What a Victory Over Penn State Would Mean for Dante Moore’s Legacy at Oregon

RJ Young

FOX Sports National College Football Analyst

Michael Cohen

College Football and College Basketball Writer

Since Marcus Mariota’s Heisman run in 2014, Oregon has fielded a string of talented quarterbacks. Justin Herbert became a top-10 NFL Draft pick. Bo Nix played his way into the Heisman conversation and rewrote the program’s record book. Dillon Gabriel led the Ducks to an undefeated regular season and the top seed in the College Football Playoff.  Yet Mariota remains the standard — the last Oregon quarterback who truly changed the national conversation.

Now it’s Dante Moore’s turn. The former five-star recruit and UCLA transfer has been efficient, poised, and productive through his first four starts at Oregon, but now, the real test looms. Leading the Ducks into Happy Valley to face a top-five Penn State team is exactly the kind of stage that separates good quarterbacks from great ones.

So, we asked FOX Sports college football writers RJ Young and Michael Cohen to weigh in: If Moore leads Oregon to a win over Penn State in Happy Valley, could we be looking at the best quarterback at Oregon since Mariota?

RJ Young: Let’s start with being better than Dillon Gabriel, and that’s a high bar to meet. Gabriel beat the AP’s No. 2 team in the country last October at home. If Moore can lead the Ducks past the No. 3 team in the country on the road, that’s a good start.

The numbers will be there for Moore because offensive coordinator Will Stein’s system is built to highlight what the quarterback does best. Moore is decisive, gets the ball out early, and is developing an outstanding rapport with his wide receiver corps. He’s also completing 75% of his passes with an 11-to-1 touchdown-to-interception ratio.

However, if Moore wants to become known as the best QB Oregon has ever had — and I’d argue a healthy Dennis Dixon is the best QB the Ducks have ever had — he needs to do what Gabriel, Bo Nix, Joey Harrington, Justin Herbert, Dan Fouts and Mariota never did: win a national championship in Eugene. That’s the next level. That is how this conversation gets settled. 

Until December, we won’t know if Moore belongs in the same conversation as Nix or Gabriel. We won’t know if Oregon has a clear path to the national championship. We won’t know if this team can hang with the sharp end of the SEC or Big Ten.

What we do know: Moore looks capable. And a win over Penn State will only strengthen that belief.

Quarterback Dante Moore #5 of the Oregon Ducks high-fives his teammates during the first half of a game against Oregon State. (Photo by Ali Gradischer/Getty Images)

Michael Cohen: Mariota was a transcendent player for Oregon during three seasons as the starting quarterback from 2012-14, a stretch in which the Ducks posted an overall record of 36-5 and reached the national championship game. He was a three-time, first-team All-Pac-12 selection during that run and, in 2014, took home nearly every major award after completing 304 of 405 passes (68.3%) for 4,454 yards with 42 touchdowns and only six interceptions, while also carrying the ball 135 times for 770 yards and 15 additional scores. 

Mariota’s list of honors from that season included the Heisman Trophy, the Maxwell Award, the Walter Camp Award, the Davey O’Brien Award, the Manning Award and the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award. Needless to say, he was a unanimous All-American and one of the greatest college quarterbacks of the 21st century. Moore has miles and miles to go before comparisons between him and Mariota are even remotely warranted. 

The question, though, is where Moore might rank in the pantheon of Oregon quarterbacks to grace the position since Mariota was taken No. 2 overall in the 2015 NFL Draft. It’s an impressive list of candidates that includes multi-year starters like Justin Herbert (2016-19) and Bo Nix (2022-23), plus the one-year wonder that was Oklahoma transfer Dillon Gabriel (2024). While traveling to Beaver Stadium and beating No. 3 Penn State in a “White Out” would undoubtedly be an impressive accomplishment for Moore, a redshirt sophomore, it’s not enough to place him alongside some of the aforementioned signal-callers, all of whom are now on NFL rosters.

Herbert’s senior season included a Pac-12 title and Rose Bowl victory as he threw for 3,471 yards with 32 touchdowns and six interceptions. Nix’s final campaign included a Pac-12 title, a Fiesta Bowl victory and a third-place finish in the Heisman Trophy voting behind fellow quarterbacks Jayden Daniels of LSU and Michael Penix Jr. of Washington. Gabriel, who also finished third in the Heisman Trophy voting last year, guided the Ducks to a Big Ten Championship in their first season as members of the conference and helped earn the No. 1 overall seed in the College Football Playoff. 

There’s no question Moore is off to an incredible start this season with a 74.7% completion rate, 11 touchdowns and only one interception through Oregon’s first four games — especially considering he sat out large chunks of several blowout wins. But in order to be considered alongside players like Herbert, Nix and Gabriel, let alone the lofty standard set by Mariota, he’ll need to prove he can guide the Ducks to a conference championship and keep them in national championship contention. He’s certainly not there yet, but beating Penn State on Saturday night will be a big step in the right direction.

RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports. 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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