While many spent July 4th cooking out, going to a parade, or seeing a fireworks show, college football fans and media members anxiously waited to hear where 2025 five-star wide receiver recruit Dakorien Moore would be committing.
Moore, who is deciding between the Texas Longhorns, Oregon Ducks, Ohio State Buckeyes, and LSU Tigers, posted on his Instagram on Wednesday that he would announce his commitment on Thursday at 8 p.m. central time.
With less than an hour to go before the announcement, ESPN’s Pete Thamel posted to his X account that the Oregon Ducks had landed the impact wide receiver.
“Five-star WR Dakorien Moore announced he’s going to Oregon. He’s the No. 3 overall player in ESPN’s rankings in 2025 and the country’s top-rated receiver. Huge get for Dan Lanning and WR coach Junior Adams,” Thamel posted before deleting the post minutes later.
Making matters worse for Thamel, Moore saw the deleted post and responded on his Instagram story, saying, “Who is this goofy? I haven’t said anything about any school.”
5-Star WR Dakorien Moore response to Pete Thamel saying he is committed to Oregon. 👀
Via Moore’s IG Story. pic.twitter.com/fhjUeXJKaq
— Touchdown Texas (@TDTexasMag) July 5, 2024
There are now two possible outcomes. One is that Moore does pick Oregon, meaning Thamel was so desperate to be first to report the news that he couldn’t wait an hour for the recruit to be able to announce the news himself. The other is that he doesn’t pick Oregon, either due to Thamel’s post or because he was never going to pick Oregon in the first place, which would cause resentment towards the reporter from the robust Ducks fanbase.
UPDATE: Moore announced that he was going to Oregon later on Thursday night.
