On May 16th, Duncanville’s 5-Star Wide Receiver Dakorien Moore decommitted from the LSU Tigers. We covered Moore’s decommitment already, which you can read about here if you want our in depth thoughts.

This article is just going to cover our thoughts on his new home. First off, we like to pat ourselves on the back when we get the chance, we called Moore committing to the Oregon Ducks back on May 18 in the above article despite 24/7 Sports Crystal Ball to the Texas Longhorns.

We feel like Oregon is getting a pretty reasonable amount of respect right now heading into the 2024-25 season, but not nearly as much as they should. We don’t care that it’s their first year in the Big 10. They survived in the gauntlet that was the PAC-12 last year. They now move into a top heavy conference with Ohio State… and with all respect that’s about it.

• Michigan was extremely senior heavy and lost pretty much everything, including HC Jim Harbaugh this offseason. Not to say new HC Sherrone Moore can’t keep it rolling, but they are going to have a lot of new faces starting on both sides of the ball
• Iowa usually contends in the West, but it’s usually not good when you are known for your punter… All love Tory
• Penn State has been a Tier 2 contender in the Big 10 at least recently. They were never on the same playing field as Ohio State, especially not with Allar at QB
• We think Nebraska and Wisconsin could be sleepers in the West this year although we will cover that in our Contender Series later this summer
• USC won’t compete until they stop hiring ranked Madden players as their defensive coordinators
• Finally Washington, very similar to Michigan, was very senior heavy and lost almost everything this offseason including HC Kalen DeBoer. They did get Jedd Fisch to replace DeBoer but we expect it’ll take Fisch time to turn things around in Washington like it did at Arizona

Oregon has a LEGIT chance to take home the Big 10 crown this season, and you can’t convince us otherwise. We just updated our predicted CFP rankings on the website earlier this week, and with our changes Oregon is now our #1 seed. Put more respect on the Ducks, and don’t be surprised when they are taking down big dogs. 

You can argue all you want, but this is how we see the Oregon/Ohio State matchup. We feel everything is self-explanatory, except for Wide Receiver, so we are going to explain our thoughts quickly.

Oregon is returning pretty much every receiver except for Troy Franklin, which you’d think we’d make a bigger deal of, but the returners for the Ducks have a lot of production. Tez Johnson is coming back, who had 1,182 yards and 10 TDs. Traeshon Holden and Gary Bryant Jr. both had 30+ receptions and 400+ yards. Not to mention they brought in a 38 reception and 514 yard receiver by the name of Evan Stewart in the Portal to “replace” Franklin.

The Buckeyes are returning some good production, but not the extent of Oregon. Emeka Egbuka decided to return, but he was third in receiving for them last year… Yes, behind TE Cade Stover. Between MHJ, Stover, and Julian Fleming who transferred to Penn State the Buckeyes are missing 134 receptions, 2,057 yards and 19 TDs worth of production. That is roughly 53% of their total 2023 receptions, 59% of yards, and 73% of TDs. Egbuka also isn’t a proven WR1 yet, his production has primarily been as Robin to MHJ’s Batman. Yes, they also have freshman Jeremiah Smith who has had stellar reports through the spring, but he doesn’t have game action yet.

We could look back at this in December and say wow we got it wrong, Ohio State had the better receivers, but they got a lot to prove before we give the WR edge to Ohio State.

Now, what does this all have to do with Dakorien Moore?

Well, first of Moore is a 2025 commit, so he won’t be on campus this year. Two of Oregon’s starting WRs(Holden and Johnson) are Seniors so they are probably out of eligibility and will have to go into the draft next spring. The third starter(Stewart), is being projected as a top 2025 Draft WR as a Junior.

When it’s time for Moore to step foot on campus, he could compete to be the guy right off the bat. Oregon will have a few Sophomores and Juniors to compete with him, but they won’t have the experience due to the state of the room currently. So if Moore valued playing time in his recruitment, he’ll definitely have a chance to start as a true frosh. If winning was something he valued in his recruitment, then he’ll definitely be at a place to compete for titles, what feels like year-in and year-out. 

When Moore committed he said “I choose the path to be different and build a legacy, let’s sco🦆”. We know Dan Lanning is building something in Eugene, and it seems like Dakorien Moore sees the plan and future vision as well. Lanning continues his offseason excellence.

Also, just keep in mind Moore just chose the Ducks over two places that are in the WR-U conversation(LSU & Ohio State), and a college(Texas) who just sent their entire starting WR core(Worthy, Mitchell, Whittington) to the NFL and will probably send a 4th WR to the Draft next year(Transfer Isaiah Bond). Something’s brewing in Oregon.