Next season of college football is going to be very different and strange.
Oregon, Washington, and the Los Angeles schools will compete in the Big Ten and the College Football Playoff is expanding by six more teams.
USC began this process with the other schools following and going their own way. The end result was the death of the Pac-12. Although the Ducks will be playing in a new conference, according to TrojansWire, Oregon will be the prohibitive favorite thanks to one player.
“Dillon Gabriel is a much better quarterback than Will Howard (Ohio State), and certainly much more proven and established than (USC’s) Miller Moss,” TrojansWire.com editor Matt Zemek said. “The Ducks are recruiting well and adding players via the transfer portal well across the board. They appear to have the most balanced team with an anchor at the sport’s most important position. They’re in the driver’s seat right now.”
While we at DucksWire would like to agree and Zemek is probably right, we would like to think Oregon is just one of several really good teams in the Big Ten in 2024. The Buckeyes, Wolverines, and Nittany Lions will provide stiff competition.
Since he does cover one team in Los Angeles, Zemek has a unique perspective on UCLA as well and for some reason, he’s not as high on former Bruin and current Duck quarterback Dante Moore as most people.
“Moore struggled in 2023. I didn’t get the sense he was about to turn the corner or that one more year was going to bring forth his best,” Zemek said. “He just didn’t live up to the hype. The Bruins need an elite portal quarterback in the spring.”
He is right, however. UCLA is in trouble if they don’t find a quarterback soon.