Dante Moore’s trip back to Los Angeles is circled for Sept. 26, when USC welcomes Oregon to the Coliseum in a Big Ten showdown that already has plenty of buzz.
Moore, the former five-star quarterback from Detroit, spent his freshman season at UCLA in 2023 and appeared in nine games with five starts before moving on to Oregon the next year. Now he’s headed back to the same city for a matchup that puts him opposite Jayden Maiava in one of the season’s most intriguing quarterback battles.
At Big Ten Media Days, Moore made clear he’s looking forward to it.
“It’s gonna be a great game,” Moore said at Big Ten Media Days. “Being able to play them last year, he’s a great quarterback, he’s very competitive.
He makes sure he does whatever it takes to help them get wins. It’s gonna be a great game.
We’re gonna go out there of course, play in LA, haven’t played there in a few years, so it’s gonna be a good feeling.”
The stakes around Moore are obvious. He skipped April’s NFL Draft and, by the source’s framing, almost certainly would have been the No. 2 overall pick by the New York Jets. Instead, he enters the 2026 season as the favorite to go No. 1 overall in next year’s draft.
He also comes in bigger, having added 17 pounds to his 6-3 frame during the offseason. On the field, he’s still the kind of quarterback who can make it look easy: a smooth thrower with elite velocity and touch, and the sort of passer who can slice up a defense once he gets rolling.
And he won’t be lacking help. Oregon’s receiver room is loaded, with Evan Stewart back after missing all of last season with an injury, along with Dakorien Moore, the No. 1 receiver in the 2025 class, Jeremiah McClellan and tight end Jamari Johnson.
Maiava brings a different kind of résumé to the matchup. He already has 31 career starts and is among the more seasoned quarterbacks in the country.
The USC quarterback added five pounds this offseason, now listed at 6-4 and 230 pounds, and his accuracy took a major jump from 2024 to 2025. He led the Big Ten in passing yards and finished second nationally in QBR.
There’s every reason to think Maiava can keep climbing in his third year under Lincoln Riley, whose track record with quarterbacks is well known. USC’s passing game also has fresh pieces around him, including sophomore Tanook Hines and a revamped receiver group that includes NC State transfer Terrell Anderson plus freshmen Boobie Feaster, Trent Mosley and Kayden Dixon-Wyatt. Five-star freshman tight end Mark Bowman is also expected to be a major part of the offense.
With two quarterbacks carrying real Heisman and draft buzz, the game could become an early-season statement piece on a national stage. For Maiava, in particular, it could also be another step toward the first-round conversation.
Oregon arrives with plenty of firepower of its own after reaching the College Football Playoff semifinals last season. The Ducks have owned the recent series, winning each of the last four meetings, but USC is trying to change that trend.
The Trojans have been gaining ground in recruiting in California, and now they’ll try to back it up where it counts most. Their schedule is the toughest they’ve faced since joining the Big Ten three years ago, and if they’re going to reach their first College Football Playoff, the path runs through games like this.
USC enters the season with what looks like the strongest roster of the Lincoln Riley era, thanks to major retention and the return of 15 starters, the most in college football, along with the No. 1 recruiting class. Riley didn’t shy away from the expectation when he spoke at Big Ten Media Day, either.
“I do believe we're more equipped than at any point in the previous few years,” Riley said. “That's not a hope or a wish, there’s a lot of facts to back that up.”
For USC, this is the first time it has faced Oregon in September since 2005. That alone gives the Coliseum meeting a different feel, and it offers the Trojans a chance to prove Riley’s words in Chicago were more than just preseason confidence.
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USCs defensive line looks a lot different this year, with returning pieces mixing alongside transfers and freshmen to create more depth and experience than the group had before. In that kind of setting, Abasiris blend of physicality and growing responsibility matters beyond his own snaps. The real question now is how much that expanded role can translate once the Trojans start leaning on this new-look front in games. [Read more 🡒]