Lanning brings energy to Bulldogs

ATHENS — The Memphis football team posted a short video online two seasons ago, one that featured its young assistant coach Dan Lanning. About midway through, the team is switching drills when Lanning and a player jump in the air toward each other, then exchange hip checks.

The h ip check sends the Memphis player to the ground. Lanning, however, lands on his feet, as some players laugh.

“Got me one! That’s one!” Lanning shouts, holding up a finger, and then looking for someone else to hit.

Thus i t’s easy to see why Kirby Smart, another high-energy practice coach, saw something he liked in Lanning, whom Smart has brought to Georgia. Lanning is UGA’s new outside linebackers coach, replacing Kevin Sherrer, who left to become the defensive coordinator at Tennessee.

“He’s got a lot of energy on the field, and I am really excited to see what he’s going to do with a really talented D’Andre Walker and some freshmen at outside backer,” Smart said Monday night during an appearance on the show “The Official Visit” on 680 The Fan.

Smart worked with Lanning in 2015, when Lanning was a graduate assistant coach at Alabama who worked with the outside linebackers. After two seasons at Memphis, where he was the inside linebackers coach, Lanning was hired by Smart to replace Sherrer.

There was no need for an interview, Smart said.

“It was a no-brainer for me,” Smart said during his radio appearance. “Dan was a guy I considered when I got the job (as Georgia’s head coach). I wanted to bring him in with coach (Glenn) Schumann. Dan does a tremendous job. I got to watch him work and be around me when I was with the University of Alabama. He had a really good resume.”

A native of Missouri, Lanning played linebacker at William Jewell College, a small college in Missouri. After college, he worked as an assistant coach at the high school level from 2008-10, following a similar career track as people such as Sherrer and Jeremy Pruitt, who also started their coaching careers in high school.

But less than a year later Lanning found himself as an assistant coach at a Power Five school — albeit for one game. Lanning joined Pittsburgh as a graduate assistant, and when coach Todd Graham left for Arizona State before the Birmingham Bowl, Lanning coached the linebackers for that one game.

Then Lanning followed Graham to Arizona State, where he spent a year as a graduate assistant and another in an off-field role that included on-campus recruiting coordinator. Following that, Lanning went to Sam Houston State for a year, where he coached defensive backs and was again the on-field recruiting coordinator.

Then it was on to that season at Alabama, where he got to know Smart. And in the two seasons at Memphis, apparently Smart kept a close watch on him.

“When he went to Memphis, he was able to sign the best non-Power Five recruiting class in the country as the recruiting coordinator at Memphis,” Smart said. So I was 100 percent confident in who I wanted to hire.”