How Oregon Beat College Football’s ‘Impossible’ Backup QB Market

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No. 13 Oregon will be without starting quarterback Dante Moore for its matchup against No. 21 UCLA this Saturday, but the Ducks remain confident they’ll have a strong performance in the top-25 Big Ten showdown. And their backup quarterback is a big reason why. 

Junior Dylan Raiola will start for Oregon for the first time on Saturday, after replacing Moore, who suffered a concussion in the second quarter of the Ducks’ Sept. 26 matchup vs. No. 12 USC. Coming off the bench, Raiola completed 19 of 25 passes for 289 yards and two touchdowns with zero interceptions while leading Oregon to a 41–27 comeback win. Two weeks later, Moore is still recovering, but oddsmakers haven’t lost confidence in Oregon, which is an 11.5-point favorite against the Bruins this Saturday. 

“If he can just play like he played last time every single time, I think we’d be sitting in a really good situation,” Oregon coach Dan Lanning said this week while speaking with the local media. 

Raiola, a former five-star quarterback from the 2024 class, generated buzz last offseason when he left a starting quarterback position at Nebraska to enter the transfer portal. That was compounded by his decision to join Oregon, where Moore would return as the Ducks’ starter.

Raiola committed to Oregon on Jan. 12— two days before Moore decided to forgo the NFL Draft. Suddenly, Oregon had two high-level starting quarterbacks. According to Lanning, Raiola left a multimillion-dollar starting gig in Omaha to take less money and a reduced role. 

“He did come here for a discount in comparison to what he could’ve made to go someplace else,” Lanning said last week on The Jim Rome Show. “I think Dante followed a similar path … I think he said I’m ready for a new life, a new change and knew this could be one of the scenarios that played out for him.” 

Moore transferred to Oregon in 2024 after starting as a freshman at UCLA. He served as a backup to future third-round pick Dillon Gabriel and assumed the starter role in 2025. While there’s precedent at Oregon, it’s a rarity across the sport, and coaches elsewhere have taken notice. 

“For whatever reason, [Raiola] hadn’t had the success everyone wanted and was looking for a fresh start,” Oklahoma coach Brent Venables told reporters last week. “I think in this modern day of college football, where we’re at right now, that’s an outlier.” 

Raiola compiled a 13–9 record at Nebraska, including the school’s first bowl win since 2015, while passing for nearly 5,000 yards and 31 touchdowns before a broken leg ended his 2025 season early. Now healthy, he’s using past experiences to keep Oregon’s offense and College Football Playoff hopes alive while Moore is sidelined. 

However long that may be, there’s an opportunity for Raiola—who is draft eligible as well—to play well enough to reignite interest from NFL teams. That would mean Oregon has two NFL-ready quarterbacks on one roster. 

“I think just with the reps that I’ve banked playing, I feel like when I’m watching tape, things may hit me a little faster,” Raiola said. “I’m able to recognize it and understand it quicker. Whereas maybe in the past I had to study it a little more, now I can recognize it and implement what we’re trying to get done on the offensive side and kind of visualize those plays coming to life.”

The Backup Market 

Backup quarterbacks, and the difficulty in finding strong depth in today’s landscape, are starting to become larger talking points amongst coaches. In many situations, teams recruit high-level quarterbacks out of high school who provide instant talent, but lack experience behind the starter. Finding a way to cultivate young talent, while also having a separate ready-to-go option with experience behind the starter, is becoming increasingly difficult. 

“It’s impossible,” Texas A&M coach Mike Elko said last week. “I don’t think anybody anywhere is recruiting depth out of the portal. I don’t think people in the portal go where there is an established starter.” 

There’s no universal answer to finding a capable backup, and programs utilize different methods depending on the year. This past offseason, schools like Alabama (Keelon Russell, Austin Mack) and Tennessee (Faizon Brandon, George MacIntyre) deployed a considerable amount of resources to ensure a healthy quarterback competition, where one would win the starting job and the other would be a well-compensated backup who could fill in if needed. 

Elsewhere, programs could pay a considerable amount for a backup to stay within the program, even though there’s an established starter returning. At Utah, backup Byrd Ficklin returned despite starter Devon Dampier also deciding to return for another season. Now, Ficklin is the backup quarterback, but is also being used as an overall offensive weapon; he’s attempted passes, been used as a runner and caught passes for Utah this season. 

Another option is finding a starter at a non-FBS program and bringing him in as a backup option. The most notable example is Trinidad Chambliss, a former national champion at Division II Ferris State, who signed with Ole Miss last season to back up Austin Simmons. When Simmons went down to injury, Chambliss became one of college football’s biggest stars (Simmons is now the starter at Missouri). 

Chambliss’s former coach Lane Kiffin, now at LSU, deployed that same method this year when he brought in former Elon starter Landen Clark to back up starter Sam Leavitt, whom he recruited from Arizona State. Meanwhile, at Oklahoma, former All-Southern Conference performer Whitt Newbauer (Mercer) is the backup to John Mateer.

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