Skip to content

Ad Disclosure

Urban Meyer admits to Dan Lanning’s late-game brilliance: ‘I’ve been playing checkers’

Paul Harvey

By Paul Harvey

Published:

Urban Meyer was one of the most successful head coaches in the modern era of college football. However, even he had to admit Dan Lanning was a step above in his late-game strategy of Oregon’s win over Ohio State.

During a recent episode of “The Triple Option,” a college football show featuring Meyer and his FOX co-workers Rob Stone and Mark Ingram II, Meyer admitted he’s “been playing checkers” during his coaching career if Lanning pulled that move off intentionally. The head coach of the Ducks still has not explicitly said “yes,” but his telling press conference answer and appearance on the Dan Patrick Show tell you all you need to know about the intent behind the play.

“If that’s true (that Lanning did it on purpose), then for 38 years of my career, I’ve been playing checkers,” Meyer conceded. “I’ll be honest, that’s never even crossed my mind.”

“You’re conceding 5 really important yards at a critical time that almost gets you into field goal range,” said Stone.

“At the perfect moment,” Ingram added.

“And I’m just trying to think over the headset… the sideline is chaos, and they say you’ve got Jeremiah Smith, you’ve got Emeka, I mean they’re 12 yards away from kicking a game-winning field goal and you’re going to give them 5 more yards?” asked Meyer. “I’m a checkers guy then.”

While Lanning’s move might have been brilliant, it’s the last time anyone will get to exploit that loophole in a crucial moment. On Wednesday, the NCAA issued a new interpretation to the rule that will allow the team accepting the penalty to put time back on the clock if the foul occurs inside the final 2 minutes of a half.

Paul Harvey

Paul is a lifelong fan and student of all things college football. He has been covering college football since 2017 and the B1G since 2018.