When news breaks that a player is going to miss the rest of the season, the media has a certain reaction to it. For the Oregon Ducks, who will be without Dante Moore, it meant that it's time to evaluate for next season. The Ducks are 4-3, after all, and need to begin rebuilding the culture and roster that made them a College Football Playoff Semifinalist in 2025.
Essentially, the news was broken and there was a whole bunch of talk about what the future will look like for the Ducks.
But within the Oregon locker room, the impact of Moore missing the rest of the 2026 season is felt much more deeply. The players know Moore personally, as he both put in the work alongside him during the offseason and hung out with him outside of team activities. At
the same time, they see what Moore has been going through ever since he took the hit to his head against the USC Trojans in late September.
Gaining Moore's teammates' perspectives is valuable in hearing their sympathy for their quarterback and leader as well as it being a reflection of Moore's character. During media sessions this week, a number of Ducks gave us their reactions to the news of Moore shutting it down for the 2026 season.
WR Dakorien Moore
"That's something that's like very heartbreaking, being that he was the first guy to even speak to me when I first got here. You know, we've got same last name. You know, it gives us even more connection. So just that bond that we have in general, I feel for him. So it was very heartbreaking to hear. But at the same time, it's, I mean, we've kind of been getting used to like other quarterbacks playing. So in terms of like football plays and stuff like that, like we just gotta rock out with, you know, what we've been doing. We are used to it. But I feel for him deeply."
RB Jordon Davison
"We all kind of like gathered behind him and supporting his decision, you know, it's not like he just put on us. It's kind of like medical, so we all support him and we all care for him and love him."
TE Jamari Johnson
“It was bad, man. It was bad news to hear. That's my guy, and as soon as he told me that, and he was talking to the team about about like one of the moments he remembered, and once he told me that, I remembered like it played in my mind. The last Indiana game, and I asked him like, 'Are you going to come back?' And we just had like a little moment right there, and that was like one of the first flashbacks I had in my mind when he said that. So it's my dog, man. I’ll miss him."
DL D'Antre Robinson
"I feel like, of course, it's tough to see one of your leaders like that go down, but he's with us. He's, I mean, he's been a good leader. He's being vocal still. Like he's helping us a lot, and I feel like just having him around is just going to make us go harder because we're doing it for him. So that's how it's been."
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This article originally appeared on Ducks Wire: Oregon players react to Dante Moore's 2026 season ending
