The Big Ten’s annual Media Days open July 28 in Chicago, and Oregon walks into the event with one of the conference’s most compelling questions hanging over it: can the Ducks finally turn all that momentum into the program’s first national championship?
That’s the backdrop for Wednesday, July 29, when Dan Lanning, quarterback Dante Moore, tight end Jamari Johnson and linebacker Teitum Tuioti are scheduled to take the podium. For Oregon, this isn’t just a routine summer appearance. It’s the first real public look at how a team that has already been through the grind of a full Big Ten schedule is framing its push into 2026.
The Ducks have spent the last few seasons learning hard lessons against older, more seasoned opponents. Last year, that showed up in the Peach Bowl against Indiana.
The season before, Ohio State handled Oregon in the Rose Bowl. Those losses are part of the story now, and Media Days will offer the first chance to hear how that experience is being translated into a different mindset.
A year ago, the conversation around Oregon centered on talent with maybe not enough experience. That picture has changed.
The Ducks are older now, and they’ve got a season of Big Ten football and a CFP chase behind them. There’s been some turnover - Kenyon Sadiq, Dillon Thieneman and Emmanuel Pregnon are off to the NFL - but Oregon still has plenty of talent in place, and those players are now a year deeper into the system and ready for bigger jobs.
Jamari Johnson is one of the clearest examples of that shift. With Sadiq gone, Johnson has a chance to move from a supporting role into the spotlight as Oregon’s next major tight end.
He flashed that upside in his redshirt sophomore season, finishing with 32 catches for 510 yards and three touchdowns. His biggest moments came when the lights were brightest: a 41-yard touchdown against James Madison and a four-catch, 83-yard outing against Indiana in the Peach Bowl.
As one of Oregon’s official player representatives, his trip to Chicago says plenty about where he stands heading into 2026.
Dante Moore is the other headline name, and for good reason. Oregon’s offense runs through a quarterback who already looks comfortable in the biggest moments. Moore helped lead the Ducks to a 13-2 record and the College Football Playoff semifinals in his first full season as the starter, and he enters this year with more experience, more familiarity and a much sharper feel for the offense.
His 2025 numbers back that up: 71.8 percent completions, 3,565 passing yards, 30 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. But the stat line only tells part of the story.
Moore has now gone through a full Big Ten season as a starter and played in two College Football Playoff games, and that kind of exposure matters when the pressure rises. In Chicago, fans will get their first look at him not just as a rising star, but as a quarterback expected to steer the whole operation.
On defense, Oregon is sending Teitum Tuioti, and his season was as disruptive as they come. He finished with 68 tackles, 16 tackles for loss and 9.5 sacks, and he closed the year by recording a sack in nine straight games. That production puts him among the top edge rushers in college football, and it also points to one of Oregon’s biggest advantages: a pass rush that can wreck a game.
Tuioti and Matayo Uiagalelei formed a nasty one-two punch last season, combining for 25.5 tackles for loss and 15.5 sacks. That pressure up front helps shape everything behind it, giving Oregon’s retooled secondary a chance to jump routes and force mistakes.
Media Days should give a clearer sense of how that defense sees itself heading into 2026, especially with Tuioti speaking for the unit. The conversations in Chicago may not settle anything, but they will show how Oregon is thinking about its identity, its chemistry and the standard it believes it can bring into another Big Ten season.
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