The question posed to quarterback Dylan Raiola, Oregon's splashy offseason transfer from Nebraska, during the Ducks' on-campus media day in early August was fairly simple: "When was the last time you entered a football season not the starter?" a reporter asked. "Uhhhmm," Raiola replied, dragging out the sound and tilting his head to one side while pondering exactly how he should respond. "I don’t want to — yeah — I don’t think it’s ever happened.
It’s something new, but I know change is good. And especially at a place like this, I’m more than willing to sacrifice for the greater good." The reason Raiola has to sacrifice is because Oregon’s starting quarterback from the 2025 campaign, Dante Moore, shocked many across the college football landscape by turning down the chance to enter the NFL Draft — he was widely projected as a top-10 pick — to stay in school and chase a national championship. Moore announced his decision during a live television appearance on Jan.
14, after which head coach Dan Lanning stormed into the room and jumped on a desk in celebration. Raiola had committed to Oregon via the transfer portal two days earlier, uncertain in that moment what Moore’s final decision would be. Still, Raiola and his family were keenly aware that the scenario Oregon now faces — with Moore as the unquestioned starter entering Saturday’s opener against Boise State and Raiola poised to spend the season in a backup role — was well within the realm of possibility.
Part of what made Raiola’s camp feel comfortable with that arrangement was seeing how much Moore benefited from a similar set of circumstances two years ago when he joined the Ducks after spending his freshman season at UCLA. Now, Moore is a bonafide Heisman Trophy candidate this fall and will almost certainly become a first-round pick in next spring’s NFL Draft. "I think everybody wants everything now," Raiola said during that same interview.
"You asked the question about when’s the last time I haven’t started. I processed that over the last six months that I’ve had [at Oregon], and I just think that when everything is thrown at you and you’re always in the microscope, you can kind of lose sight of the process and the journey and enjoying it. So to be able to sit back and watch and learn from a guy that does it at a high level [is awesome]." The similarities between their respective journeys run deep.
Moore was a five-star prospect from Detroit who peaked as the No. 2 overall recruit in the 2023 cycle. He earned scholarship offers from seemingly every blue-blood program in the country — including one from former Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh when Moore was still in seventh grade — and originally committed to Oregon in the summer before his senior year of high school.
Moore eventually decommitted from the Ducks on Dec. 19, 2022, and signed with UCLA two days later, stunning the college football world and giving then-Bruins head coach Chip Kelly a trajectory-changing quarterback. Raiola, meanwhile, spent more than a calendar year as the top overall prospect in the 2024 class before finishing at No.
21 overall and the No. 3 signal-caller behind current Ohio State starter Julian Sayin and current Baylor starter DJ Lagway. He spent chunks of his recruitment committed to Ohio State (seven months) and Georgia (seven months) before making a stunning flip to Nebraska, which is his father’s alma mater.
In that moment, he became the second highest-rated high school prospect to ever sign with the Cornhuskers in the recruiting rankings era. "I challenged him," Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule said during his signing day news conference in December 2023, "like ‘Hey, make sure you’re serious about this. I don’t want this to be something that isn’t right for you.’ And he said, ‘My life has greater purpose than just being the top recruit.
I know what Nebraska means to my family, I know what it has meant to me and I’d like to come there.’ "I think in the end, to have a player of Dylan’s caliber — not of his recruiting, but of his caliber — his arm talent, his ability to see the field, but probably more than anything, his work ethic and how much he cares about the game, we obviously took that." From the moment that both players set foot on college campuses, their respective paths toward seeing the field as true freshmen came into focus. Moore split time with fellow quarterback Ethan Garbers during UCLA’s season opener and then started five consecutive games for a team that ultimately finished 8-5 overall. Individually, though, Moore’s performance was relatively uneven: three games with multiple touchdown passes offset by three games with multiple interceptions; four games with at least 234 passing yards undercut by two games with a completion rate below 43%.
He entered the transfer portal less than a week removed from the Bruins’ regular season finale. But at Oregon, where Moore spent the 2024 season learning behind first-team All-American and eventual third-round pick Dillon Gabriel, his reset doubled as a rebirth. A year to steady himself without much on-field pressure ignited Moore’s growth rate under then-offensive coordinator Will Stein, now the head coach at Kentucky.
When Moore finally assumed the starting role last fall, he went on to throw for 3,565 yards with 30 touchdowns, 10 interceptions and the fourth-best completion percentage (71.8%) in the country. "It helped me out a lot being able to sit one year," Moore told me at Big Ten Media Days in July. "You get to learn so much.
All your practice reps, you get to just learn from a vet and ask all the questions you could ask. And then if the person in front of you makes mistakes, you just learn from it. It’s like you’re the little brother.
It’s like the big brother goes up there and does something stupid, you learn from it and you’re like, ‘OK, I don’t do that.’ So it’s just that type of relationship that we have, and it’s huge — especially in this generation." Raiola spent nearly two full seasons as Nebraska’s starter before suffering a broken ankle last November that effectively ended his Cornhusker career. His numbers across 22 appearances during the 2024 and 2025 campaigns — nearly 5,000 total yards with 31 touchdowns and a 69.1% completion rate — were significantly more prolific than what Moore had produced in his lone season with the Bruins. Raiola's on-field production for two teams that reached bowl games — a legitimate achievement for a downtrodden program like Nebraska — signaled to coaches across the country that there was still plenty of talent to be molded from the rough clay.
One of the primary challenges for new Oregon offensive coordinator Drew Mehringer will be coaching away Raiola’s ball-security issues in the wake of 17 interceptions and 12 fumbles over the previous two seasons combined. Thus far, Raiola believes he’s making good on his pledge to do everything he can to help the Ducks in a supporting role. He capitalized on extra walkthroughs and meetings during the summer to shore up what he described as a "shaky" spring season.
He’s worked diligently to reshape his body by eating healthier and dropping weight in response to a winter full of injury rehab that limited his ability to train. He described his current physical condition as "probably the best I’ve ever felt," while Moore said he’s noticed an uptick in Raiola’s running speed — something that delighted the protégé. But there is plenty of work still to be done.
And if all goes well — if Moore stays healthy and has the Heisman Trophy-caliber season many around the country are expecting — then the majority of Raiola’s progress will happen behind closed doors while this year’s team chases a national championship. Just the way he and the Ducks planned it. "My job is to push the room, push the team and help support Dante achieve his goal," Raiola said at Oregon’s media day.
"Because I know in the long run, that’s my goal [too]. So if we can get him there, and [then] I can get myself there, it would be accomplished for sure."
