Dakorien Moore will experience his first Big Ten primetime game with Oregon football. The prized college football recruiting freshman win for Dan Lanning and company now has Penn State to tangle with.
Millions nationwide and more than 106,000 filling Beaver Stadium will lock in for the game.
How locked in will the 2025 standout be? Especially with even more watchful eyes on him? Moore entered the season fueling immense hype. Now he's playing the game that should answer why he chose Oregon over his plethora of power conference offers.
Time to dive into the bold predictions for the talented wide receiver.
Penn State will attempt to bracket Dakorien Moore
Another words, Nittany Lions defensive coordinator Jim Knowles will position two defenders on the dynamic freshman.
This tactic rises during third and long scenarios.
Knowles knows all about trying to counter explosive wideouts. After all, he needed to deal with the Ohio State trio of Emeka Egbuka, Carnell Tate and Jeremiah Smith as the Buckeyes' defensive coordinator last year.
Knowles often runs a three-high safety look for his base 4-2-5 approach. But even his odd fronts features five on the backend.
Best believe Audavion Collins will get dibs on covering Moore. But he'll receive help from either Dejaun Lane or King Mack when Moore is aligned Collins' side.
This becomes Moore's toughest defense yet
Opposing defenses haven't tested Moore or the Ducks. Offensive coordinator Will Stein has this offense humming by scoring more than 34 points in every game.
Penn State's unit is a different animal, though.
Moore and Oregon faced defenses ranked no higher than No. 53 overall (Northwestern). And they walloped an Oklahoma State team that eventually fired head coach Mike Gundy.
The Nittany Lions enter as the first top 10 defense Moore and company will see — tied for ninth overall in the nation. Only Minnesota (No. 1) and Indiana (No. 3) have delivered stronger defensive results compared to PSU.
Stein must get even more creative for Moore here. Including looking beyond the designed jet sweep runs he's created to get him the football.
Moore, Oregon need Ducks to turn to defense for road win
Penn State is loaded offensively too. Drew Allar leads that high-octane crew featuring Nicholas Singleton/Kaytron Allen scoring eight touchdowns combined, then transfer Trebor Pena and Kyron Hudson fueling the air attack.
It'll be fun to see how Stein and PSU offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki scheme up their offenses. Lanning will need to rely on his defensive expertise next to Ducks defensive coordinator Tosh Lupoi to counter the Lions' weapons.
Knowles, though, holds the edge here off his past national title ring from a season ago. Head coach James Franklin clearly brought him in to prevent another letdown against Oregon — especially in the Big Ten title game.
Moore looks like he'll have a harder time breaking off a big play or two against this defense. This becomes his first CFB loss for what should be a stellar career for him at Oregon.
