The Oregon Ducks had one of the most successful seasons in program history last year, going 13-1 with a Big Ten Championship win and a No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoff. Now, in 2025, they will look to reach the same heights once again, but this time around with almost an entirely new roster.
Since coming to Eugene, Dan Lanning has recruited at an elite level. In 2025, talent acquisition and development will be tested. Gone are the players from past regimes; in will be the blue-chip players whom Lanning and his staff have hand-picked.
On offense, players like Dillon Gabriel, Tez Johnson, Jordan James, Terrance Ferguson, and Josh Conerly are leaving for the NFL. The defense sees the likes of Jeffrey Bassa, Jordan Burch, Derek Harmon, and Jabbar Muhammad move on as well.
So, who will step up and replace them? That’s the million dollar question in Eugene. We have our depth chart projections on offense and defense, but the next several weeks of practice will determine a lot for the Ducks. As we continue our preview of the spring season leading up to Oregon’s annual spring game, let’s take a deep dive, position by position.
For starters, let’s go under center and begin with the quarterbacks.
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Few teams have had as much success at the quarterback position as the Ducks over the last couple of years, let alone decades.
Ducks fans have had the good fortune to watch the likes of Joey Harrington, Darron Thomas, Marcus Mariota, Justin Herbert, Bo Nix, and Dillon Gabriel play inside Autzen Stadium, to name a few, with four of those six players making it to New York City as finalists for the Heisman Trophy. In each of the past two years, Oregon has been represented in the race for the most prestigious award in college football, but now those players are gone, and a new era is set to begin in Eugene.
Will the success continue? Hope remains for an eager fanbase, but the spring season will tell us a lot about where Oregon’s quarterback position currently stands and who will lead the way in 2025. Let’s look at the whole picture, breaking down who arrived this year, who left, and who remains at the quarterback spot going into spring football.
Player Departures
Dillon Gabriel (NFL)
Career Stats: 63 Games — 1,376-for-2,111, 18,722 yards, 155 TDs, 32 INTs
Analysis: Dillon Gabriel’s one season in Eugene was undoubtedly successful. He led the Ducks to the second undefeated regular season in program history. While things fell short of the ultimate goal of a national championship, Gabriel will have a legacy in Eugene.
Jaron Keawe-Sagapolutele (Transfer)
Career Stats: None
Analysis: After flipping from the California Golden Bears on signing day, 5-star QB Jaron Keawe-Sagapolutele joined the Ducks for a couple of weeks leading up to the Rose Bowl. However, after a handful of practices, he entered the transfer portal and returned to Cal after getting a sense that he would not be a Day 1 starter for Oregon.
Returning Players
Dante Moore
Career Stats: 14 Games — 121-for-221, 1,659 yards, 11 TDs, 9 INTs
Analysis: With Gabriel now gone, the quarterback competition is officially on between the remaining passers in Eugene — Dante Moore, Austin Novosad, and Luke Moga. There is a belief that Moore has a leg up on the competition, seeing as he spent a year as the starter for the UCLA Bruins before transferring to Oregon last year with hopes of taking the reins after a year of learning behind Gabriel. Expectations are high for No. 5, with Tez Johnson coming out earlier this offseason and declaring that Moore will be a Heisman Trophy finalist in 2025.
Austin Novosad
Career Stats: 6 Games — 11-for-13, 52 yards, 0 TDs, 0 INTs
Analysis: Many fans are already rewarding Moore with the QB1 job in 2025, but let’s not be so quick to count Novosad out of the race. While Moore may be favored to win the starting job, there will still be an open competition for the spot, and based on what we’ve heard from coaches and players this year, Novosad has made great improvements and will be in the mix.
Luke Moga
Career Stats: None
Analysis: Moga will compete for the starting spot, but with less experience than Moore and Novosad, it’s fair to expect that he may serve as a backup for at least another year while one of the other two starts for Oregon in 2025.
Incoming Players
Akili Smith Jr.
Career Stats: None
Analysis: With Sagapolutele transferring out of Oregon, Akili Smith Jr. is now the Ducks’ lone QB in the 2025 recruiting class, and he will come in and work to establish a place on the depth chart and try to earn the starting role in years to come after likely redshirting as a freshman.
Projected Starter
Prediction: Dante Moore
Oregon will enter the spring season with an open competition for the QB1 role, but my money is on Moore to quickly be dubbed the next guy. Based on what I heard throughout the 2024 season and into this offseason, Moore is the real deal and would have been more than capable of leading the team to success a year ago should his name have been called. While Austin Novosad is a talented player and could likely start for most teams in the nation, I don’t think he will beat out Moore for the top job this spring.
Overall QB Outlook
In general, the Oregon quarterback room is in a very good place right now and into the future. Moore is expected to take over as a plus starter in 2025 and potentially in 2026 as well, assuming he doesn’t go to the NFL. The Ducks’ present outlook is set.
In the future, they have options. Novosad has eligibility remaining, and Luke Moga is a talented player who should continue to develop. We will wait to see what Akili Smith Jr. can bring to the table this spring as a freshman, but he was the No. 15 QB in the 2025 class, so expectations should be high. Beyond that, the Ducks are currently recruiting the QB position at a very high level and are among the favorites to land 5-star QB Jared Curtis, the No. 1 passer in the 2026 class.
As long as nothing drastic happens, Oregon’s quarterback room should be among the best in the nation for the foreseeable future under Dan Lanning.
This article originally appeared on Ducks Wire: Oregon Ducks 2025 spring football quarterback preview
