Oregon quarterback Dante Moore has decided to return to the Ducks next season rather than declare for the NFL draft.<\/p>\n
Moore, 20, announced his decision on Wednesday on ESPN.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen it comes to me just making my decision, of course I want to feel most prepared and do what\u2019s best for my situation, especially as a quarterback,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd with my decision, it\u2019s been very tough. I prayed a lot about it, talked to many people, my mentors, and people I just look up to, and with that being said, of course I\u2019ll be coming back to Oregon for one more year, being able to play for the Oregon Ducks and reach our goal and be national champions.\u201d<\/p>\n
This season, Moore completed nearly 72% of his throws for 3, 565 yards, with 30 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. Oregon finished 13-2.<\/p>\n
Moore had been forecast to be the second quarterback selected in the NFL draft, behind Indiana quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza.<\/p>\n
The Ducks were coming off a 56-22 loss<\/a> to Indiana in a College Football Playoff semifinal Friday night. Moore had three crucial turnovers in the first half, leading to three Indiana touchdowns that gave the Hoosiers a commanding 35-7 lead at halftime<\/a>.<\/p>\n Moore completed 24 of 39 passes for 285 yards and two touchdowns against the Hoosiers.<\/p>\n Moore began his college career at UCLA but left after one season to sign with Oregon. He backed up Dillon Gabriel last season before moving up to the starting job when Gabriel departed for the NFL.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like when it comes to me pushing my teammates to make sure that they\u2019re at their best, I can become a better leader,\u201d Moore said about his goals in returning. \u201cAnd when it comes to my playing style, just dissecting defenses, being able to be comfortable as I see it, if I see a defense that I know I\u2019ve seen this covered before and how to attack it,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m still 20 years old, so I\u2019m still young and I have a lot of memories to make out here in college. I\u2019m excited to be around the guys.\u201d<\/p>\n Oregon coach Dan Lanning said following the Indiana loss that he hoped to have Moore return.<\/p>\n \u201cDante has been exceptional,\u201d the coach said. \u201cIt\u2019s gone right for us 13 times. It didn\u2019t go right tonight. You can\u2019t let that overshadow (the season). Every one of us has unbelievable disappointment. Learn from it.\u201d<\/p>\n Moore\u2019s decision comes after ex-Nebraska quarterback Dylan Raiola announced he\u2019d be transferring<\/a> to Oregon, and Ducks tight end Kenyon Sadiq and safety Dillon Thieneman declared for the NFL draft<\/a>.<\/p>\n Sadiq had a team-high 51 receptions for 560 yards and eight touchdowns this past season, his first as a starter. He was expected to be a first-round draft pick.<\/p>\n Thieneman finished the season with 96 tackles, including 3.5 for loss, as well as five pass breakups and two interceptions.<\/p>\n Among the players who have announced they will return to the Ducks include center Iapani Laloulu, a finalists for the Remington Trophy this year, tight end Jamari Johnson and defensive ends Teitum Tuioti and Matayo Uiagalelei.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the end of the day, I feel like I can still learn so much more. And of course, as a kid, since I was 4-years old, I\u2019ve dreamed about being in the NFL. But this team, we\u2019ve been through a lot and a lot of people are returning,\u201d Moore said. \u201cAnd so I feel like we have exciting things coming this year. And I\u2019m excited to keep pushing my team.\u201d<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here<\/a>. AP college football: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/ap-top-25-college-football-poll<\/a> and https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/college-football<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oregon quarterback Dante Moore has decided to return to the Ducks next season rather than declare for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":678863,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[331,339,20084,6446,1033,19134,3039,3619,7,69517,82906,11087,6,15,38070,683,575,1381,9],"class_list":["post-678862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl-draft","tag-college-football","tag-college-sports","tag-dan-lanning","tag-dante-moore","tag-dillon-gabriel","tag-dillon-thieneman","tag-dylan-raiola","tag-fernando-mendoza","tag-football","tag-jamari-johnson","tag-local-news-for-apple","tag-national-basketball-association","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-draft","tag-or-state-wire","tag-oregon","tag-oregon-ducks","tag-oregon-ducks-football","tag-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115898399179105538","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=678862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/678863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=678862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=678862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=678862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}