Oregon’s Dan Lanning has a lot of respect for Clemson’s Dabo Swinney, and the two head coaches recently had a chance to chat.

Lanning doesn’t shy away from seeking advice from other coaches, and during Big Ten Media Days, Lanning shared that he met with Swinney to have a conversation this offseason.

According to Lanning, he randomly reached out to Swinney and was able to gain insights from the Tigers’ longtime head man.

“I always try to challenge myself to visit with guys and see if there’s any secrets that they have, or anything that’s been really good for them,” Lanning said, via College Football at Saturday Glory. “I was at Georgia for a long time, and you really don’t talk to Clemson. But I got the opportunity to call – I just kind of shot Dabo a random text. I think he’s done an unbelievable job there at Clemson for a long amount of time, and we visited for 45 minutes. It was great that he would give me that time to kind of just share some of his insights on what he’s been able to do.”

Lanning is now entering his fourth season as Oregon’s coach after spending the previous four seasons at Georgia under head coach Kirby Smart, including the last three as defensive coordinator.

Lanning has led Oregon to a 35-6 overall record while posting double-digit wins in each of his first three seasons. Last season, the Ducks went undefeated in the regular season before winning the Big Ten Championship in their first year in the conference. They earned the No. 1 seed in the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff, while matching the program record with 13 wins.

Along with Swinney, Lanning spoke about several other coaches he has learned from and leaned on during his career.

“I’m always challenging myself to find different ways – doesn’t mean you’re going to do it, but just to hear somebody else’s perspective, how they do things,” Lanning said. “Obviously I visit with coach Smart a lot. There’s probably nobody that’s influenced my career as much as Kirby has. [Florida State] coach [Mike] Norvell, coach [Nick] Saban — I’ve been fortunate enough to work with a lot of great ones. I tap in a lot on those lines to be able to figure out, hey, is there something else that we can do.”

–Photo courtesy of Lucas Peltier-Imagn Images