EVANSTON, IL ―Dante Moore was not fazed by the wind blowing off Lake Michigan on Saturday, Sept. 13, in Oregon football’s Big Ten Conference opener against Northwestern.
An early kickoff on a windy day at Northwestern Medicine Field at Martin Stadium wasn’t going to impact the Ducks’ redshirt sophomore signal-caller in Week 3 of the college football season. Moore played at Martin Luther King Jr. Senior High School in Detroit, off the banks of the Detroit River, where he became a 5-star quarterback recruit and the No. 4 overall player in the 2023 recruiting class, per 247Sports’ Composite rankings.
That experience turned into something of an advantage for Moore in the Ducks’ road trip to Evanston.
‘Mother nature doesn’t play on Lake Michigan,” Moore told assembled media after the game, laughing. “It’s windy, it’s kind of how high school was for me. My high school was right by the water. Coming out in warmup was like, ‘Holy (expletive), it’s windy.’ I am looking at (quarterbacks) coach Will Stein, and he said, ‘Let it rip today.’”
Let it rip he did, as Moore completed 16 of 20 passes for 178 yards and a touchdown in Oregon’s 34-14 win over the Wildcats. With Evanston just a four-and-a-half-hour drive from Detroit, it was something of a homecoming for Moore.
‘The best thing was my family being able to come out here,’ he said. ‘(Four)-hour drive from Detroit. … I am just glad they got a chance to come out. I take videos and pictures of every stadium I play in. I have a lot of great pictures here, especially with the wind kicking in.’
While Moore did complete a touchdown pass to tight end Kenyon Sadiq near the end of the first half, he also threw his first interception of the season at the beginning of the fourth quarter. It was his interception since he threw nine as a true freshman at UCLA in 2023.
Moore was able to look at the positive from that pick, however, choosing to frame it in how much he has grown as a player.
“It’s been a while. It’s been about two years,’ Moore said of the last time he threw an interception. ‘I know my freshman self would have been, like, ‘Damn,’ chewing me alive, looking at the play over and over, devastated by the pick. But now it’s just the next play. …
‘The ‘GOATS’ throw picks: Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Peyton Manning. A lot of those happen, it’s just the way of playing quarterback, but I am not a big statistical guy. … The biggest part is just seeing everyone’s faces after the win, making sure everyone is smiling.”
It’s safe to say that’s the case for Moore, his family and Oregon fans following another dominant effort from the Ducks.