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Dante Moore relishing pressure of trying to be Oregon football's next great QB
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- Dante Moore relishing pressure of trying to be Oregon football's next great QB
When you step onto the field in the fall as the starting quarterback for the Oregon Ducks , greatness is expected.
It doesn't matter what you've done in the past; fans in Eugene are expecting you to perform at a high level. Looking through the annals of history, it comes as no surprise. Duck fans have seen the likes of Joey Harrington, Jeremiah Masoli, Darron Thomas, Marcus Mariota, Justin Herbert, Bo Nix, and Dillon Gabriel come through Eugene over the past three decades.
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Going into 2025, a new name will be added to the list of players to start at QB for Oregon. Will a name be added to the list of great passers to call Autzen Stadium home?
That's a different question that redshirt sophomore QB Dante Moore hopes to answer in the coming months. After his transfer from the UCLA Bruins ahead of the 2024 season, Moore enters spring ball l ocked in a competition with Austin Novosad for the QB1 role. It's not so much of a shot-for-shot competition, but rather a partnership to push each other to be their best.
While it may be a meritocracy inside Oregon's practices, you can't ignore that Duck fans overwhelmingly expect Moore to win the job, whether that's fair to Novosad or not. A significant reason is the apparent confidence from current and past teammates in Moore's future. Several months ago, Tez Johnson said that Moore would be a Heisman Trophy finalist this year. Earlier this month, true freshman WR Dakorien Moore took it a step further and predicted that No. 5 will win the Heisman.
So while he may not have the starting job yet, the expectations for Moore to establish himself as the next Oregon legend are there.
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If you ask him, there's pressure in that notion, but he wouldn't rather it be any other way.
"Coach Lanning always tells me pressure is a privilege," Moore said on Thursday after the Ducks ' seventh spring practice. "I just feel like I'm blessed to be here, blessed to be where I'm at overall. Just in general, I'm not really thinking about down the line in the season. I'm thinking about every day, just how I'm getting better at practice, how I'm helping the team around me get better overall. I say, you know, it's always good to think ahead, but right now, I'm just living in the moment."
At the moment, that means further mastering Will Stein's playbook and developing his role as a leader on the field. The offseason went well for Moore, as he cut down his body fat and increased his speed, hitting PRs over the last few weeks.
Should he be fortunate enough to win the QB1 job by the time fall rolls around, Moore will be ready. But he also knows that in order to be great, he can't try to be a Dillon, or a Bo. He has to be Dante.
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"Growing up, I've had great mentors, one being Cam Newton," Moore said. "One thing he always told me is, you know, control what you can control. I mean, you go from Joey Harrington to Marcus Mariota, you got Darron Thomas, you got Bo Nix, you got Dillon Gabriel, there is so many great quarterbacks, but really I'm just thinking about my style of play, how I can better the team, just how I can make myself feel comfortable on the football field."
Once he gets comfortable on the football field, we will see if it's good enough to be the next starting QB for the Ducks. Should that happen, we'll see if he's good enough to be the next great Oregon quarterback.
There are many "ifs" regarding Dante Moore and high expectations for the heights that he may bring to Eugene. Those "ifs" come with pressure, but he relishes it at this point.
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This article originally appeared on Ducks Wire: Oregon football's Dante Moore relishing in pressure to be great QB
