This spring camp might have seemed to have gone quickly for the Oregon Ducks, and for some, it might have dragged on. Nonetheless of the feeling, spring is just about over as the team just finished up their final scrimmage ahead of the annual Spring Game April 25 inside Autzen Stadium.Head coach Dan Lanning, entering his fifth season at the helm of the Ducks, spoke with the media following that scrimmage and discussed a variety of subjects. He likes how the incoming freshmen are coming along and he likes how some veterans are taking on new leadership roles on the field.

He also spoke on how Dakorien Moore is carrying on a long-time tradition at Oregon of having football players participate in track and field and doing well. Moore participated in the long jump in the Ducks' latest meet, but football remains his main priority.Lanning also discussed how football is leading the Oregon athletic department and the closeness all of the coaches have there, which is a more unique situation than the casual fan might realize. Here is everything Lanning had to say Saturday afternoon, one week before the Spring Game.Opening StatementDan Lanning: It was good, good scrimmage today, certainly some stuff that we want to be able to clean up.

But first we want to recognize the next weekend on the 25th for the spring game and a great opportunity to celebrate our military as well as some of our other sports, with baseball and softball playing that afternoon. So expect to see a great turnout. You know, Spring Game's at 1:00, beautiful weather, like we did day.

Unbelievable today out there, a great day for us to get a lot of work in, and excited and anxious to check the film out. It's just some things that stuck out, really got to do a better job protecting the ball offensively, some runs that we got to do a better job stopping defensively, but overall, some good execution on both sides, and some things that we can clean up.The MessageQuestion: It's the last scrimmage before the spring game. What was your message to the team going into this and how do you think they responded to that?DL: Just limited opportunities, right?

We have to recognize that every day is an opportunity for us to grow and get better. And those are going away. You know, spring, I love practice, so we should be doing it all summer, right?

And we don't get that opportunity, and our players need that opportunity to recover as well, but these reps are hard for us to simulate. It's one thing that makes the spring great so great, and why we always say we'll always have one here is that you create a game-like environment in our place. You know, that's where our fans show up and make that really special.

So, taking advantage of days like today is somewhat of a dress rehearsal for games in the fall and this spring game coming up.Younger players showing outQ: Last week, we talked about some of the younger guys showing up. I'm just curious about that progress and to see some players maybe kind of clear up some things a little bit out there.DL: Yeah, definitely saw some guys on both sides of the ball. You know, I know Xavier (Barksdale) had an interception today, and I wouldn't be able to recognize everybody who made a play today.

But there's a big run by Brandon Smith. There were several guys that made some big plays today, and moments for those guys to continue to improve and step up.All Duck sports doing wellQ: You touched on the other sports going around the spring game. Dana Altman, a couple of weeks ago, was talking about how all the sports have to be moving in the same direction, and kind of the importance of football, of how it kind of drives everything else.

Can you talk about the synergy you have with the other coaches, and the understanding of the importance of football being good, but how it helps the other sports here be good as well?DL: So as far as you know, my opportunity here, I'll tell you this, I've never been a part of a collegiate or a university, a college or a university that has relationships that we do beyond sports, like you just mentioned it. Dana is a Hall of Fame coach, and to know that, I get to have a relationship with him, you know, I was on the phone with Derek Bradley yesterday, and you look at the job that he's done and how those guys are competing and Waz (Mark Wasikowski) and, you know, (Melyssa) Lombardi, I mean, we've got an unbelievable group of coaches here, and we're all in it for Oregon, and we all realize that we feed off of each other, and when we're all playing well, It's really benefit to us.

And certainly, you know, football is a revenue-generating sport. I think we all recognize that in the college landscape. But for us to have as many sports as we do perform at the level they do, and then the relationships extend beyond that.

You know, we had to Dakorien yesterday competing in track and field, right? And then he's out there competing in the scrimmage today. So I think all those things, you know, we really tie and work rea