COLUMBUS, Ohio — Oregon coach Dan Lanning hinted in a press conference with reporters on Monday night that the illegal substitution penalty his team committed during the end of the Ohio State game Saturday was done, indeed, on purpose.
“It wasn’t one-on-one, we actually had a safety on-top,” Lanning said. “It’s called, “Dog.” He wasn’t in extremely tight coverage, but he was in “Dog” coverage where he had safety coverage on top of him, and yeah, there was a timeout before that. We spend an inordinate amount of time on situations, there’s situations that don’t show up very often in college football, but this is one that obviously was something that we had worked on. So, you can see the result.”
Ohio State lined up with trips right, and the ball on the right hashmark, with 10 seconds remaining. Oregon countered with five players on that side of the field and a safety over-the-top, overwhelming that side of the field. The Ducks also had their No. 1 cornerback, Jabbar Muhammad, on Ohio State receiver Jeremiah Smith on the wide side of the field with safety help over the top.
The goal, with an extra defender on the field, is to prevent a play for significant yardage, which would have let Ohio State into easier field goal territory. And as the rule book states, the seconds will not be added back to the clock after the play is run.
In short, Lanning and the Ducks traded a five-yard penalty, with the understanding that time would run off the clock. And with so little time left, the Buckeyes would only have one play left to run after the penalty was assessed. That would’ve meant a 55-yard field goal if no yardage was gained, a field goal from wherever the Buckeyes moved the ball to, or a Hail Mary attempt.
The design worked, as quarterback Will Howard scrambled on the game’s final play, but did not slide in time for the Buckeyes to call timeout and the game ended. It was a shrewd move for the third-year Oregon coach, considering the moment in time of a massive game.
Ohio State coach Ryan Day said on his Monday radio show that the only way to avoid wasting time on that play is to spike the ball. He feels like Ohio State had some receivers open on the play, noting, “There was still an opportunity to make a play there.”
Lanning says he reached out to Day over spitting incident
Lanning also said that he reached out to Day over wide receiver Traeshon Holden’s spitting incident during Saturday’s game.
Holden was ejected in the second quarter after spitting in the face of Ohio State cornerback Davison Igbinosun. It didn’t slow down the Oregon offense, but it wasn’t a massive moment and pushed Oregon out of the red zone.
“There’s absolutely zero place for that in our program,” Lanning said. “I reached out to coach Day and expressed my frustration in that situation. Traeshon’s extremely apologetic. He’s embarrassed. He realizes how wrong he was in that moment. And we will handle some things internally, there is some discipline that exists there. But I’m going to leave that for us internally to handle and communicate.”
Holden released an apology on Sunday for his actions.
Key dates
- Ohio State vs Nebraska: 11 days, Oct. 26
- Ohio State at Penn State: 18 days, Nov. 2
- First CFP Rankings: 20 days, Nov. 5
- The Game 2024: 45 days, Nov. 30
- Big Ten Championship Game: 52 days, Dec. 7
- Early Signing Period: 65 days, Dec. 20-22
- National Championship Game: 96 days, Jan. 20, 2025
