Following a Historic Year For Freshmen WRs, There is Another Star Coming in 2025
If you're betting on one player to be 2025's version of Jeremiah Smith and Ryan Williams, Oregon's Dakorien Moore is him.
I realized that what makes you good at anything is the stages you go through. And if you want to be good, you study. You accept the fact that you need to do better.
- Reginald Samples, football coach
When I wrote about OSU’s Jeremiah Smith and Alabama’s Ryan Williams a year ago, my outlook on their chances of making an immediate impact was, well, less than optimistic. Chalk it up as yet another genius take from yours truly; indeed, we all know how that turned out…
However, when we look at the wider context of college football, and not just 2024, it’s fair to say that it is unlikely for a true freshman, especially one at a high P4 program, to make a significant impact in his first year on campus.
Even more so for a program like Ohio State, who—for all of the future NFLers that have come through at WR—had yet to have a freshman break 500 yards receiving, let alone 1000 before Smith came along in 2024.
Ryan Williams was even more of an outlier as a reclassified player. Granted the sample size is small for players moving up a level; the early returns on that group are not pretty either.
All that to say, both Williams and Smith are exceptions, not the rule. But then I thought about it some more as I sat down to write today’s article… it wasn’t just Smith and Williams, was it?
Clemson’s duo of TJ Moore and Bryant Wesco each made significant contributions last year on a CFP team. Auburn’s Cam Coleman had a hellacious finish to the year. Ditto for Stanford’s Emmett ‘Future Biletnikoff Winner’ Mosley.
Others at the G5 level shined such as Tulsa’s Joseph Williams and ECU’s Yannick Smith.
The widespread phenomenon of true frosh WRs making an impact immediately in 2024 was enough to make one ponder: was this an anomaly, or a new trend forming?
Truthfully, the answer is probably a bit of both. It was most certainly a historic WR class in 2024. That helps. It also helps that the class of college receivers entering into the NFL draft last offseason was a strong one, opening up a lot of opportunities around the sport. The transfer portal would have created more opportunities with roster reshuffling too. And of course, NIL probably increased the emphasis on getting certain players the ball early.
All this to say, I’m not ready to declare a new trend just yet. I doubt we will see another group of freshmen make the impact that we saw from the ‘24 WRs for a long time. But that doesn’t mean there won’t be a few studs coming out of the ‘25 group.
The obvious—though perhaps somewhat boring—place to start this conversation is with the nation’s #1 WR recruit, Oregon signee Dakorien Moore.
Dakorien Moore (5’11, 185)
With the exception of two months in early spring 2023, the Duncanville playmaker has been rated not just as a five star recruit, but a top-10 player in his class for the entirety of the C/O 2025 cycle, a group that first entered recruiting databases in the fall of 2022.
This is the definition of a blue blood recruit. It doesn’t really get any more ‘blueprint’ than this: a player who came up early in the Dallas metro circuit, rising to fame at arguably the premier program in all of Texas high school football in Duncanville.
He won back to back state titles as a sophomore and junior. He’s a track star who ran sub 10.5 second 100m dash times as a junior. 247 Sports tracks his first offer as December 18, 2020 (before he entered high school), from the Kansas Jayhawks of all programs.
A bizarre first offer, yes, but lest we forget that Ja’Marr Chase was at one point committed to the Hawks. That bunch is just hungry to get the taste of that out of their mouths, I bet.
Shocking everyone, Moore did not commit to the Hawks and instead appeared to be following the Ja’Marr Chase development path, verbally committing to the LSU Tigers in August 2023. This ‘commitment’ was short lived, however, as he reopened his recruitment in May 2024. Oregon secured the verbal a month later and the rest is history.
I suppose it shouldn’t surprise us that Moore is already being compared to Chase. Here’s what a recruiting analyst from ESPN had to say about him:
"Moore is a bigger, more physical version of outgoing Ducks receiver Tez Johnson. Even by Oregon's lofty standards, Moore is a special athlete . . . He's reminiscent of Ja'Marr Chase and is one of the most acrobatic, naturally gifted pass-catchers we've evaluated over the past 20 years. Moore checks all the boxes physically, but his competitive temperament sets him apart. He truly loves to play the game."
I don’t necessarily agree with everything this analyst is saying, specifically the part about “checking all the boxes physically” (Moore is listed at 5’11, which probably means he’s closer to 5’10). But who am I, right? These guys are the pros after all…
Now I’m sure the haters will point to the money sign when explaining this recruitment—and don’t get me wrong, I’m 100% positive Moore got paid—but it should also be noted that the Oregon Ducks RBs coach, Ra’Shaad Samples, is the son of current Duncanville High School football coach, Reginald Samples1. Ra’Shaad probably had a big hand in this recruitment. You know what they say: something something it’s not always about what you know, it’s about who…
And unlike the two headliners from last year’s class, Smith and Williams, the room that Moore enters into is actually fairly open for the taking. His biggest competition likely lies within former Texas A&M transfer Evan Stewart.
Stewart is perhaps a cautionary tale reminding us to not get too carried away when projecting big things from incoming freshman sensations. Dare I say Stewart was basically Dakorien Moore before Moore came along?
Here we have yet another five star wunderkind from the Dallas metro. Scouts in 2021 declared that it was between Luther Burden and Stewart, both top-10 rated recruits, for the crown of the best WR prospect in the 2022 class.
Stewart was a sensational high school player. And he actually had a great (pre-2024 standards) freshman season at A&M. Those who’ve followed my CFF WR rankings over the last two years know that there are few who believe in Stewart’s talent more than I do.
But I have to be fair in saying that he’s been a disappointment in his career so far, and if he represents the biggest obstacle for Moore’s ascension in year one, then the odds are pretty good for the incoming freshman. This is especially true considering Oregon’s WR1, Tez Johnson, a slender player who operated from the slot, is moving on to the NFL.
Coaching & System / Opportunity in Year One
WR1 PPG AVERAGE — HC: 16.3 — OC1: 17.92 (half ppr)
Let me just start off by saying, as a Georgia fan, I’m proud of Dan Lanning. My man is killing it out there in the PNW, and I think I speak for all Dawg fans in saying we appreciate him sticking around to complete the mission in 2021 when UGA won its first natty.
Now, in case you were wondering what the deal is with all the Texas high school love at Oregon, look no further than the OC, Will Stein, who is intimately familiar with Texas ball from his time as the OC at Lake Travis High School in Austin (2018-19).
Lake Travis is another big time program in the Lone Star State. In fact, they became the first Texas high school football program to win five straight state championships in 2011 (4A level).
Stein also coached at UTSA from 2020 to 2022, serving as the OC in the 2022 season.
Being a defensive mind, Lanning likely isn’t very responsible for the happenings on offence. Nonetheless, you can find his historical numbers, as well as Steins, in Table 1. below.
Looking closer to Stein’s history, it’s hard not to like what you see. His time at UTSA was fruitful as his WR1, Zakhari Franklin, had a fantastic 2022 season under Stein’s play calling.
The 2023 season with Oregon was even better as both Troy Franklin and Tez Johnson both went over 1000 yards, and both saw over 100 targets. That’s an interesting season to keep in mind re: today’s topic.
I also love that Stein’s system is agnostic regarding which role dominates target share between the boundary and slot positions. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the predictability of systems that have a designated role in the offence to target as much as the next guy; but there’s also something to be said about a coach who morphs the offence around the tools at his disposal.
Closing
I found myself chuckling when noticing that 247’s Gabe Brooks provided not one, but three different evaluations of Moore: one from 2025, 2024, and 2023. In each, he provides a different player comp (Brandin Cooks, Zay Flowers, and Chris Olave).
I actually like that Brandin Cooks comp. People may scoff, but Cooks, at 5’10", 170 pounds, had a monstrosity of a season in 2013, securing 128 catches for 1730 yards and 16 scores. This ironically occurred at the Ducks’ cross-state rival the Oregon State Beavers.
But I can also see a bit of ESPN’s comp of Ja’Marr Chase (in that they both have five letter last names and wore the #1 in high school; not much beyond that). The DEVY/C2C readers will undoubtedly be hoping for the latter of those two comps. For us pure CFFers, a career like Brandin Cooks’ would be fantastic for Moore.
And if there was ever a good omen for year one production, this would be one of them (from a Ducks Wire update):
It came out on social media on Saturday that incoming 5-star freshman wide receiver Dakorien Moore is rocking a very prominent number with the Ducks this year, taking one of the most coveted digits on the roster: No. 1.
While many true freshmen get a second or third pick at the available numbers, Moore was fortunate enough to get a prime selection as one of the top-ranked recruits in Oregon history.
Case in point, the last five star to sign with Oregon began his career announcing that he’d rock the number 99, and he hasn’t been heard from since.
Lanning also mentioned that Moore is already taking on a leadership role during spring camp:
“You don't have to be a senior to be a leader, right? You don't have to have experience to be a leader, right? But you have to be willing to put yourself out there, and Dakorien, as well as several other players on our team, are taking that lead, right? They're stepping up and taking advantage of opportunities to lead.”
But Houston, there is a problem. Lanning has a very noticeable pattern of not playing freshmen as a head coach. This is perhaps something he inherited from that mad bastard Kirby.
Other prominent names in the Oregon WR room currently include the aforementioned Stewart, Gary Bryant, Kyle Kasper, Justius Lowe, and Jurrion Dickey.
And I hate to be a Debbie Downer (as I often feel that I am when writing about freshmen), but to my untrained eye Moore doesn’t strike me as the same level of prospect as Jeremiah Smith or Ryan Williams. Certainly not comparable to Smith, who at 6 feet 3 is just an absolute horse.
Williams and Moore are more comparable in my opinion, both in terms of skill set and in terms of size. However, it’s always a precarious thing comparing to a player who did something no-one has done in the history of Alabama football, winning Mr. Football/Gatorade Player of the Year for the state of Alabama twice, without even having the benefit of a senior season. Indeed, as it turns out, Williams is an absolute freak too (pause).
At the present moment, I have a hard time forecasting a freshman season like Smith’s or Williams’ for Moore. I could see something like Ryan Wingo’s at Texas last year, where Moore works in as the fourth man in the rotation at times and has a few big games vs. weaker opponents.
He is absolutely worthy of a shot in CFF drafts of all formats, though, just on the off chance that he becomes this year’s version of either Smith or Williams. Don’t let a curmudgeon like me dissuade you if you’re feeling extremely optimistic about Moore this year.
I myself have already acquired one share of his in the 16th round of a bestball. And they say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks… ◾
If you enjoyed this content and would like to read more, I recommend joining the Pigpen, a community of thousands of degenerate college football fans:
Reginald Samples has a very similar coaching arc to UGA head coach Kirby Smart. I really enjoyed this article on his rise through the Texas high school football circuit. It took a long time for both coaches to win their first championship, in part due to the presence of an arch rival. But once they did, they won it back to back.
Sample 2018-2024, excluding 2020.