FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Oregon coach Dan Lanning reiterated his desire to see the college football season end on Jan. 1 each year, not only to set the sport’s schedule but also to reduce long wait periods between games for bye-winning playoff teams.
During the final press conference Wednesday before the College Football Playoff quarterfinal at the Capital One Orange Bowl, Lanning was asked about changes that could be made to alleviate issues that have affected several CFP teams, including coordinators taking head coaching jobs and the transfer portal opening on Jan. 2.
“Every playoff game should be played every weekend until the season is over,” Lanning said. “Even if that means we start Week 0 or you eliminate a bye, the season ends Jan. 1, and then the portal opens, and then coaches who need to move on to their next opportunities can move on to their next opportunities.”
Oregon offensive coordinator Will Stein (Kentucky) and defensive coordinator Tosh Lupoi (California) juggle their responsibilities to the Ducks and their new schools. So is Ohio State offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach Brian Hartline, USF’s new coach.
“Our national championship game this year is Jan. 19, and that’s really hard to imagine for a coach trying to come to a new program and build a team,” Lanning said. “It’s hard for players to understand what continuity looks like and where they’re going to be and deal with that with the visits, the portal, everything that’s there. The best way to do that is to speed up the season and make sure those playoff games happen a lot quicker.”
Lanning repeatedly said that playing in the first round last week against James Madison helped his team stay in rhythm, although after the victory he lamented that Oregon didn’t reach “a standard of performance” in the Ducks’ 51-34 win.
Last season, Oregon was the No. 1 seed in the CFP and had a longer layoff, losing in the quarterfinals 41-21 to Ohio State. All four teams that received a first-round bye last season lost in the quarterfinals.
Texas Tech coach Joey McGuire said he spoke to several coaches who were drafted in the first round last year, including Arizona State’s Kenny Dillingham, to get advice on avoiding a similar fate. McGuire said the extra time off benefited his team from a health standpoint — especially for quarterback Behren Morton — and that they worked more with the first-team offense and defense.
“We added periods, otherwise there would be sudden changes in training,” McGuire said. “So Howard Sampson was blocking David Bailey or trying to block him from the point of view [of] just the speed of the game. So we tried to do things like that to try to stay in rhythm.”
Some of these issues will be alleviated if the CFP moves to weekends in December, as Lanning wants.
“I have a lot of respect for the NFL, but we are an NFL prep league,” Lanning said. “We do a lot of favors for the NFL. We’re a minor league in many ways, but the NFL doesn’t pay any money to take care of college football.
“We dedicated some of our days to the NFL. We said, ‘Oh, you’ll have this day, you’ll have this day, you’ll have this day.’ Saturday should be sacred to college football, and every Saturday through December should belong to college football. »
