Stepping stone? No more. 

Rainy River town? Doesn’t matter.

Big-time player in national news? You bet. 

Days after the University of Oregon officially made its long-awaited move to the Big Ten, the Ducks made a Big Time move, snagging five-star receiver Dekorien Moore from Duncanville High School in Texas. 

Moore is the Ducks’ highest-ranked recruit of all-time per 247sports — and in most ways, it feels like just another day for the Ducks. 

Now for any program, a commit like Moore moves the needle. He’s as much of a sure thing as a teenager can be. He had 1,303 yards and 15 touchdowns in his junior year of high school. Although his numbers speak for themselves, it’s safe to say his talents and potential are limitless – but this is Oregon, and this is the No. 5 ranked player in his class. Connections like that don’t happen everyday. Or at least they didn’t use to. 

Thing is, the Ducks have felt like this type of big-time player for a while. Dan Lanning is a recruiting master and well, Moore is only the most recent exclamation point for the Ducks.  

Talents like Moore used to be exclusively in the recruiting trails of Texas, LSU and Ohio State. Oregon is officially at that level now, as Moore picked the Ducks over those three schools.

“I choose the path to be different and build a legacy,” Moore said in his announcement post. 

The Merriam-Webster definition of different is “partly or totally unlike in nature, form or quality.” 

Yeah, that pretty much covers it. Under Lanning, Oregon encompasses it all. 

Oregon is now different in “nature” in the fact that the Ducks have clearly distanced themselves from rivals Oregon State and Washington. “Rivalry” week might just be little brother week this time around.

Different in “form” with the Ducks now able to now doll out thousands in Name Image Likeness, while still dominating the recruiting, schematic and transfer portal. 

“The best way to enhance your team is to enhance your talent,” Lanning said on National Signing Day. 

And lastly the Ducks are different in “quality.” The Ducks’ 76% blue chip — a metric that players who have earned four or five stars are classified under — is good for the fourth best for any program in the nation.

“We take an everyday approach to recruiting,” Lanning said in the same interview. “Our staff has been doing this a long time, and we realize that this is about doing something every single day, not focusing on the short-term.” 

Oregon may not officially join the Big Ten — a conference known for its hard-nose style of play — until August 2, but it’s really been winning in the trenches — and every other margin — since Lanning took over. And there’s no end in sight.

The domino effect of dominance started with Lanning’s “Grass is Damn Green” reformation of his time in Eugene.

It rumbled on with the team’s transfer portal retool — the third-best class in the nation per 247sports. 

But now, with blue chip prospects continuing to fall left and right to Eugene, it seems as if the path will never end. 

All of this, of course, comes with newfound expectations with the team’s conference realignment. But with the way the Ducks played in 2023 — a team that has dominated the trenches like Big Ten and SEC schools of years past — such an adjustment doesn’t seem as large. 

Lanning, who coached in the SEC as Georgia’s defensive coordinator, certainly knows what it takes to play against the best — and now he’s recruiting alongside the top schools in the nation. 

“Oregon isn’t just a disrupter in college football,” On3’s college football insider J.D PicKell said in a July 5 X post. “They are a legitimate force in college football.” 

Indeed, it is. Get used to it.