Dan Lanning was so excited you couldn’t tell if he was looking for someone to hug or tackle after No. 3 Oregon beat No. 2 Ohio State 32-31 on Saturday night.

As Oregon fans stormed the field to celebrate perhaps the biggest Ducks victory the 57-year-old Autzen Stadium has ever hosted, their third-year head coach looked like he would have been at ease with the revelers instead of a police force to get an escort. the sea of ​​humanity.

By the time he arrived at his post-game press conference, Lanning was still hot.

“Does anyone have a heart rate monitor?” the 38-year-old said.

The Big Ten’s matchup of the year, between the league’s most talented perennial power and its most notable newcomer, delivered on all counts. The lead changed hands seven times as the Buckeyes and Ducks traded scores over the final 40 minutes.

“We all knew what we were getting into, you know, a dog fight, two heavyweights going at it,” said Ducks quarterback Dillon Gabriel, who passed for 321 yards and ran for a 27-yard touchdown early in the fourth quarter.

Oregon (6-0) defeated Ohio State in the simplest and most straightforward way possible: with a loaded roster that could compete against the most talented team in the new conference, a testament to modern team building.

The Ducks played without their best defensive player (edge ​​rusher Jordan Burch, the team’s leader through five games) and simply slotted former blue chip recruit Matayo Uiagalelei into Burch’s role.

“Do you have me tonight?” Uiagalelei said Burch asked him before the game.

“I got you,” Uiagalelei told the senior transfer from South Carolina. Has he ever done that? Uiagalelei delivered a sack in the fourth quarter, a tackle for loss on a third down that stopped an Ohio State drive in the second quarter and two more quarterback pressures.

Then there was Texas A&M transfer Evan Stewart, the former five-star prospect who came into the game as the Ducks’ fourth-leading receiver. Stewart came to Eugene knowing he would complement Oregon’s top target Tez Johnson, who had seven catches for 75 yards and a touchdown against the Buckeyes.

“Like I said, before this season I was really just trying to play my role,” Stewart said. “Because, you know, A&M, we’ve never really been able to win that much. So I kind of just went into the season, we have one and I respect him. I didn’t want to come in and step on toes like that, but I did want to come in and contribute.”

Stewart was Oregon’s best offensive player against the Buckeyes, catching seven passes for 149 yards and a touchdown. His performance became even more significant when Ducks receiver Traeshon Holden was ejected from the game in the second quarter after spitting at Ohio State cornerback Davison Igbinosun.

Stewart and Johnson took turns toasting Ohio State’s top cornerback, Denzel Burke, one of several Buckeyes defenders who passed up the opportunity to become a high-round NFL Draft pick last April to return for another run at Michigan, a Big Ten championship and a national title. title. The Buckeyes came in allowing less than one touchdown per game and just one completion of at least 30 yards.

“(The coaches) told us this week that (the Buckeyes) have never seen anyone like us,” Stewart said. “And you know, if you look at the film of their previous games, that’s the truth. So we just went into this game knowing that we are who we are, and they haven’t seen us yet, so we want to give them a show.

When Oregon hired Lanning as coach to replace Mario Cristobal after the 2021 season, it was looking for someone who understood what a championship roster looked like. Turning over a program like Oregon to a 30-something first-time head coach was a move that even Ducks fans wondered about. But Lanning had spent time at Alabama as an assistant under Nick Saban and three years as an assistant under Kirby Smart at Georgia.

When Oregon was defeated 49-3 by Georgia to start the 2022 season in Lanning’s first game in charge, there was no secret what the problem was.

“They will recover from this and he knows we have better players. He will never say that, but he knows we have better players,” Smart said at the time.

Lanning picked up where Cristobal left off and set about building a better roster, but with some new tools: the transfer portal and name, image and likeness money.

Based on geography alone, Oregon will have a hard time keeping up with the SEC powerhouses and Ohio State when it comes to high school recruiting. But Lanning’s connections and ruthless approach have combined with Oregon’s well-run collective Division Street, allowing his program to pool talent with the best.

“I can’t say enough good things about the team we just played, they are an elite football team we just played. They are really very talented. They have no weaknesses, but our guys did just enough tonight to get the win,” Lanning said.

As questions answered at a 15-minute press conference, Lanning couldn’t hide his relief: “That’s good, because I have to recruit here.”

Oregon’s sideline was full of prospects Saturday night, so there was no doubt Lanning’s job was far from over. Those visitors watched one of the best games of the year in one of college football’s best atmospheres. A record 60,129 Autzen attended to see Oregon defeat the team that has set the standard in the Big Ten for more than two decades.

The Ducks certainly looked like a worthy new rival. And this looked like a game we’ll see again in Indianapolis in December, with a conference championship on the line.

As Lanning wrapped up his speech, he had a message for everyone listening.

“If you see good players,” he said, “tell them to come here.”

(Photo: Ali Gradischer / Getty Images)