With two Heisman Trophy winners in the building, Oregon’s quarterback left little doubt about the 2023 Pac-12 quarterback hierarchy.

Tyson Alger photo/The I-5 Corridor

EUGENE — Dan Lanning isn’t one to just fill a recorder.

Even after a win, the second-year Oregon coach is solved about as easily as a Rubik’s Cube when it comes to getting him to readily dive into anything of substance postgame.

What did he think about Oregon’s 13 penalties on Saturday? He didn’t like them, but he’s going to have to look at the tape.

What about the status of the bevy of injured Oregon cornerbacks? More tape.

Or how about the play of second-unit guys like Rodrick Pleasant, Nikko Reed and others? Tape. Tape. Tape.

But something different happened at the start of Lanning’s press conference Saturday, the one after his No. 6 Oregon Ducks beat USC 36-27 in a game that ended up looking a lot closer than it felt. Feeling the energy of the fifth-largest crowd to ever attend a game at Autzen Stadium, and having just watched his quarterback play one of the best game’s of his career, Lanning didn’t need to see anything else for once.

“That,” Lanning said. “is a Heisman-worthy performance from Bo Nix.”

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Tyson Alger covered the Ducks for The Oregonian and The Athletic before branching out on his own to create and run The I-5 Corridor. He brings more than a decade of experience on the University of Oregon sports beat. He has covered everything from Marcus Mariota’s Heisman Trophy-winning season to the Ducks’ first year in the Big 10.