Oregon coach Dan Lanning is one of a number of coaches who is having to deal with the awkward college football schedule and assistant coaches accepting jobs elsewhere before their seasons are over. He thinks he knows how to fix it.
Lanning argued that college football should play its national championship game on New Year’s Day every year. He feels playoff games should be played on Saturdays in December in order to expedite the schedule.
“Our national championship game is Jan. 19,” Lanning said, via Dan Wolken of Yahoo Sports. “That’s really hard to envision as a coach that’s going out and trying to join a new program and start a staff. It’s hard for players to understand what continuity looks like and where they’re going to be at and to manage that with visits, the portal and everything else that exists. The clear way to do that is to bump the season up and make sure these games happen a lot faster.”
Lanning’s offensive coordinator, Will Stein, has accepted the head coaching job at Kentucky. His defensive coordinator, Tosh Lupoi, will be taking over at Cal. Both are sticking with Oregon until the end of the season, but admit their schedules have been difficult as they try to assemble staffs and come to grips with their new jobs.
The transfer portal opens Jan. 2, before the season even ends, and schools want to have coaches in place to take advantage of that, meaning they have to move quickly to make their hires. Other schools are having an even harder time dealing with coaching changes during the playoff season as a result of that.
Lanning’s proposal might force teams to start the season earlier than they already do. In the grand scheme of things, however, that might be worth it.
