Oregon Ducks quarterback Dillon Gabriel exited for a play in the first half of Friday’s Big Ten home opener against the Michigan State Spartans. After being hit on a throw, Gabriel went down with an apparent injury and was treated by Oregon’s athletic trainers. As a result, he was required to leave the field for a play.

Backup Dante Moore entered, which officially marked his Big Ten debut.

Moore then took over the reins for good in the fourth quarter before the Ducks secured the 31-10 win. On Moore’s first full drive, Oregon went three-and-out after an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on second down set the Ducks back. After that, Moore completed a seven-yard pass to Jurrion Dickey before running for six yards on 3rd and 18.

He wasn’t able to see anymore significant action, as the Spartans drained out most of the remaining clock before knocking in a field goal with 10 seconds to play. Moore then took the final kneel down to seal the win.

In a short sample size, Oregon Ducks coach Dan Lanning still had high praise for the backup quarterback.

“What he shows on the game field is the same things we see in practice,” said Lanning. “I think he was able to operate cleanly tonight, but I want to be able and go watch the tape and see what I can pick from that.”

Moore, a transfer from UCLA, fixes to be the starter for the Ducks once Gabriel moves on next season. He said prior to the 2024 campaign that he’s feeling “way more comfortable.”

“Overall, going through fall camp, I’m way more comfortable,” Moore said. “Checking calls, checking protections — I’m just feeling more comfortable from what Coach Stein has taught us.”

Last season with the Bruins, he went 114 of 213 passing for 1,610 yards, 11 touchdowns and nine interceptions.

Headed into Friday’s meeting with the Spartans, Moore had appeared in just one game this season, as he saw action in the 49-14 win over Oregon State on Sept. 14. He went 3 of 3 passing for 15 yards in mop-up duty.

A Detroit native, Moore came out of Martin Luther King High School as a five-star quarterback and one of the best players in the 2023 recruiting class. He had offers from programs like LSU, Auburn, Georgia, Michigan, Texas A&M, Ole Miss, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Penn State and many more.

He was a part of a talented 2023 quarterback class that included big names like Arch Manning, Nico Iamaleava, Malachi Nelson. Jackson Arnold, Avery Johnson, Jaden Rashada and current Oregon Duck quarterback Austin Novosad.

Across four years in high school, Moore went 623 of 893 passing for 9,880 yards, 135 touchdowns and 20 interceptions.

If Moore can continue to enter games while Gabriel is healthy, that will spell success for the Ducks, as it signals that Lanning feels comfortable with a big lead.

Barring an injury to Gabriel, it’s unlikely that Moore will see action in next week’s pivotal Big Ten matchup against the Ohio State Buckeyes next Saturday at Autzen Stadium. Kickoff is set for 4:30 p.m. PT.

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Former President Donald Trump’s chances of defeating Vice President Kamala Harris have improved significantly over the past week in Michigan, according to a bookmaker.

Trump’s odds of winning Michigan’s presidential election were up by 14 percentage points with online betting platform Polymarket on Friday. Michigan is considered among at least seven battleground states that could decide the presidency on November 5.

While Polymarket still listed Harris as a 52 percent to 48 percent favorite in Michigan, the Democratic nominee saw her advantage over the Republican slip from a much wider lead of 67 percent to 34 percent only one week earlier on September 27.

Newsweek reached out for comment to the Trump and Harris campaigns via email on Friday.

Polls suggest that Michigan is very likely to be a tight contest. While Harris has been a slight favorite for the past two months, Trump has been gaining ground in the state in some recent surveys.

A pair of Republican-leaning polls conducted late last month showed the former president with a 1 percent to 2 percent lead over Harris. An average of recent polls compiled by FiveThirtyEight shows the vice president leading Trump by 1.6 percent as of Friday.

Trump was defeated by President Joe Biden in Michigan by 2.8 points in 2020. He won the state by less than 11,000 votes over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016, becoming the first Republican to win Michigan since former President George H.W. Bush in 1988.

The Wolverine State is among the three so-called “blue wall” swing states that are considered vital for Democratic hopes of winning in November. Polls and betting odds in the other two states, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, are also tight.

Polymarket, which was funded in part by early Trump backer Peter Thiel, has also given the former president a significant odds boost in Pennsylvania over the past week. Trump is a 55 percent to 46 percent favorite in the Keystone State as of Friday, up from a nearly even contest one week earlier.

The FiveThirtyEight Pennsylvania polling average show Harris with a very small 0.6-point lead over Trump as of Friday.

In Wisconsin, Harris was a slight Polymarket betting favorite on Friday, although her 52 percent chance of winning was down from 56 percent the previous week. The Badger State polls showed the race neck-and-neck, with Harris holding another 0.6-point lead in the FiveThirtyEight average.

Polymarket is among several online betting platforms that offer odds on the presidential election. Nearly all of the bookmakers show Harris and Trump with roughly even chances of winning the overall election in November.

While betting on elections was technically illegal for many years in the U.S., a federal appeals court earlier this week sided with betting platform Kalshi in a lawsuit that effectively legalized the practice.