Breaking: Dan lanning’s landing of QB1-caliber has pulled ducks from preseason top 10 team
|Breaking: Dan lanning’s landing of QB1-caliber has pulled ducks from preseason top 10 team
The Oregon quarterback room: Dillon Gabriel (starter; Oklahoma transfer), Dante Moore (UCLA transfer), Austin Novosad
With Heisman finalist Bo Nix entering the 2024 NFL Draft and Ty Thompson transferring to Tulane, the Ducks could’ve been in dire straits at quarterback entering the 2024 season as a preseason top 10 team, but Dan Lanning pulled off a rare portal feat, landing a pair of QB1-caliber additions under center. Gabriel is projected to start as the bridge to Moore, a five-star signee for Chip Kelly last season at UCLA. He competes with Novosad, a former four-star who redshirted last fall, for the second-team role.
Novosad is a former Baylor commit from Texas whom Texas A&M also pursued. If he cannot lock down that No. 2 position behind Gabriel and the offense’s reins hand down to Moore in 2025, the likelihood of Novosad hanging around in Eugene as a depth-chart casualty is slim. That position battle for the backup role behind Gabriel is one of the more interesting of the spring for the Big Ten’s newest program.
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LANE KIFFIN WINS SEC COACH OF THE YEAR
Given the projected four SEC teams to reach the playoff and Alabama left out, you’ve probably guessed that Ole Miss is one of them. With two seasons of 10 or more wins over his last three years in Oxford, Lane Kiffin is continuing to ascend as a top 10 coach and in 2024, he has the best-looking roster he’s had as a college coach after significant transfer portal enhancements. Both of last year’s regular-season losses came to Alabama and Georgia on the road. This fall, the Rebels benefit from one of the league’s most favorable slates and won’t have to deal with the Crimson Tide, Texas, Tennessee or Missouri. Georgia comes to The Grove in November and the other matchup with a ranked opponent is LSU in Week 7. If Ole Miss splits those and wins 11, Kiffin should be a unanimous pick for the SEC’s coach of the year.