Dan Lanning explains what Dillon Gabriel brings to Oregon

Oregon will transition from one experienced quarterback to another with the addition of quarterback Dillon Gabriel out of the transfer portal. He is exactly what the Ducks need too based on the assessment of the Ducks’ new starter from Dan Lanning.

On3’s J.D. PicKell interviewed Lanning on ‘The Hard Count’ on Tuesday and discussed Gabriel as a fit for Oregon for this fall. Lanning said that he will fill in nicely as a piece that will help the team compete at a high level again, especially considering many of last season’s contenders had veteran quarterbacks starting for them.

“Well, I think that we all know it starts at quarterback,” said Lanning. “You’ve got to have people that can compete to win. If you don’t have that? It’s really hard to win in college ball.”

“Dillon has proven to be a winner. He has had a lot of success in college football,” Lanning continued. “I think you look at the final stretch in college football last season? You see a lot of quarterbacks with experience.”

Now, with Gabriel in the fold as well as another portal quarterback, Lanning is very high on where the program sits at that position going into next season.

“We’re really excited about the people that we were able to add,” said Lanning. “Dillon, Dante (Moore), the guys that we have in that room right now.”

“His experience is going to pay off for us as well as having those other guys in the room that are really talented,” Lanning said.

Gabriel has played five collegiate seasons overall with three at UCF and two at Oklahoma. Next year in Eugene will eventually be his sixth. To this point, he has completed 63.1% of his throws in his career for over 14,800 yards, 125 touchdowns, and only 26 interceptions. He also rushed for over 1,000 more yards while scoring 26 times with his legs.

After a pair of campaigns in Norman, Gabriel chose to transfer again and eventually decided on Oregon. He joined as the No. 5 QB and No. 16 player out of the portal per On3’s 2024 Portal Rankings. That made him the fourth-highest rated addition for the program of their No. 6 transfer class. He was behind only WR Evan Stewart (Texas A&M), CB Jabbar Muhammad (Washington), and Moore (UCLA).

Oregon benefitted from an accomplished quarterback that transferred in with Bo Nix over the past two years. They, along with Lanning, will now hope to see Gabriel play the exact same role, if not a better one, as a Duck come kickoff.