Oregon insider explains how Ducks landed Five-Star Plus+ WR Dakorien Moore

The Fourth of July offered some special fireworks for Dan Lanning and Oregon , as the Ducks pulled off arguably the biggest recruiting win of the 2025 cycle by landing a commitment from Duncanville (Texas) Five-Star Plus+ wide receiver Dakorien Moore .

The one-time LSU commit was trending to in-state Texas, but opted to dawn green and yellow on Thursday evening. The nation’s No. 1 wideout, Moore is one of the biggest additions to an Oregon class in program history.

But how did the Ducks do it? Pulling recruits up to Eugene from the south is never an easy task, especially when competing with the likes of Texas, Ohio State and LSU. Oregon recruiting insider Justin Hopkins joined ‘The Inside Scoop’ to go behind the scenes on how Lanning and his staff landed the No. 3 overall prospect.

Moore can ‘blaze his own trail’ in Eugene

The world of name, image and likeness has certainly altered the recruiting landscape, and while Hopkins says NIL played a part in Moore’s decision, there’s clearly more to it than that. Making the move to the Pacific Northwest will give Moore an opportunity to leave a different kind of lasting impact away from home.

“NIL was certainly a factor in his commitment. It was a factor in his recruitment. He was going to get paid what he was due — whatever that value is, who knows — but that wasn’t it for Oregon,” Hopkins said. “They really sold hard a chance for him to blaze his own trail out in Eugene. Kinda get away, spread his wings, if you will, as a Duck. I think that was one of the biggest things.”

Moore has an On3 NIL Valuation of $575K . The On3 NIL Valuation is the industry’s leading index that sets high school and college athletes’ projected annual value (PAV). The NIL valuation does not act as a tracker of the value of NIL deals an athlete has completed to date. It rather signifies an athlete’s value at a certain moment in time.

Oregon staff went the extra mile and then some to land Moore

With the distance disadvantage, Oregon obviously wasn’t able to get Moore on campus for visits as frequently as the likes of Texas and LSU. That hasn’t stopped the Ducks staff in the past and it certainly didn’t in this recruitment.

Moore visited in the spring and logged his official visit last month ahead of his commitment, but that was far from the only efforts made by the Big Ten program to show Moore that he was the No. 1 priority.

“Additionally, Oregon had several coaches — and I’m sure Texas did too — and recruiting personnel…I had people tell me ‘man, our involvement and our recruitment of this kid is unlike anything I’ve ever seen.’ The amount of effort they put into it, the amount of love that they tried to show the family. Making his family comfortable with potentially leaving to Eugene,” Hopkins said.

What likely helped ease the nerves of making the long move to Eugene is the ties that the Ducks coaching staff has with the Lone Star State. Offensive coordinator Will Stein has coached in Texas, while new running backs coach Ra’Shaad Samples is a Dallas native and has a long-standing relationship with Duncanville.

Add in receivers coach Junior Adams — who has continued to prove his recruiting chops — and there was a developed level of comfort between Moore and Oregon that helped lead him to his decision.

“Last thing is Junior Adams is a killer, a stone-cold killer on the recruiting trail. Ra’Shaad Samples, the recently hired running backs coach with ties to Duncanville and ties to Texas, was absolutely instrumental in this as well,” Hopkins said. “I think you put those two guys on the trail together and that became really what it boiled down to for Oregon, just the fact that they were able to relentlessly recruit him and really lean in on those relationships.”

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