No. 1, 10-0! Dan Lanning has had a perfect record so far. Of course, he would want to do some things differently, especially in a few close encounters, such as the one against the Buckeyes last month. However, the Ducks won that game 32-31. Other than that, they have had a great run. The defending champs, Michigan, couldn’t defend to save their life, and Lanning’s team smoothly went through with that game. What is the biggest fear for a program when its head coach is winning it all? Promotion. Here, a promotion, in some people’s eyes, would mean an NFL gig.

It was all good until ESPN’s senior NFL report, Jeremy Fowler, linked Lanning to a potential NFL job. To add to that story, NFL analyst Dan Orlovsky dubbed the Oregon HC as the second-best elite coach in college football after Kirby Smart. So, there is some movement in this regard, and naturally, we have others pitching in, with some advising Dan Lanning to think hard before he makes such a move.

Football analyst duo Maggie Gray and Andrew Perloff discussed Lanning’s possible NFL future on their November 15th episode of The Maggie and Perloff Show. Maggie started the discussion, saying, “I would just beg Dan Lanning don’t do this. Okay, first of all, college coaches have not had a lot of success going to the NFL. College coaches, especially ones on the defensive side of the ba*l I just feel like you’re adding a degree of difficulty to that.

Who is Maggie talking about when she mentions defensive coaches not being successful in the NFL? We have one name in mind. Nick Saban was having a great time at LSU in the early 2000s when the big league came calling. He couldn’t refuse the temptation and accepted a head coaching position at the Miami Dolphins. How did it fare? Well, not great. In his first season, the Dolphins went 9-7 and missed the playoffs. Things didn’t improve the next year, as the team ended up 6-10 (Saban’s first losing season). The GOAT of college football only lasted two seasons in the NFL before he accepted a position at Alabama. The rest is history. He took the Crimson Tide to new heights, and that’s how we remember Saban. Nobody cares about that failed gig at the Dolphins.

However, there is an important lesson here for coaches having the ambition to make it to the NFL. Everything that glitters may not be gold. Sometimes, it is just a shiny thing that is no good.

Andrew Perloff also pitched in on the Dan Lanning topic and raised another interesting point. “There’s no chance he’s leaving Oregon for the NFL. That dude didn’t want Alabama. So he’s going to go to the Jacksonville Jaguars? No chance. There is a zero chance that an NFL team can pull him away from Oregon.”

Lanning was there with the Tide back in 2015 under Nick Saban as a graduate assistant. So when Saban resigned from his job, there was speculation all over about Dan Lanning joining the crew. However, he put an end to those claims when he opted to stay in Oregon. His exact words were, “I want to be here in Eugene for as long as Eugene will have me.” For the sake of inquiry, if it could happen, what are the possible destinations?

Where can Dan Lanning go if choose the NFL route?

It’s highly unlikely, but let’s entertain this query. What are the possible landing spots for the Ducks’ head coach in the NFL? Let’s start with the New York Jets. They were the first team to let go of their head coach, Robert Saleh, this season, just five weeks into the ongoing season. Since then, the team has had a bad period, even though their star QB Aaron Rodgers got what he wanted (teaming up with Davante Adams, for instance).

On the second spot, we have the Jacksonville Jaguars. 2-8 record, dead last in the AFC South, a promising QB struggling to make a mark. The head coach, Doug Pederson, has been in the line of fire for a while, and it doesn’t look like he’ll be on the sidelines next year. They can do with someone like Lanning, who has a history of turning it around and doing it quickly.

Third, we have another AFC team, the Las Vegas Raiders. Another team with a dismal record of 2-7 and years of misery, especially with how their divisional rival, Kansas City Chiefs, has been dominating the NFL. There were some signs of a turnaround last year, but that hasn’t materialized. Will Antonio Piece continue? It doesn’t look likely.

The ball is in Lanning’s court. Will he go down the NFL route or continue his success at Oregon Ducks? Looking at Nick Saban’s journey, it’s not a bad idea to stay put.