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Oregon Ducks head coach Dan Lanning confirmed Monday that he did, in fact, knowingly exploit a loophole in college football’s rules to help defeat the Ohio State Buckeyes on Saturday.
The incident occurred late in Oregon’s 32-31 victory over the Buckeyes. With Ohio State facing 3rd-and-25 at the Ducks’ 43-yard line and time winding down, Oregon got called for too many men on the field. While the Ducks conceded five yards due to the call, they also burned precious time off the clock and kept Ohio State from completing its third-down pass.
After the play, fans and media members speculated that Oregon may have taken the penalty intentionally. Now, Lanning seems to have confirmed those suspicions.
Dan Lanning confirms the 12 men penalty was intentional: pic.twitter.com/VPpi8eMAWj
— Tsunami (@Tsunami_TS) October 15, 2024
“We spend an inordinate amount of time on situations, there’s some situations that don’t come up very often in college football, but this was one that obviously was something that we had worked on,” Oregon coach Dan Lanning said with a wry smile when asked about the incident. “You can see the result.”
Lanning isn’t the first to exploit this rule. But he may well be the first in college football.
Legendary NFL coach Buddy Ryan used to run what he called a “Polish Goal Line” defense. Ryan intentionally sent more than 11 (and up to 16!) men on the field to stop opponents. He’d bleed down the clock and then put out 11 players on the final play of the game in hopes his defense could make one stop.
But the NFL caught onto his scheme, making too many men a presnap penalty. That meant the time would go back on the clock.
However, this is not the case in college football. Lanning knew that time and a stop were more important than five yards in that situation. So he put his team in the best possible position to succeed. It’s fantastic coaching and a large reason why the Ducks left the field with an historic victory.