The Oregon Ducks played with plenty of motivation in a 41-27 win over the USC Trojans, but it was motivation they wish they didn't have or need. Quarterback Dante Moore took a brutal shot to the head from USC linebacker Desman Stephens II, who was suspended for the hit, and the severity of the injury was immediately evident.
As medical staff attended to Moore, and once the skirmish between the Ducks and Trojans settled down, Oregon had to reset. Dan Lanning brought his sideline together to calm them down. Jamari Johnson stood off to the side, needing to be consoled by members of the Oregon coaching staff.
Evan Stewart, who calls Moore one of his best friends, stood just feet away from Moore as he was loaded onto a stretcher. Before the quarterback
was taken away in an ambulance, the Ducks gathered and said a prayer for Moore, before quickly having to shift focus back to the game at hand.
Dylan Raiola entered and set the tone for the Ducks, quickly connecting with Stewart for a touchdown, and later finding Dakorien Moore for what would be the winning score. Dierre Hill Jr. had a big second half, rushing for two touchdowns and becoming the first Oregon running back to top 100 receiving yards in a game since De'Anthony Thomas in 2012. Oregon played inspired football down the stretch, and it was clear who they were playing for.
After the game, Lanning noted that Moore had movement, and the Oregon quarterback has since made the trip back to Eugene and was diagnosed with a concussion. Oregon's star players had an emotional reaction to the injury, but the focus moving forward was obvious. Here's everything Lanning and several Oregon players had to say about Moore's injury after the game.
Dan Lanning
- "The energy changed whenever Dante got hurt. You had a lot of guys on the sideline who were emotional in that moment, including myself. Right now, indications are that he's in recovery, so I don't want to speak too soon. But he is moving. He has the ability to move. We'll continue to assess him, but I don't want to make any speculation or offer further thoughts until we have more information on him."
- "I think what you ask yourself is, what's the best thing I can do and what's the best way to honor Dante in that moment? I called the guys up, and the first thing we did was have a prayer. We prayed for his health and prayed for some composure for ourselves. We wanted to make sure that we played the game between the whistles the rest of the game."
- "But it's a disgusting play. You don't want to see it happen. It's disappointing that it happened. I'm praying that our player is healthy, and I'm praying that their player can learn from that situation because that's not a moment you want to be a part of."
QB Dylan Raiola
- "I just want to say, for my brother Five, seeing him like that shook the whole team. But at the same time, we knew that was our brother, and we were going to fight for him. And I just want to say this for Five: Love you, brother. Get better. We'll hold it down for you. Wish you nothing but the best, brother."
- "It's complicated in the way that you don't ever want to see someone be hurt, especially with how much he means to me, how much he teaches me, and how much he means to this team. But it was a moment of connection, and that's one of our pillars. We just latched on, and we knew it was going to be for him. I felt like we had such a strong connection going forward from there. The guys understood what it was and what we were doing."
WR Dakorien Moore
- “Knowing this is a big game, emotions were kind of high. Very anxious to just get out there on the field and play; show everybody what we’ve been working on. Dante went down and, of course, the anger running through you because it was a targeting penalty. We felt like (the USC defender) did it on purpose, taking a shot and stuff like that. We just came together and said we’re going to do it for Dante. We’re gonna go out there and make Dante proud.”
- “If that were anybody else, how would he have handled the situation? Of course, I had high emotions at that moment, watching him get driven off in the ambulance, but knowing I’m a leader on this team and I’ve got to bring other guys with me, I just knew I had to lock back in and go make plays for our team.”
- “As soon as it happened, we prayed for him. We talk all the time about doing it for our brothers. That’s one of the main things that we preach, is doing it for our brothers. Being that we had a brother go down today, it was like everybody knew at this moment, doing it for Dante, because he would be out here playing if he could.”
EDGE Teitum Tuioti
- “When everything went down, we had a fire under us. As a brother of ours, when we got out on the field, we understood that we’ve got to affect this quarterback as well, but we can’t have penalties. It’s bigger than that. We can’t do nothing crazy now that that happened. It’s unfortunate, but we’ve still got to play our brand of football.”
RB Dierre Hill Jr.
- “The energy was huge for our team. Obviously, it was very dirty, and unfortunately he couldn’t protect himself. He tried, but just seeing him down and hurt him being our QB1, it just lit a fire in me even more. We came into the game planning to light a match and play fast and physical, but whenever that happened, it just went up even more, and we dialed into our process and trusted our coaches and went out there and executed.”
CB Brandon Finney Jr.
- “I feel like it brought a team that was already connected even closer. It’s not an offense or defense thing. That’s our brother. So when we see him go down like that, and the person taunting after the play, we already had our mindset of what we were going to do when we got out there. It was just making sure we had controlled aggression. I was a high emotional moment, but we made sure we went out there and executed.”
WR Evan Stewart
- “All we were saying on the sideline was, ‘Just do it for Dante.’ That’s our brother; we love him. He makes everybody feel loved. He’s a good man, and that’s one of my best friends coming into Eugene and stuff. Not just being my quarterback, outside of football, that’s my dog. My emotions were really high, and I don’t really show too much emotion. I know a lot of the members of the team were looking at me, but I feel some type of way. But that just made us want to do it even more, so getting that touchdown right after, all I was saying to the camera was, that’s for 5 right there. This is for 5.”
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This article originally appeared on Ducks Wire: Oregon Ducks react to loss of QB Dante Moore vs. USC
