Dante Moore doesn’t have to look far for the clearest path to a Heisman Trophy. Oregon already has the blueprint tucked away in its trophy case, and Marcus Mariota drew it up.
Twelve years ago, Mariota passed on the NFL, came back to Eugene and turned a strong college career into something historic. Moore made the same decision after being viewed as a possible top-five pick in the 2026 draft, and the numbers line up in a way that’s hard to ignore.
In the season before Mariota won the award, he threw for 3,665 yards and 31 touchdowns. Moore finished 2025 with 3,565 yards and 30 scores.
The comparison gets even tighter when you look at the next step. Mariota’s return season produced 53 total touchdowns and a 12-1 record before Heisman voting.
Moore probably won’t pile up 14 rushing touchdowns the way Mariota did, but 4,000 passing yards and 40 total touchdowns are both realistic targets. The bigger issue is cleaner football.
Moore threw 10 interceptions last season, and that number needs to drop to around five or six if he wants voters to latch onto the obvious storyline: he skipped the NFL, returned to school and fixed the part of his game that still needed work.
Oregon’s setup helps make that case possible. The Ducks enter the season ranked No. 2, the highest preseason ranking in program history, and they’re widely expected to make the College Football Playoff.
That kind of team profile gives Moore a stage without forcing him to carry the whole conversation by himself. If Oregon goes 11-1 and reaches the Big 10 championship, his influence will be impossible to miss.
The schedule gives him chances to build momentum early. Home dates with Boise State and Portland State, along with a trip to Oklahoma State, should let Moore put up numbers before Oregon heads to preseason No.
14 USC on Sept. 26.
That game is the first real shot to grab the national spotlight.
October doesn’t look like much of a roadblock, either. UCLA, Nebraska, Illinois and Northwestern make for a stretch where Moore should be stacking touchdowns and strengthening his case instead of slipping into the background of the Heisman race.
Then comes the closing stretch, and that’s where everything gets serious. Oregon visits preseason No.
1 Ohio State on Nov. 7, hosts No. 16 Michigan a week later, then finishes with trips to Michigan State and Washington.
It’s a punishing run, but it also gives Moore a chance to separate himself when the race tightens.
Ohio State looms as the pivot point. If Moore beats the Buckeyes in Columbus while outplaying quarterback Julian Sayin and wide receiver Jeremiah Smith, both of whom enter the season as Heisman favorites, that would be the kind of signature road win voters remember.
The Michigan State game carries its own echo of Mariota, too. Oregon’s defining early win in 2014 came against the fifth-ranked Spartans, with Mariota powering a second-half surge.
The warning sign is right there in Oregon’s recent history: huge numbers alone don’t guarantee anything. Bo Nix put up 51 touchdowns in 2023, but after two losses to Washington, he finished third in Heisman voting behind LSU’s Jayden Daniels and Washington’s Michael Penix Jr. Dillon Gabriel led an undefeated regular season in 2024 and still finished behind Colorado’s Travis Hunter and Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty in the voting.
So Moore’s formula is plain enough. Push toward 40 touchdowns, trim the turnovers, and survive that November gauntlet before finishing with a Round 1 bye in the College Football Playoff.
If he does that, he’ll have done more than follow Mariota’s trail. He’ll have earned a place right next to him in Oregon’s trophy case.
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What stands out is how much the new complex is designed to reflect Oregon itself, from the curved wooden "O" roof built with locally sourced timber to the athlete-focused amenities inside. For Lanning, the construction site is part of the message: the Ducks are still being built, piece by piece, and the work is meant to match the ambition. [Read more 🡒]