When Dante Moore left UCLA after a rocky freshman campaign, he could have chased immediate playing time at dozens of schools. Instead, he made a surprising choice. He transferred to Oregon, where veteran Dylan Gabriel had already locked down the starting job.
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Head coach Dan Lanning admitted that the first conversations with Moore were about honesty.
“I think what happened for Dante when he left UCLA is he looked around college football and realized all of these guys were going to the NFL—Jayden Daniels, Bo Nix, Michael Penix Jr., none of them were freshmen or sophomores,” Lanning said.
“They were veterans who maximized their careers. For him, it wasn’t about how fast he played, but how well he played once he got on the field.”
Moore embraced that perspective. He spent a year absorbing Gabriel’s leadership and mastering Oregon’s offense. That patience paid off on one of the biggest stages in college football.
Under the lights of Beaver Stadium, the sophomore showed why the Ducks were so high on him. Against No. 6 Penn State, Moore was calm, clinical, and unflappable. He finished 29-of-39 passing for 248 yards, three touchdowns, and zero interceptions in a double-overtime thriller that Oregon won 30-24. Not once did the moment seem too big for him.
Moore was never sacked, sliding around the pocket as if he’d been in this offense for years. He finished with a QBR of 80.1, a number that captures not just his accuracy but also his decision-making, composition, and ability to protect the football.
Through five weeks, Moore is completing 74.6 percent of his passes for 1,220 yards, 14 touchdowns, and just one interception. Those numbers are Heisman-worthy. At +650 odds, Moore is firmly in the early conversation for college football’s most prestigious award.
But perhaps more important than any statistic is what Moore represents for Oregon. The Ducks have built a reputation for developing quarterbacks. Bo Nix reinvented his career in Eugene, Dylan Gabriel elevated his draft stock, and now Moore is next in line.
In Moore, Oregon doesn’t just have another star under center; they have proof that patience and development still matter in a sport where instant gratification often wins. As Lanning put it, Moore’s growth is a direct result of the lessons learned from sitting behind a veteran.
