Andy & Ari On3 - QB Dante Moore RETURNING to Oregon Ducks

Starting point is 00:00:02 You hear the sirens. You know what that means? It's an emergency edition of Andy and Arion 3 presented by BetMGM. Dante Moore. The Oregon quarterback is returning for the 2026 season. He just announced it on SportsCenter. And it kind of did a little head fake. sounded like he was going to go pro. And he's like, of course I'm coming back for 2006. And I am sure they are very, very, very. happy in Eugene and Dante Moore probably very happy because he is not going to be a New York jet, at least not for another year. The Jets probably picking a quarterback this year. And if he stays out of this draft, he probably doesn't have to play for them and have them ruin his career. So that's probably great news, but even bigger news for Oregon. And I wonder, did we kind of get tipped off about this. So if you read Chris Lowe's incredible story on Ty Simpson, he talked to Ty Simpson for on three on Tuesday, and Ty Simpson, the former Alabama quarterback, was going over the offers that he'd gotten to not enter the draft to come back to school and play another

Starting point is 00:01:19 year in college, but not at Alabama. Conspicuous by its absence was Oregon. He said Miami offered him. He said Tennessee was recruiting him hard. But the thought was if Oregon was going to lose Dante Moore, that Ty Simpson would be somebody they'd probably try to convince to not go into the draft. Well, it turns out maybe they knew they were getting Dante Moore back. And this is another thing that we talked about this a little bit when that news broke on Monday. But Dylan Riola, the former Nebraska quarterback, agreeing to go to Oregon, committing to Oregon.

Starting point is 00:01:57 before that happened, the way that was couched was if he does this, it's probably to back up Dante Moore in much the same way that Dante Moore decided when he went to Oregon from UCLA that he was fine backing up Dylan Gabriel for a year. It was a very unusual choice at the time because one, Dante Moore had flipped from Oregon to UCLA there at the end of his recruitment. And the thought was he did that because there was more playing time immediately available at UCLA. He played at UCLA and then I think realized, hey, maybe I wasn't as ready as I thought I was. And so that was another thing as we examined this potential move or stay decision from Dante Morari. the fact that Dante Moore took the unconventional path

Starting point is 00:02:52 when he transferred to Oregon and said, you know what, I'm okay with sitting behind Dylan Gabriel for a year. It kind of tipped you off that he might do this. I am flabbergasted, but also think this is highly functional for both parties. I think Oregon, I think Dante Moore could use another year.

Starting point is 00:03:13 I think that Oregon, you know, with the work that they've done in the portal, certainly seems to be primed or equipped to compete at a high level moving forward, including maybe another run to the national championship next year. And then it gives Dylan Rayola an opportunity to heal up, you know, take a year off, maybe reset himself, maybe calm down from the consistent moving that the guy has done he was in high school and really try, excuse me, to internalize and view

Starting point is 00:03:44 what a nice end to a season, or, I mean, a career would be surrounded by a lot of really good players at a place that competes at a high level on a given year. So, you know, I don't see a loser here. We'll see if the Dylan Riola thing blows up, but seems highly functional all around. It does. It does. And this is the sort of thing that we've come to expect now from Oregon and Dan Lanning in terms of their roster building. They do seem to always have a plan. And I think it's really interesting that we saw Jordan Seton, the Colorado offensive tackle enter the portal, and what was one of the teams that was immediately linked to him, the Oregon Ducks. And this is the best offensive tackle in the portal.

Starting point is 00:04:24 This is somebody who they're going to lose Isaiah World to the NFL. And, you know, you get Jordan Seton, all of a sudden, you got, you got something cooking. Yeah. I would, I mean, I'm assuming that he'll be compensated. quite nicely coming back next year. And Jordan Seaton, conversely, will also be there as well. So, you know, I think that, you know, we talk so much, Andy, about like, Texas Tech, right? And how they invested all this money and they got to the playoff.

Starting point is 00:04:55 They played Oregon and then they got their doors blown off. And it's like, what do you, what is your response to that? Your response is, well, let's invest more. Let's make our team better and let's try again. Like I think Oregon is kind of in that mode right now, which is, you know, our team is consistently good. We win 99% of the games that we play. We get to a point in the season at the end of the year where our team is not good enough and maybe have, you know, we'll see what happens on Monday,

Starting point is 00:05:22 but might have had their season ended emphatically by the eventual national champion in consecutive years, reinvest, continue to chop at the block, bring your quarterback back, and take another swing at it. And eventually, if you keep swinging, you're going to land one of them. And I think that this is, if I'm an Oregon fan, I'm pretty fired up right now. Oh, it's so fired up. And I said this. I went on Jim Rome's show on Monday, and he said, you know, should they be worried?

Starting point is 00:05:48 Because now they've lost emphatically in the playoffs two years in a row. And I said essentially what you just said, if you keep coming back, if you keep putting yourself in that position, you will break through eventually. And I think the words I used to Jim were, you know, they got beat by two juggernauts. There's going to be a year where they're the juggernaut. and the roster clicks completely, the chemistry is perfect and everything works. And if you keep putting this level of talent on the field, time after time after time,

Starting point is 00:06:20 you are going to break through. And I think that's where the Oregon fans should be really happy with what Dan Lanning's doing, what their personnel people like Marshall Malchow, what they're doing. They have done a great job constructing rosters year after year. And you look at the last few days. So they get Dylan Riola,

Starting point is 00:06:38 who was a functional Big Ten quarterback who got hurt and probably does need to rehab and may have realized that he needed some time to settle and then kind of learn behind somebody who really knows what they're doing. And Dante Moore is one of those guys. And Dante Moore is not perfect either. He obviously didn't have a great game against Indiana. But in his first full year as a starter, he came a long way. and I do think he's going to be better next year. So you've got Dylan Riola as a backup plan slash potential successor. You just got Koi Perich in the transfer portal from Minnesota,

Starting point is 00:07:20 who's an exciting as an athlete as you're going to find. He can play two ways if you want. You can put him at receiver if you want as well. But he's going to be replacing Dylan Thineman, who's going off to the draft. You lose Kenyon Sadiq, but you've got some young players that you're pretty excited about there. And yeah, I am, like, I was doing, we were doing the top 25, the way too early top 25. Yeah. That's coming out soon.

Starting point is 00:07:47 Yeah. What was one of the teams I had no doubt about putting in the top five, top 10. Like, they're going to be there. Like, I don't, I don't worry about them just falling off the table. It's like lose sight of, like, how hard it is to actually run the table in the playoff now, or how hard it is to actually come together. And I feel like most of the country has viewed Oregon as this like fraud that can't get over the top. And it's like when I zoom out and I look at Oregon, I acknowledge that the seasons the last two years ended on a sour note.

Starting point is 00:08:23 But I see a pretty consistent program that once it gels or clicks, which could be any year, including next year, they could win the national championship. And like, who knows? What if Oregon was on the other side of the bracket? like what if they didn't have to play Ohio State in the Rose Bowl last year? Like I just think that perspective at times is altered by the way things go in big games. And they should, right? Like they should. I'm not trying to diminish the meaning of those things.

Starting point is 00:08:48 But they are consistently investing in good enough players to do it. Eventually they're going to win the championship. I don't know if that's next year or in five years or even 10. But if they keep doing this formula, it's going to happen. it's going to happen. It's going to work. And this is a big one though to have a quarterback who, listen, I don't know if I could do this. What Dante Moore is doing, turning down that level of money.

Starting point is 00:09:17 Because Dante Moore is going to be a first round draft pick if he went out. I don't think there was a lot of doubt in anyone's mind. Even though he had a bad game in the Peach Bowl, the traits he has the rest of the quarterback class who's coming out this year. he was going to be a first-round draft pick. And so there's an inherent risk in coming back because you do put more on tape. The NFL shoots more holes in you. The longer you play in college, it seems like.

Starting point is 00:09:47 But I think he has a chance to ascend to another level. And if that's the case, then maybe he's in the Fernando Mendoza position this time next year. Yeah, for sure. And I know that he played his freshman year. but, you know, we did talk about on the show, the full show that'll be out, you know, in an hour or so about one of the most important statistics in terms of NFL success. And I think that there has been a correlation between players who have had a lot of snaps in college and experience and how that's translated well to seeing defenses better when you get to the NFL and all those things. And if you make a pretty penny, I can't imagine that Oregon's cheaping out on this.

Starting point is 00:10:28 I'm assuming to get him back, they had to back up a truck filled with money that, like, eventually, maybe he'll be better served as a pro for this next year that comes up. So, like, I like it. I like the move. And you're not going to be a jet. Like, I'm not kidding. I'm not kidding when I say that. This isn't an NFL show, but obviously you and I follow the NFL.

Starting point is 00:10:53 That franchise destroys quarterbacks, destroys them, has a history of not being able to develop them. And so if there was a fear that I was going to be drafted by the Jets, and if this was a year, and I think this is a year, where they are going to draft who they think is their franchise quarterback, and you can stay away and come back next year when they aren't going to be in that mode, I'll take that. Well, by the way, that's worth it. The Jets might draft them again next year.

Starting point is 00:11:27 Like you're like, the Cardinals did it. They did it back to back. Josh Rosen and Kyle and Kyle Murray, so you never know. Or maybe, like, I don't know. Maybe the Jets go, well, we're picking, what are they, number two overall? Like, we're picking number two overall. Fernando's the only round one grade that we have for a quarterback.

Starting point is 00:11:44 We're not going to, you know, we're not going to do this. We're going to try to build our team, come back next year and, you know, maybe take our lumps once again, and then we'll try again the following year. Maybe they love Dante. You can't run away forever, Dante, but, you know, one more year. This is like your, you're, your, you're, Would you rather with the turtle that's chasing you if it touches you, it's going to kill you.

Starting point is 00:12:05 The jets of the turtle. Listen, if you're Ty Simpson and you just decided to go pro and you're definitely going into the NFL, are you like, oh, no, now I'm a jet. Yeah, or, oh, thank God, I didn't take that $6.5 million. I just crossed the barrier to where I'm going to make much more than that. I don't know. True.

Starting point is 00:12:24 Yeah, he may have, Dante Moore may have made Ty Simpson some money today. I don't know where you stand on this. and it's very, very interesting to me because I don't even know where I stand on this. Like, you know, growing up as a person who rooted for the Cleveland Browns because of the disease, my dad passed down to me, I've played this game before

Starting point is 00:12:43 of like if Tim Couch were drafted by the Patriots instead. Because like he had some moments of like brilliance when he was on the Browns, believe it or not. Like would his career have been different? Or if you, and then like, look, it's like, Dayton Daniels got picked by the Washington commanders last year and they were one of the, worst franchises in all of sports for more than a decade.

Starting point is 00:13:03 And they go to the NFC championship in year one of his leadership. But they had, like the bad owner had sold them. So that was helpful. I mean, I guess, but I do. To your point,

Starting point is 00:13:15 like what if, what if Patrick Mahomes gets drafted by somebody else who doesn't do what the chiefs did, where they put him behind Alex Smith for a season and let him get used to the NFL and understand. Remember, there hadn't been an air raid quarterback. who had succeeded in the NFL until Patrick Mahomes.

Starting point is 00:13:34 Now, it might have been that he was so good that that was going to happen no matter who picked him, but I do think that matters. And so if you're Dante Moore, and it's this one team in green on one side of the country that messes quarterbacks up every time, or you could keep playing for this team in green on the other side of the country that seems to pump out really good ones.

Starting point is 00:13:53 Yeah. Stay one over here with the one on the left side. It's a whole nature-vers-nurture thing. You could also make the case that if Patrick Mahomes got drafted by the Jets, the Jets would have won a Super Bowl. Like I could like go down that road. I've watched Patrick Mahomes play.

Starting point is 00:14:05 I don't know. But what I do know is is that there are slam dunk pro prospects. And I don't know if Dante Moore was a slam dunk pro prospect or if he was just the best of what was available given the circumstances. I think it's possible that next year through another year of playing and like Evan Stewart's going to be back next year. I assume, right? Like they're going to have some guys on their team. DeCore Moore. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:14:30 Corey Moore is going to be a sophomore next year. They've got guys that at this point next year, maybe he'll be the number one overall pick. And you know what? I root for people like this. So, you know, there is a 2 p.m. show, Sailor Joe. Yeah, Sailor Joe asking, is there a normal time 3 p.m. Eastern 2 p.m. Central show coming out today. Yes, there is. We had actually just finished it when the Dante Moore News broke.

Starting point is 00:14:52 We figured we'd go alive. So you will see this on the back end of that show, which will probably be a few minutes later than usual. but we have it's actually a great show. So you subscribe now to the On Three Sports YouTube page if you don't already because you'll get that show. And we talk about Marcus Freeman staying at Notre Dame, even though the Steelers job is open. We talk about Ty Simpson and his decision to go pro

Starting point is 00:15:22 and not, in his words, tarnish his legacy at Alabama. And we talked to our friend Cole Kublich from ESPN about, the keys to victory in the national title game and about Auburn's roster reconstruction. So it's a fun show. Go watch that one. It'll be out in probably a few more minutes. And Oregon fans, congratulations. We won.

Andy & Ari On3 - QB Dante Moore RETURNING to Oregon Ducks

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