They've been dancing and driving opponents off the ball since spring, and now the Oregon offensive linemen are the Ducks' last hope for a postseason award.
The Joe Moore Award is kept under wraps until mid to late December, with a surprise announcement on the campus of the winning school. Committee members Aaron Taylor and Jenny Dell will show up with a camera crew, interrupt a meeting to tell the guys. The finalists are Iowa, Indiana and Oregon.
Curt Cignetti won Coach of the Year for the second year in a row and Fernando Mendoza is the favorite to win the Heisman, so it could be a Hoosier sweep. Good. Let IU be the hot team in the banquet room.
They certainly deserve the accolades after a 13-0 season and defeating Ohio State 13-10 in the Big Ten Championship, but you get the feeling they've spent a bit too much vital energy in the celebration phase. They're no longer the overlooked scrappy underdog. Now they're No. 1, a great story, but a playoff run requires some hunger and anger, like Ohio State generated last year.
What stood out about @oregonfootball, @IndianaFootball and @HawkeyeFootball?@colecubelic, @JennyDell_, @AaronTaylorCFB, @geoffschwartz and @LanceZierlein broke it down in the #Donjoy Finalist Spotlight.@enovismedtech pic.twitter.com/X4gpRccP78
— Joe Moore Award (@JoeMooreAward) December 13, 2025
The Buckeyes might have that again after losing in Indianapolis, but the team that fits that mold could be Texas Tech. They've got a stingy and aggressive defense and they come into the tournament with that "no one gave us a chance" attitude.
The question with them is consistency on offense. They rolled up yards and points in the Big 12. Quarterback Behren Morton is riding a hot streak, finishing the season with four straight games without an interception after missing two games in the middle of the year with a shoulder sprain.
Shut out on award night, the Ducks can focus on the one no one votes on
Kenyon Sadiq didn't win the John Mackey Award. Instead it went to Eli Stowers of Vanderbilt, who caught 62 passes for 769 yards and four touchdowns. Sadiq missed a game and a half with various injuries and played banged-up for a few weeks; Dante Moore kept trying to kill him with throws just out of his reach.
He still caught 40 passes for 490 yards and eight touchdowns, leading the Ducks in TDs and receptions, first nationally among tight ends in TD passes. He'll just have to be content with a consolation prize, likely to be the first tight end drafted in April. Scouts love his speed, blocking and freakish athletic ability.
At the beginning of the year the Ducks were on all the Watch Lists, but Moore didn't win the Heisman (he didn't even make the final ten) and Iapani Laloulu was passed over for Iowa's Logan Jones for the Rimington Trophy, the award for centers. Matayo Uiagalelei, coming off 10.5 sacks a year ago, was a preseason mention for a bunch of defensive honors, but TTU's Jacob Rodriquez, who started his career as a quarterback at Virginia, won the Bednarik, the Nagurski, the Butkus and the Lombardi Award, this year's king of the defensive world.
The Oregon kickers Atticus Sappington and punter James Ferguson-Reynolds had terrific seasons where they played a pivotal role in Oregon's 11-1 finish, but neither came close to the podium or even the final group at Home Depot's version of the college football Oscars. Caleb Downs of Ohio State won the Jim Thorpe Award; Dillon Thieneman and Jadon Canaday were back in Eugene watching film.
It seems the Ducks that the Ducks are good everywhere but not yet great enough to clutch the hardware. Emmanuel Pregnon earned second team Walter Camp All-American; Thieneman got a second team nod on defense. That's it.
Awards and honors are nebulous and often reputation based. The Ducks have an opportunity to claim the one no one votes on, the one where you have to win enough games to get in the room.
