Josh Pate: “That’s the best collection of talent Lanning’s had since he’s been there.”

Last week Oregon welcomed in college football analyst/reporter Josh Pate. In the past couple of years Pate has become one of the biggest voices in the college football market. He visits a lot of programs, talks to many coaches, interacts with many fanbases.

Pate was able to watch Oregon practice last week. A treat very few get to enjoy these days.

On Sunday night he offered up his thoughts on his show specifically about Oregon and the outlook for the Ducks.

“I am in a weird position with Oregon. I think that’s the best collection of talent Lanning’s had since he’s been there. But yet there are some hinge points that are gonna determine whether they’re capable of competing for a Big Ten championship this year.”

Pate would go on to follow up that opening statement with news that Duck fans will delight to hear. The Ducks have not announced a starting quarterback but most assume it will be Dante Moore. If you’ve been reading ScoopDuck for the past week, you’ll know where we stand with that.

However Pate had this to say about Moore.

“It’s not (hinging) Dante Moore. I feel great about him. Dante Moore is going to be a stud.”

But he did follow up with his first hinge point, who Dante will be throwing to this season. There is no doubt the wide receiver room has a lot of eyeballs on it this year for several reasons. One is the injury to Evan Stewart, the arrival of five-star Dakorien Moore and the uncertainty behind it.

It looks like that uncertainty very much stood out to Pate following his visit.

“I really wonder if that wide receiver room is going to have the depth that it needs to. The versatility it needs to. I very much believe in Dakorien Moore. I think they got everything they thought they were getting with him. Just how that wide receiver room shakes out and how many other guys you have capable of having a 650 receiving yard type year. Any given week they could go off for 180. That’s the kind of receiver room. That’s the kind of depth they need. Oregon’s not going to have their guy that goes off for 1,500 yards, like a Ryan Williams or Jeremiah Smith. That guys not in there. If he is it’s Dakorien Moore. But behind him what I kind of watched with them was I watched how many different guys do I see could be a virtual non-factor for a couple of weeks on the stat sheet and then have 6 catches for 189 and 2 touchdowns.”

He followed that up with a very surprising second hinge point. Pate would go on to talk about Oregon’s running back room and the depth at the position. The Ducks did add Makhi Hughes from Tulane via the transfer portal and also brought in a pair of freshmen backs in Dierre Hill and Jordon Davison.

But Pate was at practice and here are his thoughts on the room after viewing.

“The other hinge point to me is running back depth. I kind of had an idea in the Spring that I thought I knew how the pecking order, the depth would roll out there. I think it’s probably a little bit more by committee than I would have said in the Spring. Which is ok. That’s why you recruit. Sometimes when you gotta go running back by committee it means, oh no, we don’t have anyone who can play. That’s not the case. What it means is you don’t have any one player that’s infinitely above and beyond everyone else in the room. That could mean you just have three B+ level players.”

Some final thoughts from Pate as he puts all of what he just said into a summation:

“They got a lot of good players. The offensive line is a strength there. You’re going to give Dante Moore every chance to succeed. You’re going to be giving those tailbacks every chance to succeed. You’re going to give that wide receiver room every chance to sort itself out.”