Oregon's backup QB battle stays open as kickoff nears
Dante Moore's job was never in doubt, but the QB2 fight and two freshman camp wins are the real Oregon storylines heading into the Boise State opener.
Backup quarterback battle still isn't settled hours before kickoff
Dante Moore's starting job was never the question — he came back specifically to finish what January's playoff semifinal interrupted, after throwing for 3,565 yards, 30 touchdowns and 10 interceptions last season. Lanning still isn't letting anyone else in the room get comfortable: "There are very few guys who should be comfortable in their roles on our team because you've got to pay rent every single day in football," he said this week.
Behind him, it's Dylan Raiola against Brock Thomas for QB2, and Lanning has been talking up the Nebraska transfer's arm all camp — "Dylan's done an unbelievable job changing his body, working really hard. He's got unbelievable talent," Lanning said at Big Ten Media Days. Thomas isn't ceding anything either: the redshirt junior walk-on out of Eugene's Sheldon High, whose father Aaron played receiver for the Ducks from 1985 to 1989 and whose grandfather Paul Bauge suited up for Oregon in the late 1950s, told Yahoo Sports, "I'm here now in the moment. I've never wanted to be anywhere else than Oregon." Thomas already beat out Austin Novosad for the job a year ago, and Novosad has since lost again — Jay Kastantin Beats Out Austin Novosad For Bowling Green QB Job reported this week that he came up short for the starting job there too.
The clock on the competition runs out today. Running back J. Davison remains out with the collarbone injury he suffered in camp and has no firm timetable to return, per Covers' injury tracker, which pushes carries toward Dierre Hill Jr. and freshman Brandon Smith, who moved up the depth chart after a strong August, Yahoo Sports reported. A No. 2 preseason ranking, per the AP Top 25, still had to survive a full camp in one piece — and now it finds out what it's actually built of.
A missionary receiver and a freshman nickel are the real camp stories
The most interesting camp battles this fall didn't happen at quarterback. Freshman receiver Gatlin Bair spent two years away from football on an LDS mission and is, in Yahoo Sports' words, "picking things up rapidly" — enough to lock down reps as a reserve behind Dakorien Moore, Evan Stewart and Jeremiah McClellan in the program's final camp depth chart.
At nickel, freshman Davon Benjamin beat out Baylor transfer Carl Williams IV for the starting job, the kind of quiet camp win that says a two-deep can still be earned over a transfer-portal résumé — though Yahoo's projection expects to see plenty of both. The one hole left in an otherwise settled depth chart is the right side of the offensive line, where right guard and right tackle were still being sorted between Tommy Tofi, Dave Iuli and Ziyarre Addison as camp wound down.
Last time out, it ended in a 34-point beatdown
Last time out, Oregon's season ended in the wrong direction: a 56-22 loss to Indiana on January 10 in the College Football Playoff semifinal. It capped a run that had looked unstoppable up to that point — a 42-27 win over USC, a 26-14 road win at Washington, a 51-34 rout of James Madison and a 23-0 shutout of Texas Tech all came before the Hoosiers ended it.
Four wins by an average of better than 20 points, then a 34-point collapse — that swing is why this camp exists. Lanning has called camp one of his favorite stretches of the year, and this one is built specifically around a defense retooling after the semifinal loss and a two-deep loaded enough to finish a season differently than last year's did. Last season is the backdrop for this opener, not the form Oregon carries into it — the Ducks start 2026 at 0-0.
Boise State brings a Pac-12 audition and a physical run game to the opener
Boise State didn't come to Eugene to make up the numbers. The Broncos arrive off three straight Mountain West titles and step into a new-look Pac-12 that SI's preview has them favored to win. Quarterback Maddux Madsen is back for a third year as a starter after throwing for 2,334 yards and 18 touchdowns last season despite missing three games to injury, and Boise State coach Spencer Danielson has already scouted the guy across from him: "He makes great plays with his feet; he can either run the ball or make tough throws. Very hard to get rattled," Danielson said of Moore.
The Broncos' identity is still the run — Dylan Riley and Sire Gaines combined for roughly 2,000 yards on the ground last season, per SI — against an Oregon backfield now leaning on Hill and Smith with Davison out. Boise State's last game was ugly, a 38-10 loss at Washington last season, and the line reflects the gap between these two right now: it opened at Oregon -24.5 with the total set at 52.5, a number that reads more like a defensive script than a shootout. Kickoff is this afternoon vs. Boise State, and it's the first real test of whether this camp actually fixed what broke in January.