Dan Lanning addresses the growth of Dante Moore, Austin Novosad in Oregon QB battle

Oregon has a big hole to fill at its quarterback position this season, as Heisman Trophy finalist Dillon Gabriel moved on to the NFL following a stellar 2024 campaign. This leaves either Dante Moore or Austin Novosad to lead the Ducks into the 2025 season.

With less than just two weeks until Oregon‘s season opener against Montana State on Aug. 30, head coach Dan Lanning has yet to name a starting quarterback between the two arms. Many expected Moore, who was ranked the No. 3 overall player in the Class of 2023, to win the job but Novosad has made a late push according to multiple reports.

Lanning discussed where both quarterbacks have grown most during a media opportunity on Wednesday.

“I’m excited about the growth of everybody in our quarterback room,” Lanning said. “For me, it’s can they operate the offense at a high level? I think if you go back and look at the moments where those guys first got here and you say ‘we should’ve made this check but we didn’t’ or ‘we shouldn’t have adjusted to this and didn’t.”

“It’s just the way you use your cadence to command the offense and the way you break a huddle. All those areas have been a big improvement, and then a couple of plays hit and all of a sudden everybody’s confidence goes up.”

Moore has yet to take control of starting job, per Pete Thamel

“That’s the one thing that the quarterback can impact is the confidence of everybody on the field because a quarterback’s job is to get everybody around him to play better. You can’t be good at quarterback if you aren’t good at wideout or be good without an O-line with good protection. So at the end of the day, those guys have been able to create a lot of that. If you look at them from day one to where they are now, it’s night and day.”

Moore played in nine games at UCLA as a freshman in 2023, where he passed for 1,610 yards, 11 touchdowns and nine interceptions. He then transferred to Oregon following the season, backing up Gabriel in 2024. Novosad is embarking on his third season with Oregon, where he committed out of Dripping Springs High School in 2023. He’s attempted just 13 career passes.

“I think that’s the expectation right now, as you look at Oregon, (Moore’s) obviously been in the program. They paid him a lot of money to be the backup last year,” ESPN’s Pete Thamel said on last Friday’s episode of The Pat McAfee Show.

“But it wouldn’t surprise me if we do see some real snaps from (backup) Austin Novosad this year. Really talented young guy coming in. I would think that Dante Moore is ahead there right now, but I don’t know if it’s a hammer-lock on the job.”