Is Oregon’s Dante Moore a good quarterback? Sure he is. Is he better than USC’s Jayden Maiava? That’s not something we can say with certainty … but a lot of college football analysts seem to be convinced that the Ducks have the better signal-caller than the Trojans. College Sports Wire has more details:
“It’s the same thing every year. In the college football offseason, a lot of time and energy is spent focused on the quarterback class, generally touting how good the overall group is, and questioning which player will be at the top of NFL draft boards the following spring. That is especially the case going into 2026, considering there are names like Arch Manning, Dante Moore, and Julian Sayin, among many others, on that list of QBs likely entering their final season of college ball, but when you look at the landscape of veteran players across the nation, it’s fair to argue that the season, at large, is going to be defined by non-passers.
“Over the weekend, On3 released its ranking of the top 10 returning players across college football going into this season, and it was relatively surprising to see that just two QBs — Manning and Moore — made the list, and were low in the rankings, on top of that.”
Arch Manning isn’t better than Jayden Maiava, but let’s set that point aside. Putting Moore over Maiava is a declaration that when Oregon faces USC this season, the pundits believe the Ducks have the better quarterback. Maiava and Lincoln Riley should take that personally … and they need to translate that snub into motivation which leads to an elite performance and, ultimately, a win over the Ducks. It’s the game which is likely to define USC’s season. The Trojans won’t get more respect than Oregon until they beat the Ducks. It’s that simple.
This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: Jayden Maiava collects more bulletin-board material in 2026 offseason
Reporting by Matt Zemek, Trojans Wire / Trojans Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
