EUGENE, Ore. — Will Stein is undeterred by the inexperience in his quarterback room. The Ducks might not have the sort of experience they’ve grown accustomed to under Dan Lanning, but Stein doesn’t doubt his group’s ability to thrive come fall.
Led by sophomores-to-be Dante Moore and Austin Novosad, this offseason’s quarterback competition will produce a capable starter, he believes. It may just require some ups and downs.
“They’ve attacked this offseason like champs and through the first two days, and they’ve all shown a good understanding of our offense,” Stein said on Saturday following the school’s second spring practice. “I think the sky is the limit for this group. I do feel like we have guys in there who can win games for us and we’ll figure out over the next five or six months who that guy is going to be running out against Montana State, but for now they’re all working their tails off and doing a really nice job.
“The ultimate thing I’m looking for, who can we win with? And hopefully we’ve got a good amount of guys in that room who can win. We all know that there is going to be one guy out there on Saturdays and that’s all to be determined.”
While it will be a first-time starter, at least at Oregon, as Moore started five games at UCLA in 2023, in a strange way, this year’s candidates are ahead of where Dillon Gabriel was one offseason ago. As Stein pointed out, Novosad and walk-on Brock Thomas are in their third years in his system, while Moore and redshirt freshman Luke Moga are entering their second years. Gabriel was in his first in 2024.
And as Stein also pointed out, everyone in this year’s room, minus true frosh Akili Smith Jr., spent time with either Gabriel or Bo Nix.
“Austin got the chance to learn from Bo when he was here. He’s still really close with Bo. He’s actually going to visit with him this spring break and hang around him. He had great mentorship from Bo,” Stein explained. “And all those guys were around Dillon last year and saw how he acted as a fifth-year player.”
Time spent around the sport’s two most experienced quarterbacks means something, Stein believes, and given the attention this year’s QB competition is likely to garner, the hope is they’ve taken the right stuff.
“These guys have been professional since day one,” he said. “They’ve all done a really good job so far of just keeping the main thing the main thing, and just trying to grow each and every day, and not try to press. Any time there’s this type of hype around a quarterback competition, guys try to press. Guys try to see ‘Oh, this guy threw a deep ball and completed it in practice, so now I’ve got to do it’. I’ve just challenged them to just run the offense. Take each play as it’s own and do a good job with it. They’ve done a really solid job so far.”
Finding leadership from a young room will be a challenge too, Stein acknowledges. He outlined his leadership expectations at Saturday’s practice.
“I keep challenging our quarterbacks to find their voice. We talked about being the conductor of the offense today and what that means and what I’m expecting out of them from a leadership standpoint,” he explained.
Oregon has now completed its first and only two March spring practices. The team will take two weeks off to account for academics and spring break before reconvening on April 1. Thirteen additional spring practices will be held next month, including the annual spring game inside Autzen Stadium on April 26.
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