Oregon versus USC is a battle which will be fought on many fronts. No front will receive more national attention than the quarterback clash between Dante Moore and Jayden Maiava.
Ducks Wire discussed how Dante Moore has not met expectations for Oregon in September:
"I think we should have a conversation about Dante Moore. By no means am I writing him off as a good player, or someone who can lead this team to a lot of success. I do think that my ceiling for him has dropped a bit, though. He needed to step up and lead this team to victory today, and instead, he shrunk. That makes it multiple times in his career now when he has not met the moment.
"We saw it a couple of times last year against Indiana, both in the regular season and the postseason,
and now, in a big spot where he was needed against an unranked Oklahoma State team, he once again was unable to answer the call. Moore finished with just 191 yards passing and two touchdowns on 14-for-29 completion. In the first half, he threw for 45 total yards, the lowest output of his starting career. He missed open guys and short-armed a handful of throws in big moments where Oregon needed a completion."
This is less about settling the debate on which quarterback is better. It's much more a matter of Moore trying to regain the winning edge he had last year, and Maiava showing he has what it takes to finally carry USC across the line against an opponent who has given the Trojans a rough time over the past decade. If one quarterback plays poorly in this game, he won't hear the end of it going into the 2027 NFL Draft. If both quarterbacks play well, regardless of the final outcome, they will both become noticeably more valuable draft prospects next April.
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This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: Dante Moore and Jayden Maiava aren't here to settle an argument
