Big Ten coach has high expectations for Oregon Football QB Dante Moore in 2025
Big Ten coach has high expectations for Oregon Football QB Dante Moore in 2025
The Oregon Ducks will look quite different in 2025 than they did a year ago, and while fans will have many questions about where the talent comes from, and which players will end up producing the most, there is little concern about the amount of talent currently in Eugene.
One of the players who many expect to step up in a major way this year is redshirt sophomore quarterback Dante Moore, a former 5-star recruit who sat behind Dillon Gabriel a year ago and learned the Ducks' system after transferring in from the UCLA Bruins.
While some from the outside may see Moore as your "run-in-the-mill" transfer QB, he is much more than that. Because of his year studying the offense and picking it up behind a veteran like Dillon Gabriel, Moore has a leg up coming into 2025.
In an interview with Athlon Sports Magazine, an anonymous Big Ten coach echoed that sentiment, having this to say about Moore and his early expectations in Eugene.
'They're pretty hyped on the quarterback [Dante Moore], who they've had in the system for a season already, which is a huge advantage," the coach said. "This isn't modifying your book for a guy you get out of the portal; it's a talented, developed player who already knows your system. I think that will show early on this season.'
The Ducks will have several chances in September to allow Moore to ease his way into the offense with a relatively light early-season schedule. Oregon kicks off things against Montana State, followed by games against Oklahoma State, Oregon State, and Northwestern. After that, the biggest regular-season game of the year comes on September 27, when the Ducks travel to Happy Valley to face the Penn State Nittany Lions, who many have ranked as the No. 1 team in the nation going into the new year.
If Moore is as good as expected, then this will be an incredibly entertaining rematch of the 2024 Big Ten Championship Game. After the light early load, this game will give everyone a great idea of just how good No. 5 can be for the Ducks.
Contact/Follow @Ducks_Wire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oregon Ducks news, notes, and opinions.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
USA Today
2 hours ago
- USA Today
Video emerges of Oregon 5-star TE Kendre Harrison shattering backboard with dunk
Video emerges of Oregon 5-star TE Kendre Harrison shattering backboard with dunk The Oregon Ducks have a lot of highly-rated recruits coming in the 2026 class, but after a video circulated online over the weekend, it's become clear that they may have the most tantalizing two-sports athlete coming as well. 5-star tight end Kendre Harrison, who is also a highly-rated basketball player, is going to be fun to watch. The 6-foot-7, 243-pounder out of Reidsville, NC is the No. 1 tight end in the country in the Class of 2026. He is currently the top-ranked player in Oregon's football class and the top-ranked player in Dana Altman's recruiting class as well. Over the weekend, a video emerged of Harrison shattering a backboard with a vicious dunk. This is the third backboard he's broken this season, according to SLAM Hoops. As the No. 1 tight end in the nation, it's not surprising that nearly everyone wanted Harrison's services on the gridiron. But when it came down to it, he picked Oregon over Alabama and Arkansas. Contact/Follow @Ducks_Wire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oregon Ducks news, notes, and opinions.
USA Today
3 hours ago
- USA Today
Iowa Hawkeyes creeping up in College Football Playoff sleeper team picks
Iowa Hawkeyes creeping up in College Football Playoff sleeper team picks Since its inception in 2014, the College Football Playoff has opened the door for many more teams to have a chance at a national championship. Once you get into the field, fans have learned that anything can happen. With the field now expanded to 12 teams, there is more hope to be spread around among college football fan bases. One team and fan base that has been knocking at the door but not yet entered the College Football Playoff party is the Iowa Hawkeyes. A perennial winning program, Iowa has been on the cusp of making an appearance multiple times, only to fall one game short. With a new quarterback in Mark Gronowski, who many view as a large upgrade for Iowa, and a roster constructed to blow by their projected win totals, could 2025 be the season Iowa kicks down the door and enters the College Football Playoff? On3's college football reporter Ari Wasserman believes that could be the case. He has the Iowa Hawkeyes included among his Big Ten and SEC teams that could make noise in the 2025 College Football Playoff. Iowa When you think about Iowa football, you think about laughably bad offense and great defense. It seems to be the same there every single year. But guess what? Iowa brought in quarterback Mark Gronowski from South Dakota State. If you haven't watched his tape, do it. The Hawkeyes have a chance at a semi-explosive offense with a healthy Gronowski at the helm. It's a borderline lock that the Hawkeyes will have an elite defense. Dare to dream. - Wasserman, On3 With a defense that is always steady under defensive coordinator Phil Parker, Iowa has a puncher's chance with a competent offense that shows a pulse. If they can get life from the offense, they become a very dangerous team that could take down a title contender to punch their own ticket to the postseason. Other Big Ten teams pegged as sleepers by Wasserman include the Illinois Fighting Illini who are ascending rapidly under head coach Bret Bielema who is paired with elite QB Luke Altmyer, the Nebraska Cornhuskers who are looking to continue their growth under head coach Matt Rhule, and the Washington Huskies, a newer team in the Big Ten looking to make a big splash. Contact/Follow us @HawkeyesWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Iowa news, notes and opinions. Follow Riley on X: @rileydonald7
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Athletes express concern over NCAA settlement's impact on non-revenue sports
Sydney Moore and Sabrina Ootsburg were surrounded by hundreds of college athletes at AthleteCon when news broke that the $2.8 billion NCAA settlement had been approved by a federal judge. In a room full of college athletes, they felt like the only two people who understood the gravity of the situation. 'I'm about to get paid,' Moore said a Division I football player told her. 'Yes, you are about to get paid, and a lot of your women athlete friends are about to get cut,' she responded. Moore acknowledged that her response might be a stretch, but the sprawling House settlement clears the way for college athletes to get a share of revenue directly from their schools and provides a lucky few a shot at long-term financial stability, it raises genuine concerns for others. Schools that opt int will be able to share up to $20.5 million with their athletes over the next year starting July 1. The majority is expected to be spent on high-revenue generating sports, with most projections estimating 75% of funds will go toward football. So what happens to the non-revenue-generating sports which, outside of football and basketball, is pretty much all of them? It's a query that's top of mind for Ootsburg as she enters her senior year at Belmont, where she competes on track and field team. 'My initial thought was, is this good or bad? What does this mean for me? How does this affect me? But more importantly, in the bigger picture, how does it affect athletes as a whole?' Ootsburg said. 'You look at the numbers where it says most of the revenue, up to 75% to 85%, will go toward football players. You understand it's coming from the TV deals, but then it's like, how does that affect you on the back end?' Ootsburg asked. 'Let's say 800k goes toward other athletes. Will they be able to afford other things like care, facilities, resources or even just snacks?' Moore has similar concerns. She says most female athletes aren't worried about how much – if any – money they'll receive. They fear how changes could impact the student-athlete experience. 'A lot of us would much rather know that our resources and our experience as a student-athlete is going to stay the same, or possibly get better, rather than be given 3,000 dollars, but now I have to cover my meals, I have to pay for my insurance, I have to buy ankle braces because we don't have any, and the athletic training room isn't stocked,' Moore said over the weekend as news of Friday night's settlement approval spread. One of the biggest problems, Ootsburg and Moore said, is that athletes aren't familiar with the changes. At AthleteCon in Charlotte, North Carolina, they said, perhaps the biggest change in college sports history was a push notification generally shrugged off by those directly impacted. 'Athletes do not know what's happening,' Ootsburg said. 'Talking to my teammates, it's so new, and they see the headlines and they're like, 'Ok, cool, but is someone going to explain this?' because they can read it, but then there's so many underlying factors that go into this. This is a complex problem that you have to understand the nuances behind, and not every athlete truly does.' Some coaches, too, are still trying to understand what's coming. Mike White, coach of the national champion Texas softball team, called it 'the great unknown right now.' 'My athletic director, Chris Del Conte, said it's like sailing out on a flat world and coming off the edge; we just don't know what's going to be out there yet, especially the way the landscape is changing,' he said at the Women's College World Series in Oklahoma City. 'Who knows what it's going to be?' What about the walk-ons? Jake Rimmel got a crash course on the settlement in the fall of 2024, when he said he was cut from the Virginia Tech cross-country team alongside several other walk-ons. The topic held up the House case for weeks as the judge basically forced schools to give athletes cut in anticipation of approval a chance to play — they have to earn the spot, no guarantees — without counting against roster limits. Rimmel packed up and moved back to his parents' house in Purcellville, Virginia. For the past six months, he's held on to a glimmer of hope that maybe he could return. 'The past six months have been very tough," he said. "I've felt so alone through this, even though I wasn't. I just felt like the whole world was out there – I would see teammates of mine and other people I knew just doing all of these things and still being part of a team. I felt like I was sidelined and on pause, while they're continuing to do all these things.' News that the settlement had been approved sent Rimmel looking for details. 'I didn't see much about roster limits," he said. 'Everyone wants to talk about NIL and the revenue-sharing and I mean, that's definitely a big piece of it, but I just didn't see anything about the roster limits, and that's obviously my biggest concern.' The answer only presents more questions for Rimmel. 'We were hoping for more of a forced decision with the grandfathering, which now it's only voluntary, so I'm a little skeptical of things because I have zero clue how schools are going to react to that," Rimmel told The Associated Press. Rimmel is still deciding what's best for him, but echoed Moore and Ootsburg in saying that answers are not obvious: 'I'm just hoping the schools can make the right decisions with things and have the best interest of the people who were cut.' ___ AP Sports Writer Cliff Brunt contributed. ___ AP college sports:
