Following a bye week, Indiana football prepares to head out to Eugene, Oregon to take on the No. 3 Ducks as the teams meet for the first time as conference opponents. College gameday will be there, adding
weight to an already highly-anticipated matchup between two top ten teams.
As of now, the Ducks are favored by 7.5 points in most sportsbooks, with ESPN’s analytics giving Oregon a 69.5% chance of victory. Here are three things to know about this week’s opponent:
The Record
Like Indiana, Oregon is undefeated on the season. Like Indiana, Oregon has a win against a ranked opponent, but subsequent events have made it more difficult to know what to make of that win.
When Oregon left Happy Valley, it appeared to have one of the best wins in this young season, holding on in double overtime against the No. 3 Penn State Nittany Lions. The fact that the game went to double overtime seemed to reinforce the high-quality between the two apparently elite teams.
Since then, Penn State went on the road and lost to a UCLA squad that’s down a head coach and offensive coordinator. The new offensive coordinator was just figuring out how to work a headset on the sideline. Oh, and the game was in a Rose Bowl that’s experiencing record low attendance this year.
With all the questions surrounding James Franklin’s group, I think it’s fair to wonder what exactly Dan Lanning’s group has done to this point. Outside of Penn State and two wins against non-Power Four opponents, the Ducks have wins against Northwestern and Oregon State, whose records combine to be 3-8 on the year.
This is not, in any way, meant to disparage a team that looks as good as any on paper. They may very well live up to the No. 3 spot that they stole from Penn State two weeks back. But they are somewhat unproven, as of yet.
Dante Moore
Oregon has a bona fide Heisman candidate in quarterback Dante Moore, who has completed 74.6% of his passes for 1,210 yards and 14 touchdowns versus one interception. He also has 22 carries on the year for an average of 5.1 yards per carry and has been sacked just once.
Oregon’s passing attack, led by Moore, will be a completely different game than what Indiana saw in Iowa City two weeks ago. The Hoosiers silenced a good quarterback when Luke Altmyer came to town, but Moore has a line that protects him and the legs to evade pressure when things don’t go according to plan.
The good news is that Indiana should have its star corner, D’Angelo Ponds, back from an injury that kept him out of the Iowa game. The bad news is that he can only cover one guy, and Moore has already found four of his targets for two or more touchdowns on the season.
This will be a passing attack unlike what Indiana has seen this year, led by the best quarterback the Hoosiers have seen in 2025.
The Rushing Attack
Unfortunately for Bryant Haines and the Indiana defense, Oregon does not have a one-dimensional offense. The Ducks have seven(!) running backs with 10 or more carries on the year, four of whom have found the endzone on multiple occasions.
Due to the number of blowouts, these stats are a little inflated. But Indiana has also coasted through most of its schedule to this point, while only four of its backs have seen that many carries. A season-ending injury to Lee Beebe Jr., shrank Indiana’s running backs room even further.
However tempting it will be to key in on Moore and the passing game, Oregon’s running game is capable of killing defenses on its own. Jordon Davison, the Ducks’ power back, has seven touchdowns on the year while Noah Whittington is averaging 8.8 yards per carry. Three of their backs have rushes of over 50 yards.
With the ability to both grind teams down and break off chunk plays, Oregon’s running game is going to test an Indiana defensive front that stood strong against the best run-blocking unit in the country at Iowa. The Hoosiers have been solid in this area so far, but like the passing game, this will be another kind of test for Indiana.
