Dan Lanning evaluates play of Dante Moore, Dillon Gabriel
This offseason, Oregon Ducks head coach Dan Lanning was active in the Transfer Portal, adding quarterbacks Dillon Gabriel and Dante Moore this offseason. They’re coming in to try and replace Bo Nix.
Following a recent scrimmage during Spring practice, Lanning praised his new quarterbacks for how they played and handled the fast pace.
“The speed of play shows up more and more on scrimmage because it’s just a little bit of a faster pace,” Dan Lanning said. “I thought both of those guys handled it well. Both of those guys were able to move around with their feet a little bit and utilize their feet, which was a positive to see from them.”
Bo Nix came to Oregon as a transfer at the same time Dan Lanning came in as the head coach. He immediately put up massive numbers for the Ducks, throwing for 8,101 yards and 74 touchdowns in 27 games. During that stretch, Oregon had a 22-5 record. Replacing him is going to be difficult.
Dillon Gabriel comes in with plenty of experience, having started three seasons at UCF and two at Oklahoma. During his college career, he’s thrown for 14,865 yards and 125 touchdowns. Meanwhile, Dante Moore was a five-star recruit in the Class of 2023 who spent his freshman year at UCLA.
“I thought, overall, we made pretty good decisions. There were some times we put the ball in jeopardy. We’ve got to protect,” Lanning said. “But, in general, all of our quarterbacks I thought were able to execute. We’ve probably got to establish, like I said, the run a little bit better in the second half of the scrimmage.”
Spring practice will continue forward for Oregon, with the team’s Spring Game set to be held on Saturday, April 27th.
Dan Lanning breaks down hire of Ra’Shaad Samples as running back coach
Another change coming for the Oregon offense is the running back coach, with the team hiring Ra’Shaad Samples to take over the position. It’s a hire that Dan Lanning recently explained.
“You always lean on relationships of people that know the guys. There are several guys on our staff that knew Ra’Shaad well. He’s a guy that I knew of but didn’t get to work with, personally. But Will, Drew has worked with him in the past. Certainly excited. Relationships are huge. Ultimately, for us, we’re going to recruit across the nation. So, we have to have guys that are good at relationships. Not guys that are good in areas. Ra’Shaad’s a guy that’s certainly really good in Texas but he’s good at relationships. He cares about relationships and that’s going to pay off for us in recruiting,” Lanning said.
“We spent a lot of time trying to find the right guy. There’s a lot of great candidates and tons of people that wanted to be here. For us, the pieces that he adds to our program — even as a young, up-and-comer, he’s had some great experience… The multitude of positions he’s worked with made him a great fit for us.”