Dante Moore looks like "one of the best players" in college football right now, according to analyst Joel Klatt. The QB has come a long way from his struggle-filled UCLA days, and his landing in Oregon seems to have been the best thing for him. Dan Lanning, his coach, opened up on how he's evolved.
Klatt said that people around the sport have a "preconceived notion" of who Moore is, but that's not who he's been this season. Lanning said, "The work has made Dante different." He then posited that Moore is a lot like himself. "I think about what was I like when I first started coaching?" he asked.
The host had said the idea of Moore was formed and apparently locked in when he was a true freshman who struggled at UCLA. "I wasn't very good [when I started]," Lanning went on. "What were you like as a broadcaster when you first started?"
Lanning continued, "Dante is a great example of somebody who's grown over time and learned how to prep and learned the answers to what defenses are doing." Moore, in the coach's eyes, probably had some trouble adjusting to protections at the college level versus high school as well as the packages he was working with.
"Now, you look at a guy that's calm within the chaos and makes big moments seem small with the way he's handled them," the Ducks coach concluded. Moore has been a revelation this year: 50/64 (78/1% completion) for 657 yards, seven touchdowns, and just one interception. He's added 34 yards on the ground in three starts this year.