The wait is finally over. College football is back, with head coach Dan Lanning and the Oregon Ducks ready to take on their second season in the Big Ten. Saturday, the No. 7 Ducks hosted the Montana State Bobcats for their 2025 season opener. After an off-season filled with injuries, delays and drama, the Ducks exceeded expectations and delivered a powerful 59-13 win.
Coming into the game, Oregon’s roster saw a lot of new faces, as they lost 10 crucial players to last year’s draft. Offensively, Lanning took his time to name the team’s starting quarterback. Ultimately, he gave the spot to redshirt sophomore Dante Moore. Moore presented himself as the best fit for the position, following in the footsteps of two veteran quarterbacks, Bo Nix and Dillion Gabriel. On the defensive side, the Ducks had a lot of shoes to fill, with a majority of their big names being lost to the draft. Overall, Oregon had one of the top draft classes, which set high expectations for the season.
The Ducks dominated quickly. Within the first three minutes, Jayden Limar scored a 16-yard rushing touchdown. Immediately, it was clear that physicality was going to be a key to Oregon's game. Despite it being his first start, the new quarterback remained calm and collected, trusting in all the offensive playmakers. With nine minutes on the board, Kenyon Sadiq scored another touchdown off a pass from Moore. Halfway through the first quarter, Atticus Snappington made a 23-yard field goal to widen the scoring gap to 17-0.
In just 15 minutes as a starting quarterback, Moore had already created a name for himself in Autzen.
“It’s been two years man, and it’s just a blessing to be able to play here at the University of Oregon in front of a great crowd and great friends,” Moore said. “The best thing was the way we moved the ball as a whole unit. Offense did a great job protection-wise, and we had a great run game. The first play, from that standpoint, when you have a good run game, you can have a good pass game. We just had a great job as a unit.”
Starting off the second quarter, freshman running back Jordan Davison and redshirt senior running back Noah Whittington rushed for two more touchdowns for Oregon. Finally, Montana State had a breakthrough moment as it put some points on the board with a field goal. However, this wasn’t enough to offset the offensive momentum Oregon had going on. Malik Benson scored off an 11-yard pass from Moore for Oregon’s fifth touchdown of the game.
The third quarter began with another field goal from the Bobcats, moving the score to 38-6. Unable to continue the surge, Oregon came back with two touchdowns, one from redshirt senior wide receiver Gary Bryant Jr. and another one from Davison. The final quarter wrapped the game up with Davison’s third touchdown and the Bobcats’ first and last touchdown of the game.
“I was really proud of the fact that we got to see a lot of players in this game today and have a lot of guys go out there and compete,” Lanning said. “I think there’s still a lot for us to be able to clean up and still give ourselves an opportunity to assess exactly where we are at, but overall, proud of them competing, proud of the guys never looking at the scoreboard and the continuous work and focus, and over just proud of the product.”
Oregon looks ahead to host Oklahoma State next weekend for the second game of the season, with kickoff at 12:30 p.m.