RJ Young
FOX Sports National College Football Analyst
Michael Cohen
College Football and College Basketball Writer
There’s a new era underway in Eugene, Oregon — and it’s being led by two rising stars who share the same last name and sky-high expectations.
Through two weeks of action, Oregon quarterback Dante Moore looks like the Ducks’ next superstar under center. The former UCLA Bruin has brought poise, precision, and big-play ability to a Ducks offense that has put up 128 points through two games. Now, Moore has the chance to showcase his talent in front of a national audience as the Ducks travel to Evanston to take on Northwestern on “Big Noon Saturday.”
Moore, who has thrown for 479 yards and six touchdowns in two games, isn’t doing it alone. He has the luxury of throwing the ball to freshman phenom Dakorien Moore, the nation’s top wide receiver recruit and a former track star. After a quiet Week 1, the explosive freshman torched Oklahoma State to the tune of 69 receiving yards, 25 rushing yards and a pair of touchdowns.
FOX Sports college football writers RJ Young and Michael Cohen take a look at what we can expect from Dante Moore and Dakorien Moore ahead of Oregon’s Week 3 showdown against Northwestern:
1. Dante Moore looks like the next great Oregon QB. Which aspects of his game stand out most through two weeks, and what can we expect to see from him in the Ducks Week 3 matchup against Northwestern?
Former UCLA QB Dante Moore has thrown for 479 yards and six touchdowns through two games. (Photo by Tom Hauck/Getty Images)
RJ Young: I remain impressed not just with Oregon’s offense, but how Moore has integrated into a system offensive coordinator Will Stein has made work with three different quarterbacks. With Moore, the challenge is his youth. He has so much on-field experience to gain before we can assess him the way we might Bo Nix and Dillon Gabriel. Still, he has command of the scheme and is taking the easy throws as much as he’s pushing the ball down the field.
A hallmark of the Oregon offense has been its insistence on getting the ball out early in passing situations to a number of playmakers — Michael has listed a few of them below, including Dakorien Moore, who we’re both high on — without sacrificing the need to run the ball and be physical in third-and-short and goal-line situations.
Michael Cohen: Moore’s passing accuracy has really jumped off the screen through the first two weeks. In a broader sense, he ranks eighth nationally and third in the Big Ten for completion rate at 77.3% following dominant victories over Montana State (59-13) and Oklahoma State (69-3). It’s a mark that compares favorably with the completion percentages of Gabriel in 2024 (72.9%) and Nix in 2023 (77.4%), both of whom finished third in the Heisman Trophy voting during those respective seasons and were widely considered among the most accurate quarterbacks in the country. That Moore is hovering well north of 70% through the Ducks’ first two games, one of which was against a Power 4 opponent, should be highly encouraging for head coach Dan Lanning and his staff given that Moore only completed 53.5% of his passes as a freshman starter for UCLA two seasons ago.
But even more impressive than Moore’s overarching completion percentage has been his expertise in an area that is less quantifiable, though perhaps even more important: ball placement. Not only is Moore completing an exceptionally high number of passes so far this season, he’s also pinpointing each ball in a location that gives his intended receiver an opportunity to maximize yards after the catch. Sometimes that means hitting them perfectly in stride. Other times it means leading them away from converging defenders and into open space.
That kind of next-level accuracy has allowed Oregon’s receiving corps to rack up 129 yards after the catch against Montana State and 185 yards after the catch against Oklahoma State, a romp in which four different players accounted for at least 24 yards in wide receivers Jeremiah McClellan (57 yards), Gary Bryant Jr. (38), Dakorien Moore (37) and tight end Kenyon Sadiq (24). The Ducks have been particularly potent in creating run-after-catch opportunities off of play action, with Moore averaging 13.4 yards per attempt on 16 passes despite an average depth of target that is only five yards downfield. In other words, he’s hitting the Ducks’ skill players in places where they have plenty of room to run.
2. After a quiet performance in Week 1, Oregon wide receiver Dakorien Moore had a breakout game in Week 2. How has Moore changed the dynamic of the Ducks’ offense, and what is the ceiling for this dynamic freshman?
Dakorien Moore caught two passes for 69 yards and a touchdown and added 25 yards rushing and a score in Week 2. (Photo by Ali Gradischer/Getty Images)
Michael Cohen: With three of Oregon’s four leading receivers from the 2024 campaign departing for the NFL in wideout Tez Johnson, wideout Traeshon Holden and tight end Terrance Ferguson, there was always going to be some depth chart reshuffling entering this season. The diminutive Johnson, who was selected in the seventh round by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, caught 83 passes for 898 yards and 10 touchdowns while leading the Ducks to a Big Ten championship and the No. 1 overall seed in the College Football Playoff. No other Oregon player caught more than 48 passes or exceeded five touchdowns, though Holden (Dallas Cowboys, UDFA) and Ferguson (Los Angeles Rams, second round) still combined to make 88 receptions for 1,309 yards and eight scores for an offense that finished third in the Big Ten in scoring at 34.9 points per game.
It was widely expected that the leading role would be passed down to speedy receiver Evan Stewart, a former five-star prospect and one-time Texas A&M transfer who hauled in 48 passes for 613 yards and five touchdowns last fall. But when Stewart suffered a torn patellar tendon in June — an injury that will likely sideline him for the entire season — there was suddenly an even larger opportunity for Moore, a true freshman, to force his way into offensive coordinator Will Stein’s plans. Moore arrived at Oregon as the No. 4 overall prospect and No. 1 wide receiver in the 2025 recruiting cycle, a title he inherited from Ohio State star Jeremiah Smith. Though he stands just 5-feet-11 and 182 pounds, Moore is a bonafide burner with legitimate track speed: He anchored a 4×200-meter relay team that won the 6A state title in Texas and set a national high school record with a time of 1:22.25 his junior year. Individually, he’s been clocked as low as 10.4 seconds in the 100-meter dash.
That explosiveness has paid dividends across Oregon’s first two games, with Moore already scoring touchdowns as both a runner and a receiver. His unique ability to pull away from, or flat-out elude, defenders in the open field makes him one of the most dangerous weapons in college football, let alone the Big Ten. Now it’s up to Stein and the rest of the Ducks’ coaches to get Moore the ball as many ways as they can. He’s destined to be a star.
RJ Young: Moore has fit into the No. 1 wide receiver role we’ve seen Tez Johnson and, at times, Stewart, occupy. He possesses the same talent to turn short yardage plays into explosive plays that his high-profile predecessors have. If anything, I think Moore can be the most adept and effective deep threat the Ducks have seen at wide receiver since Troy Franklin. He’s already the best freshman wideout in the Big Ten and on the short list for the best freshman wideout in the entire country.
What remains to be seen with Moore is what heights he might reach for the rest of the season and against what competition. With Montana State and Oklahoma State in the rearview, we’re already looking toward a potential top-five showdown with No. 2 Penn State. That’s one of the two games I expect to find out just how good Moore is and just what we might expect from him in the near future. The Ducks didn’t feature a 1,000-yard receiver last season. Moore could change that and then some with a big year.
RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports and the host of the podcast “The Number One College Football Show.” Follow him at @RJ_Young.
Michael Cohen covers college football and basketball for FOX Sports with an emphasis on the Big Ten. Follow him at @Michael_Cohen13.
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