UCLA Football: Former Bruins QB Dante Moore Details Decision to Enter Transfer Portal
Former freshman UCLA football quarterback Dante Moore transferred to Oregon after UCLA's 2023 season came to a close. Moore, a five-star recruit and one of the highest-rated quarterbacks coming into Westwood in recent memory, left for Oregon after a bumpy inaugural season. Moore lost out on the starting quarterback job to junior Ethan Garbers to begin the year, before winning it and then losing it again.
During his freshman season, Moore struggled with accuracy and turnovers that led to his benching. He completed 53.5% of his passes for 1,610 yards, 11 touchdowns and nine interceptions while appearing in nine games.
While speaking to reporters at Oregon on Thursday, Moore called the coaching change in Westwood, not the quarterback battle, a reason for his departure.
"Departing from UCLA, like I said, I'm blessed to even play college football at 18 years old as a true freshman," Moore told reporters. "Learned a lot, made a lot of mistakes, but at the end of the day all I can do is just learn. I got the feeling of a lot of things weren't going our way. The coaching staff, I had a feeling they were going to leave. Deep down inside, 'I don't know if I'm going to be able to get developed as best as could.'"
Former UCLA head coach Chip Kelly had not yet left when Moore made his decision to transfer, but he eventually did leave the program as Moore thought. He was replaced by DeShaun Foster. Aside from the coaching change, Moore was originally committed to Oregon. He initially was excited to head to Oregon, but backed out after former Oregon offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Kenny Dillingham left to become the head coach of Arizona State. Now, Moore is back where he originally intended to go to college.
“At the end of the day, when I hit the portal, I hit up Coach Lanning and I kind of knew where I was going already," Moore added. "Out of high school, if things went right, I would’ve been here.”
