Oregon's Dan Lanning talks Ra'Shaad Samples, opening day of fall camp

After Oregon’s media day Aug. 3, the Ducks’ football team held its first day of fall camp Wednesday at the indoor Moshofsky Center with wildfire smoke spread across the greater Willamette Valley.

Oregon coach Dan Lanning spoke for the second time in three days about a slew of topics including Ra’Shaad Samples DUII in April, the status of several players with serious injuries and the opening of fall camp, one month removed from the Ducks’ season opener against Boise State.

Here’s what Lanning said Wednesday.

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After details and video emerged from Samples’ reckless driving incident in April showed him backing up his truck into another parked vehicle, Lanning said Oregon handled discipline internally.

“We were aware of this back in April when it first happened,” Lanning said. “One, we take it extremely seriously. There’s accountabilities that are required and they were required in this moment. On the same note, they’ve been completed. It’s something that we take very serious, there’s always consequences in those moments and we handled that internally like we do with several things that you guys don’t necessarily know about.”

Samples reportedly resisted giving his license and information at first and gave the other driver a false name before the other party found out who he was.

Samples will be made available to local media next Wednesday, Aug. 12, in his first public press conference since the incident.

Though Lanning said he’d have to look back at the film before he could acknowledge standouts, he did say young players are already taking more on their plates this fall compared to seasons past.

He specifically mentioned sophomore running back Dierre Hill Jr., defensive backs Peyton Woodyard and Brandon Finney and mentioned the edge rusher group at large.

“I think this is always one of my favorite parts of the year,” Lanning said about the opening day of camp. “The guys flew around. It’s always a challenge day one, as far as checking where you’re at from a conditioning standpoint, where you want to put yourself at to where you can achieve at a really high level. I felt our guys pushed through that.”

Lanning said he was mostly looking at body language, mindset and assignment-sound football as things that could be spotted without looking at film later.

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Though Lanning kept the details vague about injuries, he did offer comment about two players dealing with severe injuries.

Dillon Gresham, a third-year receiver who has never appeared in a game for Oregon and was seen wearing a neck brace on the sidelines last season, may be done playing football for good, per Lanning.

“There’s not really a clear indication that Dillon’s going to be able to help us in the future,” Lanning said. “He’ll be a part of our team. But from a medical standpoint, I don’t know if that’s clear that he’d be able to.”

Lanning also said offensive lineman Dave Iuli, who has been dealing with a torn tricep, is still limited and not “full-go.”

Along with the NCAA’s new “Five-for-five” rule allowing athletes up to five years of competition rather than the redshirt system in the past, a judge ruled certain athletes could return to school from the 2022 class.

For Lanning, though, there aren’t a ton of athletes who fall under the right circumstances to return.

“As we’ve explored it, there’s not a lot of guys that fall into that category for us,” Lanning said.

Alec Dietz covers University of Oregon football and women’s basketball for The Register-Guard. You may reach him at adietz@registerguard.com.