Canzano: Dan Lanning’s mastermind move triggers philosophy debate
The Oregon football coach was asked whether the Ducks intentionally put a 12th player onto the field to defend a late Ohio State pass play on Saturday night.
The strategy resulted in an incomplete pass and a five-yard illegal substitution penalty. More importantly, the sequence cost the Buckeyes several precious seconds on the game clock. One play later, Ohio State ran out of time, and Oregon won 32-31.
“We spend an inordinate amount of time on situations,” Lanning said. “There’s some situations that don’t show up very often in college football, but this is one obviously that we had worked on so you could see the result.”
Lanning could have said nothing and left everyone wondering. But what’s the point? Rick Neuheisel and a bunch of others were already talking about the move and calling it what it was — a mastermind coaching trick designed to help bleed out the clock.
Oregon’s coach had to expect talking about it would ignite a debate about sports ethics and whether a coach has a duty to be a moral saint when the rules of competition allow for wiggle room. I suspect it’s why Lanning was careful with his words.