Checking in with the Oregon Ducks QB room ahead of the 2025 season

We are less than 50 days away from the start of the 2025 college football season, and fewer than two weeks stand between us and the beginning of the Oregon Ducks' fall camp getting off the ground in Eugene. While coaches and players wrap up their final couple of offseason weeks, we're ready to dive back into things and take a deep dive into what's set to take place at Autzen Stadium this year.

The Ducks are coming off of an incredible season that saw a 12-0 regular season, a Big Ten Championship, and the No. 1 seed in the first-ever 12-team College Football Playoff. The offseason brought significant roster turnover as Oregon sent a program record 10 players into the 2025 NFL draft; however, those players have been replaced by a young yet incredibly talented group of players ready to uphold the standard in Eugene.

Will they be able to complete the job? Expectations are high, but it won't be an easy task.

Over the next few weeks, many questions will be asked, and a significant number of them will be answered. Once we get a look at things during fall camp, we will be able to predict more accurately how things shape up. However, we already have our depth chart projections for offense and defense from spring. As we continue our preview of the 2025 season leading up to the kick-off vs. Montana State on August 30, let's take a deep dive, position by position.

For starters, let's go under center and begin with the quarterbacks.

Overall Oregon Ducks QB Check-In

When it comes to quarterback success, there have been few teams that have enjoyed as much as the Ducks over the decades. That success has been particularly highlighted over the last three years, with a run of Heisman Trophy finalists in Bo Nix and Dillon Gabriel.

Will that success continue in 2025 with the next regime? Be it Dante Moore or Austin Novosad, there is faith amongst fans that Oregon's offense will continue to click. We saw during the spring season that both players are capable of making high-level throws and operating in Will Stein's scheme, giving us a pretty good look at where the Ducks' QB position currently stands, and who may 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.

Oregon Ducks QB 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 realizing he would not be a Day 1 starter for Oregon.

Returning Oregon Ducks QBs

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 Oregon Ducks QBs

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.

Predicting the Oregon Ducks QB Starter

Prediction: Dante Moore

With an open QB competition during the spring season, there was a sense going into the summer that Dante Moore did enough to grab the No. 1 spot and will enter fall camp as the presumed starter. Based on the little that we have seen from him so far, plus what I have heard from behind the scenes in the program, Moore has a high ceiling and could be in line to continue Oregon's successful lineage for the next couple of years. 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 Oregon Ducks QB Outlook

In general, the Oregon quarterback room is in a great place right now and looking ahead to 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 got a commitment from 4-star Bryson Beaver, the No. 6-ranked QB in the 2026 class, per On3.

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.

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This article originally appeared on Ducks Wire: Oregon Ducks quarterback preview ahead of 2025 season