Former Big Ten Star Delivers Major Praise for Oregon's Championship Outlook

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The Oregon Ducks entered Big Ten Media Days with plenty of expectations surrounding their 2026 roster.

Head coach Dan Lanning has quickly turned Oregon into a perennial Big Ten contender. The more comfortable the Ducks become in the conference, the more people are taking notice.

The Big Ten Network was discussing the recent media poll of the Big Ten power rankings, where Oregon had ranked second, and BTN analyst Jake Butt believed that the Ducks were a sleeping giant.

“I think Oregon arguably has the best roster in college football. Definitely the best defensive line unit, they have a ton of young talent, Dante Moore would’ve been a top-five pick last year. So you have a top-five NFL quarterback that decided to come back because he’s hungry to go compete for more.”

Oregon has been priming itself for a championship run for years, but had ultimately fallen short. 

Most recently, the Ducks fell at the hands of the National Champion Indiana Hoosiers in the College Football Playoffs, and after the 56-22 blowout they suffered, Lanning gave his program hope in his postgame presser.

“I think every man can learn from adversity," Lanning said. "I just told that whole locker room, this is going to be about how you respond in life. This is going to be a life lesson that a lot of people never get. We just got our butt kicked. That's going to happen in life, and not just Dante. Every single person in the locker room, every coach, every person can learn, 'Hey, how do you respond to that?' Some people crawl into a hole, but don't face the music.”

Perhaps Moore took that message literally.

Now, Moore has the chance to build on his status as a projected top-five NFL Draft prospect and take the Ducks to a place they never have reached before.

Butt continued, “Let’s look at Indiana’s National Championship, Ohio State’s, and Michigan’s. What was the common denominator? All those were veteran football teams, upper classmen with experience that came back because they wanted to win a national title. That’s what you have going with Oregon.”

He did also say that the Ducks will need to respond positively to the coordinator turnover, since they lost offensive and defensive coordinators Will Stein and Tosh Lupoi.

To address it, they promoted within by hiring Drew Mehringer and Chris Hampton at those respective positions.

However, Butt does bring a valid point. The past three national champions were riddled with veteran talent, and when you have a perennial leader in Moore leading the charge, it can only serve to be beneficial.

Now, the challenge for Oregon is turning a roster loaded with talent and experience into the championship run it has been chasing.

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