Oregon Ducks coach Dan Lanning is entering his fifth season as the coach in Eugene. He has an overall record of 48-8.Where does Lanning rank among all coaches in college football?Dan Lanning Ranked No. 5 on Coach List Oregon head coach Dan Lanning, left, shakes hands with Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti as the Oregon Ducks host the Indiana Hoosiers Oct. 11, 2025, at Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Oregon. | Ben Lonergan/The Register-Guard / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn ImagesSporting News released their annual college football coach rankings from 1-138. Lanning is No. 5. Here are the four ahead of him. 1. Curt Cignetti, Indiana Hoosiers 2. Kirby Smart, Georgia Bulldogs 3. Ryan Day, Ohio State Buckeyes 4. Marcus Freeman, Notre Dame Fighting Irish 5. Dan Lanning, Oregon Ducks The top three coaches on this list all have won national championships in recent years: Cignetti in 2025, Smart in 2021 and 2022, and Day in 2024. It would be hard to argue that those aren’t the three best coaches in the sport at the moment. The one coach ranked ahead of Lanning without a national title is Freeman. Freeman, like Lanning, is entering his fifth full season as head coach. Since 2022, Freeman has a record of 43-11. Very close to Lanning’s 48-8 mark. Head coach Marcus Freeman during a Notre Dame football practice at Irish Athletic Center on Saturday, April 18, 2026, in South Bend. | MICHAEL CLUBB/SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn ImagesWhile Notre Dame has only made the College Football Playoff one time in this span while Oregon under Lanning has made it twice, the Fighting Irish do have a deeper playoff run on their resume. In the 2024 season, Freeman led Notre Dame all the way to the national championship game, where they lost to Ohio State. Oregon on the other hand has made the playoff in back-to-back seasons in 2024 and 2025. In 2024, the Ducks were the No. 1 ranked team in the country. They lost their opening playoff game in the quarterfinal. The following year, Oregon entered the playoff as the No. 5 team. They did not earn a bye this time, but won their first round and quarterfinal game to advance to the semifinal. They were eliminated in the semifinal by the eventual national champion Hoosiers. If Lanning had a national title on his resume, it's likely he would be higher on this list than Freeman and maybe even some of the other coaches in the top three that do have national titles. What is also clear in this list is that despite not having won the ultimate game so far in his young head coaching career, Lanning is still one of the best coaches in the country. Oregon Ducks Among Title Favorites Dec 31, 2024; Los Angeles, California, USA; Oregon Ducks head coach Dan Lanning during the Rose Bowl head coaches press conference at Sheraton Grand LA. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images | Kirby Lee-Imagn ImagesOregon is expected to be right in the thick of the national title race once again in 2026. According to DraftKings Sportsbook, the Ducks have the fifth best odds to win it all at +800. Here are the teams with the best odds in the country. Ohio State Buckeyes: +650 Notre Dame Fighting Irish +700 Indiana Hoosiers: +750 Texas Longhorns: +750 Oregon Ducks: +800Something that stands out from this short list of title contenders is that there is a theme that keep reappearing in college football. The dominance that the SEC once had over the rest of the country is not there anymore. Georgia head coach Kirby Smart and Oregon head coach Dan Lanning meet during warm ups before the start of the Chick-fil-A Kickoff NCAA college football game between Oregon and Georgia in Atlanta, on Saturday, Sept. 3, 2022.