Dan Lanning smiled and laughed a lot Monday. He also said “right” a lot, punctuating almost every point he made with that word followed by a question mark. As in, “you saw the Sugar Bowl, right?”
It was evident that the Bulldogs' 28-21 loss to Texas in the Superdome still stings for Lanning. That game represented his debut as Georgia's defensive coordinator. It represented his debut as a coordinator, period.
So, even though the Bulldogs were missing some keep pieces — not to mention some internal motivation — the 33-year-old Missourian is glad he gets a do-over this season.
“Obviously a great learning experience and a great opportunity, but we didn’t take advantage of it,” Lanning said. “I think it left a sour taste in our mouth. But that was last year, and this is 2019. The 2019 team’s a completely different team than our 2018 team. That's been the focus from our very first day. We talked about the guys who were there before and the guys that are there now and it's a different group.”
The Bulldogs faced Texas without three of their best defensive players. Cornerback Deandre Baker chose to skip the game in advance of the NFL draft, and outside linebacker D'Andre Walker and inside linebacker Monty Rice were out with injuries. Georgia quickly fell behind 17-0 and trailed 28-7 early in the fourth quarter.
“I wouldn’t say that we put that game behind us because we like to acknowledge what happened, but we’ve moved on from that,” Lanning said. “We know that this is a completely different team at this point.”
Lanning was somewhat of a surprise choice to succeed defensive coordinator Mel Tucker when Tucker left to be Colorado's head coach. Lanning's only previous experience as a full-time assistant coach came at Memphis as inside linebackers coach and recruiting coordinator before he came to Georgia in 2018. He had never been a coordinator at any level.
Lanning answered reporters’ questions Monday about that and other subjects. That will be the only interview opportunity with the new defensive coordinator until the postseason.
Here’s some highlights from that session:
On being chosen for the job despite more experienced applicants …
“I think one thing that’s great about coach Smart, anybody that works for him puts himself in a position every day where he’s training you for opportunities moving forward. He wants you to think outside the box. So, I think the interview process for me started the day that I got here and probably back to my time when I was at Alabama with Coach. But I think that’s for every one of our coaches on staff. He puts you in situations where you have to think, try to be ahead of the curve and prepare yourself for a situation if something changes and an opportunity presents itself.”
On defensive coaching hierarchy …
“Right now, I’m in charge of being the head coach of the defense. My job is to make Coach Smart’s job easier. But I don’t do that alone, I do that with every one of the coaches we have on defense with coach (Glenn) Schumann, coach (Tray) Scott, coach (Charlton) Warren, and it’s going to be a collective unit from today all the way to the end of season, and that's the way we’re always going to operate. On game day, will there be a little bit of an executive committee? At times. But it all starts with our head coach and, lucky for me, every day where I'm having to question, ‘how would I operate as a defensive coordinator in that room,’ I can just look to my left and look at the guy that was the best defensive coordinator in the nation for nine years and ask him a question.”
On outside linebacker group (before Brenton Cox news broke later Monday) …
“It’d be hard to single out one or two, but there’s some guys that have had a really good camp so far and obviously we’re only three days in. Walter Grant’s a guy that moved around a lot in the spring and has done some really good stuff coming back; he’ll work with us more full time this fall. Azeez Ojulari’s a guy that finished off the year last year really strong and is doing really well, but I don't think you could put aside the work that Robert Beal’s put in. It’s hard to just sit here and say this guy, that guy, and obviously we have some newcomers we’re really excited about.”
On 5-star freshman OLB Nolan Smith …
“I don’t know if you guys know it’s Shark Week, but Nolan Smith, we’re calling him ‘Hammerhead’ now, the way he likes collision runs. … Coming to college is a humbling experience for any person, so Nolan handled that the right way. He’s really eager to learn, he’s extremely bright and smart. He’s one of those guys that signed the signing day papers and then the next day is like, ‘coach, where’s my playbook at?’ That’s Nolan, and he’s great for our room, he motivates our guys, he plays really hard, and you can overcome a lot of young mistakes when you play hard. That’s what's exciting about Nolan.”
On new secondary coach Charlton Warren …
“Anytime you’re able to bring in a coach that’s been some other places, it’s always exciting to get some fresh ideas, some new stuff and Coach Warren’s an extremely bright coach. He does a really good job and has a lot of experience in the SEC and just across the nation. We're able to sit back and ask him questions about how they've done it different somewhere else to see if it’s something we can improve on defensively. And then I think he brings a great discipline to that room with his players, he holds those guys accountable and does a really good job with that. He’s been great for us.”
Impressions of freshman defensive lineman Travon Walker …
“It’s hard to measure a ceiling three days in, it's still relatively early in fall camp, especially with yesterday being just the first day of pads. But am I excited about the guys we have in that room? Absolutely. Travon is extremely athletic, is strong, he's really an athletic guy for his size; obviously has the basketball history as a high school player, so I’m definitely excited to see what he can do. He's a guy that's good moving but he's also strong enough to hold the point. So, I don’t think I would put a ceiling on Travon, and I also wouldn't put a ceiling on our D-line at this time.”
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