Oregon’s Dan Lanning feels for Ducks locker room after loss to Indiana

The Oregon Ducks’ College Football Playoff run came to a painful halt Friday night, and head coach Dan Lanning did not shy away from the emotional toll the loss took on his players. After Oregon was overwhelmed 56-22 by Indiana in the Peach Bowl semifinal at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Lanning addressed the reality of what his locker room was feeling in the immediate aftermath.

When asked what the hardest part of being in the locker room was following the defeat, Lanning delivered a raw and heartfelt response that reflected the weight of the moment.

“Man, you hurt for those guys because the world is going to judge everybody in that room based on the result tonight,” said Lanning, via NBC Sports insider Nicole Auerbach. “I’m going to judge those guys on the kind of fathers they become some day, the kind of husbands they become some day. But in this moment you feel like a failure, right? They’re not. These guys won a lot of damn ball games. They’ve had a lot of success. They’ve change some peoples’ lives, but right now, that moment is going to hurt.”

The loss was decisive almost from the opening snap. Oregon quarterback Dante Moore threw a pick-six on the first play from scrimmage, immediately putting the Ducks in a hole they never escaped. Indiana capitalized on multiple turnovers and fourth-down stops, racing out to a 35-7 halftime lead and never looking back.

This matchup was a rematch of the teams’ regular-season meeting in Week 7, when Indiana defeated Oregon by 10 points. However, the postseason version proved far more lopsided, as the Hoosiers dominated both sides of the ball and turned the game into a rout by the second quarter.

For Oregon, the defeat carried extra sting. The Ducks had spent over a year trying to move past last season’s Rose Bowl blowout loss, hoping this playoff run would deliver a different ending. Instead, the Peach Bowl felt eerily familiar, another high-stakes game slipping away early, leaving little opportunity to recover.

Despite the disappointment, Oregon still reached a deep playoff run, advancing further than it had the previous season. Lanning acknowledged Indiana’s strength while emphasizing that the Ducks’ season should not be defined solely by its final result.

As Indiana moves on to face Miami in the national championship, Oregon now turns its attention toward reflection and regrouping. For Lanning and the Ducks, the pain of this loss will linger.

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