Dante Moore’s blueprint to the Heisman is already sitting inside the Oregon football trophy case.
Marcus Mariota wrote it.
Twelve years ago, Mariota postponed the NFL, returned to Eugene and transformed an excellent college career into a historic one. Moore made the same choice after projecting as a potential top-five pick in the 2026 draft, and the statistical similarities between him and Mariota are almost comical.
During the season before his Heisman win, Mariota threw for 3,665 yards and 31 touchdowns. Moore finished 2025 with 3,565 yards and 30 scores.
Mariota, in his return season, accounted for 53 touchdowns and guided Oregon to a 12-1 record before Heisman voting. Moore probably won’t match Mariota’s 14 rushing scores, but 4,000 passing yards and 40 total touchdowns should be within reach.
More importantly, Moore must cut his 10 interceptions to around five or six. That would give voters an easy narrative to follow: that Moore declined the NFL, returned to school and polished the part of his game that still needed work.
Unlike some Heisman hopefuls, Moore won’t have to manufacture team relevance. Oregon owns its highest preseason ranking ever at No. 2 and enters the season as a heavy favorite to reach the College Football Playoff.
Those expectations create pressure, but they also establish a Heisman-friendly baseline. If Oregon goes 11-1 and lands in the Big 10 championship, Moore’s impact will be impossible to ignore.
The schedule, as it’s written, provides a useful runway. Home games against Boise State and Portland State, plus a trip to Oklahoma State, in the season’s early stretch, should let Moore assemble numbers before Oregon visits preseason No. 14 USC on Sept. 26.
That will be the first opportunity to seize the national conversation.
A manageable October follows, with UCLA, Nebraska, Illinois and Northwestern. Moore should spend that stretch stockpiling touchdowns and boosting his candidacy, as opposed to getting tossed into the more crowded “nice season” pile.
Then, Oregon visits preseason No. 1 Ohio State on Nov. 7 before hosting No. 16 Michigan one week later. Trips to Michigan State and a rivalry finale against Washington complete a brutal closing month, but a month that could also be make-or-break for the Heisman.
Maybe most importantly, Ohio State is the hinge point. Outplaying quarterback Julian Sayin and wide receiver Jeremiah Smith, who both enter the season as Heisman favorites, and beating the Buckeyes in Columbus would give Moore a signature road win over another leading candidate.
The Michigan State matchup also supplies another Mariota parallel. Oregon’s defining early victory in 2014 came against the fifth-ranked Spartans, with Mariota leading a second-half surge.
Overall, Moore needs those marquee moments, because great numbers at Oregon have not guaranteed anything. Bo Nix produced 51 touchdowns in 2023 but lost twice to Washington. He finished third in Heisman voting that year behind LSU’s Jayden Daniels and, you guessed it, Washington’s Michael Penix Jr.
Dillon Gabriel, of course, led an undefeated regular season in 2024. Still, Colorado’s Travis Hunter and Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty finished first and second, respectively, in Heisman voting over the Oregon quarterback.
The Heisman formula here for Moore is demanding but clear: approach 40 touchdowns, limit the turnovers and guide Oregon through that November gauntlet, all before finishing strong with a Round 1 bye in the College Football Playoff.
Do that, and he might give Mariota some company in the trophy case.
And if he does that, he’ll go down in Oregon history as a true Ducks legend.
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