Despite Dante Moore’s flip, Oregon’s future remains bright with Bo Nix at QB in 2023

On Monday morning, the breaking news that almost everyone saw coming was officially announced.

5-star quarterback Dante Moore — the No. 3 player in the 2023 class — flipped his commitment from the Oregon Ducks to the UCLA Bruins. It’s a move that had been foreshadowed for a couple of weeks following Moore’s official visit to Los Angeles over a week ago, and his decision to not take a visit to Eugene this past week. Numerous predictions have come in over the past several days that had Moore making the flip, and they proved to be true.

So how do you feel as a Duck fan?

Had this news come 24 hours ago, it likely would have hurt a lot more, wouldn’t it? The truth is that Oregon got a big win on Sunday night when quarterback Bo Nix announced his return for the 2023 season. The Ducks now know who their QB will be next year, and while it’s a tough blow to miss out on the highest-rated QB to ever commit to Oregon, the Ducks are going to be just fine going forward.

Bo Nix present vs. Dante Moore future

One of the questions that many Oregon fans have been asking themselves over the past few days is an interesting subject of debate; Would you rather have one more year of Bo Nix, or potentially three years of Dante Moore?

For people who care about the present, the obvious answer is Nix, since it arguably makes the Ducks a College Football Playoff contender in 2023 with a Heisman Trophy candidate leading the way. The fans prone to look ahead to the future will say that Moore is the clear option, since he has an incredibly high upside and would offer Oregon a chance to develop a passer and keep him for multiple seasons at long last.

In the end, it’s clear what ended up happening, and what the immediate future looks like for the Ducks. Bo is back in 2023, and the Ducks have a shot to make the CFP. Beyond that, who knows what will happen, but with the transfer portal and the way that recruiting works nowadays, it’s easy to believe that the Ducks will be just fine.

Oregon's QB future

(Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)

As I said above, it’s clear what the Ducks’ immediate QB future looks like — they will be led by a Heisman Trophy candidate in 2023 and have a good chance to be in the College Football Playoff picture down the stretch. Beyond that, the future is unclear.

Despite the hazy outlook, I am confident that Oregon will be fine, though. Yes, it would have been nice to be able to bring Moore to Eugene in 2023 and have him learn behind Nix for a season before taking over as the starter in 2024. However, we don’t live in a perfect world, and as a source told me on Monday morning, this may have come down to having Nix back for another year, or getting Moore in Eugene.

“It’s pretty easy for me,” the source said of their answer.

With the introduction of the transfer portal, the Ducks are going to find an answer at QB for 2024 and beyond. According to a report from Rivals’ Adam Gorney, Oregon was well aware of Moore’s potential flip, and they had a top QB on campus this past week for a visit. Oregon is still a destination for players to be, with a new-and-improved high-flying offense that can elevate any passer. Look at what Bo Nix was able to do with his career over the past year. What is going to stop any transfer portal QB with a high upside from looking at his trajectory and saying that they want to do the same thing?

On top of that, there is the 2024 recruiting cycle, where Oregon already has buzz surrounding the top QB in the class, Dylan Raiola.

The point is, there are endless options out there for the Ducks. Don’t think for a second that Dan Lanning and the staff were caught off guard by this flip from Moore. They knew it was possible, and they’ve been preparing to move forward regardless.

The Playing Time Factor

Why did Dante Moore end up flipping? We may not ever know the real answer, but there are several factors that could have played a major part.

The first and most obvious one is early playing time. For a long time, I’ve been told that Moore’s camp believes that he can be an instant impact player and lead a team as a true freshman. One of the major appeals to Oregon was that the starting QB job was expected to be open in 2023 with Nix making a leap to the NFL after being one-and-done at Oregon. Of course, that door closed with Nix announcing his return for the 2023 season. Moore likely looked at UCLA and saw a clearer path — having to beat out transfer QB Collin Schlee for the starting job — and favored that over playing behind Nix in Eugene.

The Kenny Dillingham Factor

There is also the Kenny Dillingham factor in all of this.

Whether you want to admit it or not, Moore’s relationship with Oregon’s former offensive coordinator, who was his No. 1 recruiter in the whole process, was more impactful than we initially believed. Once Dillingham left for Arizona State, it was clear that Moore started to look around at his options, and that’s when Chip Kelly and the Bruins were able to make their move. The Ducks still tried to make things work with the hiring of OC Will Stein, but in the end, all of the factors — plus Nix’s announced return — ended up being enough for Moore to make his decision to flip.

Impact on Recruiting

One of the biggest worries about having a high-profile recruit — especially a high-profile QB — de-commit is that other players are going to choose to follow him. However, I think that with Nix announcing his return for 2023, the Ducks are going to be more than fine in this department. In fact, it may actually help them.

We saw this already in the transfer portal world, with Alabama WR Traeshon Holden committing to the Ducks. We assume that he got word that Nix was returning, so he put his faith in Oregon knowing that he would have an elite player throwing him the ball. That will likely be the case going forward as well, with other portal players seeing that the Ducks are on the forefront of being a special team next year, and they want to join in on the party.

Yes, there may be de-commitments from other players who don’t project to be instant-impact players in 2023, but in today’s world of college football, things should be viewed more on a year-to-year basis with the introduction of the transfer portal. A coach’s ability to reshape the roster each and every off-season is stronger than it ever has been, so the major focus is now how good can you be this season, rather than how strong is our your outlook in three years.

I think recruits see that, and transfer portal players see that. With Nix back, a lot of them are going to be looking harder at the Ducks this offseason.

Story originally appeared on Ducks Wire