With the Most Talented Roster in College Football, The World Is Dante Moore’s Oyster

In the spring, the best college football quarterback of 2026 sought the advice of the greatest quarterback in history—and returned nourished.

“Being able to talk to Tom Brady in March—that’s my GOAT, someone I look up to as a quarterback,” Oregon quarterback Dante Moore told Sports Illustrated. “I had a chance to talk to him and he taught me more about leadership than anything. That’s the biggest thing in this sports, especially as a quarterback, is being able to lead a team.”

Moore sat down virtually with SI on behalf of Celsius, as one of the energy drink’s four NIL representatives for the 2026 season, along with Michigan’s Bryce Underwood, Texas’s Cam Coleman and Ohio State’s Chris Henry Jr. None of them faces bigger expectations: AP poll voters saddled the Ducks with their highest ever preseason ranking—No. 2—as they reckon with what it means to bring back the most talented roster in the sport.

“Worry about today,” Moore said of Oregon’s choppy early schedule. “That’s all I can do.”

Year one for Moore at Oregon: high highs, low lows

Moore, who at 21 remains quite young by college football standards, is coming off his first season as his team’s wire-to-wire starter. Last year, he completed 71.8% of his passes for 30 touchdowns against 10 interceptions.

It wasn’t all roses, however. Moore threw an interception in each of the Ducks’ three CFP games—including a pick-six to jump-start Indiana’s 56–22 rout of Oregon in the Peach Bowl.

“Just getting the reps was the biggest thing,” Moore said. “Of course, the game of football can be very challenging, but just being able to go out there with my teammates and learn from the mistakes I made.”

Like most quarterbacks these days, Moore lived a full football life before ever setting foot in Eugene, Ore. Emerging from Martin Luther King Jr. Senior High School in Detroit, he committed to the Ducks, flipped to UCLA, played for the Bruins, and transferred to Oregon in December 2023.

This, then, will be Moore’s fourth season in college football, third with the Ducks, and second starting for his current team.

“It’s been a great journey, and we’ve all been embracing it, even through fall camp right now,” Moore said. “Because we didn’t have those reps there last year, to carry over to the season—with a more veteran team, we’re excited.”

The Moore you don’t know

Ask Moore where he’d send an out-of-town visitor to Eugene to eat, and he’ll vouch for three meals—breakfast at Addi’s Diner in nearby Springfield, lunch at Tacovore on Blair Boulevard, and dinner at Akira on Mill Street. His prime hobby—and his most treasured NIL expenditures—can be summed up in one word: food.

“I just had the chance to travel the world this year and being able to try different restaurants, different steakhouses, seafood. Having that ability to pay for those things is great,” Moore said.

The quarterback carries himself as a man of the people, spending free time recently watching Breaking Bad and Ted Lasso (“two very different shows,” he’s quick to note).

However, he also eagerly takes the long view of his journey—both through the lens of his Christian faith, and through the road he’s traveled from his childhood in the Cleveland area, where he grew up before moving to Detroit, to now.

“When days get tough, just think about your childhood—the memories that you love playing the game for,” Moore said. “It’s not the money. It’s not the fame. It’s about creating great memories that last for time.”

Moore approached greatness in 2025, but could not quite close the deal against the Hoosiers. If he gets over the hump in ’26, he may find himself viewed in the Beaver State the way Brady is in New England.

“Brady said the biggest thing with him is when he got tired—he’d put himself in that position out of practice when he pushed through it. So when it comes game time, it’s like second nature for him,” Moore said. “I’ve been able to steer his conversations like that into me pushing myself in the weight room, and the way I push my teammates, because at some point this season, that will pop up.”

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