The Oregon Ducks’ move at defensive coordinator this offseason put Chris Hampton in the spotlight, and that pressure is only going to grow once Big Ten play starts. Oregon promoted Hampton from co-defensive coordinator after Tosh Lupoi left for the California Golden Bears, and the Ducks will need that side of the ball to hold up if they’re going to chase their first national championship in program history.
That challenge begins almost immediately. Oregon’s conference schedule is loaded with quarterbacks who can stress a defense in different ways, and the Ducks are likely to see nine of them.
The first major test comes Sept. 26 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum against USC’s Jayden Maiava, a quarterback who, like Oregon star Dante Moore, is being talked about as a sleeper Heisman contender. Maiava is coming off a season in which he led the Big Ten in passing, throwing for 3,711 yards, 24 touchdowns, and 10 interceptions while helping the Trojans finish 9-3 overall and 7-2 in conference play.
A couple of weeks later, Oregon gets another dangerous passer in UCLA’s Nico Iamaleava on Oct. 10.
Under new coach Bob Chesney, Iamaleava is expected to keep climbing after flashing his ability in Big Ten wins over Penn State, Michigan State, and Maryland. The 6-6, 215-pound quarterback finished the 2025 season with 1,928 passing yards, 13 touchdowns, and seven interceptions after transferring from Tennessee.
The Ducks then turn to a familiar Big Ten name in Nebraska’s Anthony Colandrea on Oct. 17 at Autzen Stadium. With Dylan Raiola now on the Ducks, Colandrea is expected to take over as the Cornhuskers’ starter after arriving in Lincoln from UNLV.
He spent two seasons at Virginia and one with the Rebels, and across those three college seasons he has thrown for 7.452 yards, 49 touchdowns, and 29 interceptions. Nebraska is expected to be a double-digit underdog in Eugene.
Illinois brings another veteran quarterback into the mix on Oct. 24, when Katin Houser arrives in his fifth collegiate season. Houser, now with the Fighting Illini, previously spent two seasons at Michigan State before moving on to East Carolina. In four seasons, he has totaled 6,438 passing yards, 43 touchdowns, and 22 interceptions, and Illinois will be hoping he can help engineer a surprise against Oregon.
Halloween brings Aidan Chiles and Northwestern to Autzen Stadium. Chiles, another former Michigan State quarterback, has already shown he can be tough when he’s rolling, and the Ducks know him well from his time as the backup quarterback for the Oregon State Beavers.
Oregon saw him as a starter at Michigan State last season and held him to 154 yards on 10-of-17 passing in a 31-10 win on Oct. 4, 2024.
The biggest quarterback Oregon will face, though, may be Ohio State’s Julian Sayin. The Nov. 7 trip to Columbus could shape the Big Ten race and the CFP picture, and Sayin’s duel with Moore has the feel of a Heisman-level matchup. In his first season as the Buckeyes’ starter, Sayin threw for 3,610 yards, 32 touchdowns, and eight interceptions.
Oregon also gets Michigan’s Bryce Underwood on Nov. 14 in Eugene. Underwood enters 2026 with plenty of expectations after a freshman year that came with growing pains.
Now playing under new coach Kyle Whittingham, he’ll be a major factor in the Wolverines’ CFP push. Last season, Underwood passed for 2,428 yards, 11 touchdowns, and nine interceptions.
The Ducks’ Nov. 20 trip to Michigan State has the feel of a tricky spot on the calendar. It comes after two of Oregon’s biggest games and lands one week before the Washington rivalry game, and it’s set for a Friday night in conditions that are likely to be chilly.
Spartan Stadium has long been a difficult place for visitors, and Alessio Milivojevic will be looking to take advantage under new coach Pat Fitzgerald. Last season, Milivojevic stepped in for Aidan Chiles and made the most of his chances, throwing for 1,267 yards, 10 touchdowns, and three interceptions in nine games, including four starts.
The final quarterback on the list is Washington’s Demond Williams Jr., who will meet Oregon again after the Ducks shut him down in last season’s 26-14 win at Husky Stadium that clinched a CFP spot. In that game, Williams was limited to 129 yards, two touchdowns, and two interceptions. This time, the rivalry matchup is in Eugene, and Williams comes in after throwing for 3,065 yards, 25 touchdowns, and eight interceptions in 2025.
In Other News...
Mario Cristobal's Biggest Oregon Recruiting Misses Still Sting
Mario Cristobals recruiting pitch at Oregon was built on landing elite talent and turning it into program-changing production, and for a while the Ducks had every reason to believe they were stacking blue-chip difference-makers. The names Kingsley Suamataia, Ty Thompson and Justin Flowe all carried five-star buzz when they arrived, the kind of haul that can reshape a roster and raise expectations in a hurry.
Instead, each path turned into a reminder that recruiting rankings only tell part of the story. Suamataia barely got on the field before moving on, Thompson never quite found a clear runway at quarterback, and Flowes time in Eugene was slowed by injury and limited opportunity. For Oregon, the sting is not just in what those players were supposed to become, but in how much promise was left hanging when their tenures ended elsewhere. [Read more 🡒]
Oregon Is Facing The One Debate Ducks Fans Are Tired Of
Oregon has spent plenty of time hearing the same question since joining the Big Ten: can the Ducks really handle being the leagues standard-bearer? Brandon Walker revived that debate by pointing to Oregons recent playoff disappointments, the kind of outside noise that tends to follow a program with championship expectations. For a team that has already had to answer for its place in a new conference, it is the sort of conversation the Ducks would rather leave behind.
Inside the building, the message is much simpler. Dante Moore framed his motivation around the people around him, not rankings or public narratives, and that is the mindset Oregon has leaned on as it tries to turn Big Ten status into Big Ten authority. Dan Lannings job is to keep the group insulated from the chatter, and the Ducks know the easiest way to quiet the debate is to handle business on the field when the season opens against Boise State. [Read more 🡒]
Dante Moore Just Weighed In On Auburn's Place In Rivalry History
Dante Moore has a front-row view of what makes college footballs biggest rivalries matter, and the Oregon quarterback recently put his own stamp on the conversation. As one of the cover athletes for EA Sports College Football 2027 and the first Ducks player on the games cover since Joey Harrington in 2002, Moore weighed in on the sports most heated matchups and included Oregon-Washington among the elite group, alongside Alabama-Auburn and Michigan-Ohio State.
For Oregon fans, his perspective carries a little extra weight because it comes after the Ducks 2025 win at Washington, a result that snapped a long Seattle drought and underscored how much that series still means. Moores take also serves as a reminder that while the national powers get plenty of attention, Oregons rivalry with Washington has earned a place in the same conversation, even if the debate over where it fits in the hierarchy is far from settled. [Read more 🡒]