Previewing Oregon's Quarterback Room in Spring Practice
Dillon Gabriel headlines a deep quarterback room for Will Stein heading into Oregon spring football practice.
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00:00 Let's we're going to talk about the running backs.
00:01 Don't don't don't get too worried.
00:03 We'll talk about the backs today, but let's start things off
00:06 talking about the Oregon quarterback room.
00:08 Seems like the position that always has the most anticipation,
00:12 the most excitement around it as we kind of head into this part of the calendar year.
00:17 Tyson, we you know the roster as well as I do, but just to get people up to speed,
00:22 you bring in Dylan Gabriel from Oklahoma and you also bring in former five star
00:27 Dante Moore from UCLA as the Ducks pull off a pretty spectacular feat
00:32 in the transfer portal, landing two of the top available guys.
00:35 You also bring in 2024 quarterback Luke Moga, a speedster,
00:39 really an intriguing quarterback from Phoenix, Arizona.
00:43 And then you return Austin Novosad, who who played a little bit for you
00:48 last year, mainly in the Fiesta Bowl against Liberty.
00:51 But those are the guys that we're looking at.
00:53 Tyson, what do we think of this room?
00:56 I mean, you know, obviously you need to see what it fully looks like
01:00 once the pads come on and the games start counting.
01:04 But I think you could probably make an argument that going into a spring, this is
01:09 as deep and probably as comfortable as an Oregon quarterback room has been.
01:14 Since I've been on the beat, and then that goes back to at least 2014
01:18 when Marcus Mariota was a star starter and Jeff Lockhe was the backup,
01:22 and I would argue that Dante Moore is a bit of a better backup
01:25 than Jeff Lockhe was for the Ducks back then.
01:27 Just a little bit, maybe.
01:28 Yeah, it's and, you know, even kind of going down the list, too,
01:31 because, you know, like you heard positive stories about Austin's development
01:34 last year, Luke Moga is such an intriguing prospect, too.
01:37 You know, I talked to him, I think it was back in December
01:41 and might have been January.
01:42 It's just about what it's like being a quarterback that just signed with Oregon
01:46 that is kind of.
01:48 The also ran because, you know, you're getting the headlines of Dylan Gabriel
01:51 coming in, you're getting Dante Moore coming in, and this kid wants to come in
01:54 and compete, too, and he's offers something that's far different
01:57 than what other guys do with just his his sheer athleticism.
02:00 So, yeah, I mean, I hate to say it's plug plug and play with Gabriel to Knicks,
02:06 because what Knicks did the last two seasons at Oregon was, you know,
02:09 top three Oregon
02:11 quarterbacks of all time in terms of production for those two years.
02:16 In my opinion, I think Knicks was as good as we've seen.
02:19 So I think you got to give, you know, a little bit of
02:22 some respect to the degree of difficulty of that.
02:25 But Gabriel was the best quarterback on the market.
02:29 They got him.
02:30 He's as experienced as anybody in the country.
02:32 He's as efficient as anybody in the country.
02:34 And if you look at the way Oregon's offense has run
02:36 the last couple of years, efficiency is absolutely key.
02:40 And so if he's still hovering around that 70 percent completion percentage,
02:43 this Oregon offense is only going to keep revving up,
02:46 especially with some of the skilled players that they've been adding
02:48 at wide receiver and all over the place.
02:51 It's really hard not to be excited and pretty high on the Ducks
02:55 heading into the twenty twenty four.
02:56 I mean, the discussion this offseason has in large part, Tyson, been
02:59 not so much can Oregon be competitive in the Big Ten, but are they
03:04 maybe even the favorites?
03:05 And we're talking about some great teams like Ohio State and Michigan
03:09 and Penn State, obviously.
03:11 But that's really where this roster is at.
03:13 And I think you have to have confidence if you're an Oregon fan,
03:16 because quarterbacks, not a question mark.
03:19 And I think that Dylan Gabriel, to your point, incredibly experienced
03:23 and incredibly productive and efficient.
03:25 But we don't know that it's necessarily going to be 100 percent smooth sailing.
03:30 I think when you look at Bo Nix's transition from Auburn to Oregon,
03:33 he had that reunion with Kenny Dillingham to maybe help smooth
03:36 things over a little bit.
03:38 But obviously he was an absolute stud because he switched another OC
03:41 the following year and still put up great numbers
03:45 and even found himself in New York for the Heisman ceremony.
03:48 So I think that you obviously have to be super excited
03:50 about what Dylan Gabriel brings.
03:52 I'm personally excited to see him maybe a little bit more just because the lefty.
03:56 I've never really gotten to cover a left handed quarterback.
03:58 I think he's really a gamer and someone that just gives you a shot in any game
04:03 as long as he is calling the shots and running your offense.
04:06 But I think a little bit maybe more where the interesting storyline for me is
04:11 is after Dylan Gabriel with Dante Moore.
04:14 You know, he was, I think, the highest rated recruit at quarterback,
04:17 at least to ever commit to the Ducks.
04:19 And then we all know that he went to UCLA after Kenny Dillingham's departure.
04:23 But the point that I'm kind of curious to pick your brain about, Tyson,
04:26 is maybe just looking at the backup position for Oregon.
04:29 Dante Moore, I think, has more quality experience
04:34 than potentially a Ty Thompson did while he was at Oregon.
04:38 And he only played one year of college ball.
04:40 And that's no slight to tie at all.
04:42 I mean, super admirable how he stuck around and and he obviously deserves
04:45 all the praise in the world, wishing them nothing but the best at Tulane.
04:48 But you have an incredibly gifted quarterback who has already seen more
04:52 quality reps than your primary backup for the past two years.