponent will have more rest.
“This wouldn’t happen to Ohio State and Michigan, would it?” I asked Lanning.
“No comment,” he said.
Lanning paused for a beat, then couldn’t help himself.
“We’re traveling 15,000 miles this year, and we play seven teams that have more prep time than we do,” he continued. “That’s unique, isn’t it? It’s almost like they didn’t want us in the Big Ten, or something, right?
“We snuck our way in, didn’t we?”
Is the extra-prep time that big of an advantage?
The ‘Jim Knowles Factor’ on Saturday.
What NFL scouts are waiting to see from QB Dante Moore.
What I know about Oregon State’s “players-only” meeting this week.
A University of Washington upset brewing?
Is the Washington State quarterback room settled?
Portland State’s Big Sky mission.
Opinions, a laugh, a coachable moment, and a thought on Mariners’ slugger, Cal Raleigh.
I emptied the notebook today…