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Oregon Football star QB Dante Moore gives back with heartfelt gift to hometown alma mater

Originally posted on NIL on SI | By Trent Knoop | Last updated Jun 12, 2025 2:33 PM ET

Dante Moore is beginning the journey of becoming the next great Oregon Ducks starting QB. Entering his junior season, Moore is slated to start for Dan Lanning's squad after transferring into Oregon from UCLA last season. It's been a long journey for the Michigan native, but Moore hasn't forgotten his roots.

Returning to Detroit, Michigan, Moore utilized his NIL money to give back to his alma mater. The former five-star recruit donated Detroit King Football a $10,000 check. But that wasn't the only thing Moore did while being back home.

He also hosted a book signing for the children of Detroit. Moore published his own book called 'From Journey to Dream'. A book that’s centered around his childhood and path to playing Division l football.

“I feel like this book will be good for kids just to read and understand,” said Moore. “If you have a dream, chase it. Many people think the sky’s the limit, but I say reach for the stars. Many things don’t happen to go your way, I feel like you just learn from them. My freshman year at UCLA, a lot of mistakes happened there, but overall, I learned from them.”

Detroit King grad Dante Moore (Oregon QB) with a generous donation to his alma mater. pic.twitter.com/05Bm36OZNM
— The D Zone (@TheD_Zone) June 12, 2025

The former No. 4 overall recruit in the 2023 class chose to leave Michigan and head to UCLA. He started for the Bruins in 2023. In nine games, Moore threw for 1,610 yards and 11 touchdowns, but also threw nine interceptions. In hopes of elevating his game, he opted to sit behind Dillon Gabriel and learn at Oregon.

The Ducks have had a rich history at the QB position, and Moore is in line to continue that history. Coach Lanning has all the confidence in the world in Moore.

“Dante has all the ability in the world, has the arm talent,” Lanning told Oregon Ducks reporter Bri Amaranthus. “I’ve been really pleased with his intelligence to get us checked into a positive play. A lot of times playing football, it's advantage offense, advantage defense based on the call. He's done a great job of getting us in an advantage call. Whenever he sees a certain look, being able to adjust and adapt to that.

“The other piece I think is his poise. He's calm, collected. He plays with a swagger out there, which I think you want to have in a quarterback. He's done a really, really good job of that… He has a mentality right now about how he wants to go attack things."