CBS Sports handed its 2026 preseason college football awards to Oregon quarterback Dante Moore as Player of the Year, Ducks coach Dan Lanning as Coach of the Year and Michigan running back Savion Hiter as Freshman of the Year. The Big Ten swept all three for the second straight season.
Last year’s preseason trio of Jeremiah Smith, James Franklin and Bryce Underwood lost every category by December. That flip sets the frame for these new crowns.
Preseason hardware is a bet on trajectory, not a verdict. Moore, Lanning and Hiter arrive with résumés and supporting casts that explain the early love. The same conference that blanked the board a year ago is blanking it again, and the polls already mirror the awards.
The Big Ten takes the hardware again
Cody Nagel of CBS Sports made the picks official on August 18. Moore returns after walking away from a projected top-five NFL draft slot and nearly $50 million in guaranteed money. Lanning enters his fifth year in Eugene still hunting the program’s first national title. Hiter arrives as the consensus top running back in the 2026 recruiting class.
Oregon sits No. 2 in the preseason AP Top 25 with 14 first-place votes, behind only Ohio State. Michigan checks in at No. 16. The conference’s grip on the early awards matches its standing at the top of the polls.
| Award | 2025 preseason pick | 2025 final winner | 2026 preseason pick |
|---|---|---|---|
| Player of the Year | Jeremiah Smith, WR, Ohio State | Diego Pavia, QB, Vanderbilt | Dante Moore, QB, Oregon |
| Coach of the Year | James Franklin, Penn State | Curt Cignetti, Indiana | Dan Lanning, Oregon |
| Freshman of the Year | Bryce Underwood, QB, Michigan | Malachi Toney, WR, Miami | Savion Hiter, RB, Michigan |
The table shows the pattern. Preseason consensus and end-of-year reality parted ways completely twelve months ago.
Two of the three 2026 selections come from programs already parked inside the AP top 16. The third, Lanning, coaches the team with 14 first-place votes. The awards and the rankings are telling the same story before a snap has been played.
Moore’s $50 million decision to stay in Eugene
Moore completed 296 of 412 passes for 3,565 yards and 30 touchdowns in 2025 with 10 interceptions. His 71.8 percent completion rate and 163.72 passer rating both ranked in the national top 10. He added 156 rushing yards and two scores.
- 296-of-412 passing, 71.8 percent
- 3,565 yards, 30 touchdowns, 10 interceptions
- 163.72 passer rating, top-10 national finish
- Orange Bowl offensive MVP in the CFP quarterfinal
Those numbers explain why the draft capital was real and why the return still turned heads. Walking away from a projected top-five slot and nearly $50 million is a wager on another year of production, not a soft landing.
Three of Oregon’s top five pass-catchers return. Evan Stewart is healthy after missing 2025 with a knee injury. The offensive line brings back four starters. Will Stein left for Kentucky, but Drew Mehringer has been with Lanning since day one and will call plays.
The supporting pieces reduce the usual risk that comes with a coordinator change. Mehringer already knows the quarterback, the protection rules and the skill group. Continuity on the line and at receiver gives Moore a cleaner runway than most veterans who stick around.
Bo Nix and Dillon Gabriel both reached New York as Heisman finalists in their final Oregon seasons. Moore is positioned to become the next Duck quarterback in that conversation. The program has one Heisman winner: Marcus Mariota in 2014, the first Oregon player to win the Heisman.
Oregon’s season ended in a 56-22 CFP semifinal loss to Indiana. Moore still has something to prove on the biggest stage. The regular-season résumé was strong enough for a preseason Player of the Year nod. The January stage is where the argument is unfinished.
Lanning’s 48-8 record still lacks the last step
Since taking over in 2022, Lanning owns a 48-8 overall mark. That record ranks among the best in the country, trailing only Georgia over the same stretch and tied with Ohio State for second. The Ducks have made the College Football Playoff in consecutive seasons.
- 2022: 10-3, Holiday Bowl win
- 2023: 12-2, Fiesta Bowl
- 2024: 13-1, Big Ten title, Rose Bowl loss in CFP
- 2025: 13-2, CFP first-round and Orange Bowl wins, Peach Bowl semifinal loss to eventual champion Indiana
Both losses in the expanded playoff came against the eventual national champion, and neither was close. Ryan Day and Kirby Smart faced similar early-tenure questions before breaking through. Lanning now sits in that same seat.
The climb is visible in the year-by-year ledger. Bowl wins gave way to a Big Ten title, then to deeper playoff runs. The ceiling keeps rising. The final step has not arrived.
The Ducks return a loaded roster around Moore. An experienced defensive front and skill talent give them another clear path. The question is whether this group finally finishes.
Coach of the Year in August is a vote of confidence in that path. It is also a reminder that the standard in Eugene is no longer double-digit wins alone. The program has stacked 13-win seasons and still left the last weekend empty-handed.
Hiter steps into a ready-made rushing attack
Savion Hiter signed with Michigan as the top running back in the class and a consensus five-star. The 5-foot-11, 212-pounder from Louisa County High School in Virginia carries a five-star ranking as the No. 1 running back on multiple services and as high as No. 8 overall in the 247Sports Composite.
- Junior year: 156 carries, 1,698 yards, 26 touchdowns (10.8 yards per carry)
- Senior year: more than 100 carries, 1,445 yards, 25 touchdowns
- Also returned three kickoffs for scores and posted seven sacks on defense
- Gatorade Virginia Player of the Year and MaxPreps state player of the year
The high school tape is volume plus efficiency, with special-teams and defensive production layered on. That profile is why he landed as the consensus top back and why Michigan is comfortable handing him early labels.
New offensive coordinator Jason Beck arrives from Utah, where his 2025 unit ranked second nationally in rushing at 266.31 yards per game, eighth in attempts and fourth in success rate. Jordan Marshall returns in the backfield and quarterback Bryce Underwood will take designed runs. The volume should still create early touches for Hiter.
Beck’s Utah numbers describe a scheme that feeds backs rather than starves them. Marshall and Underwood will take their share. Even so, a unit built to rank near the top nationally in rushing yards and success rate tends to have carries left for a five-star freshman.
Michigan took the preseason Freshman of the Year award last season with Underwood. Hiter makes it back-to-back for the Wolverines before he has taken a college snap. Fans on X noted the hardware arrived before any carry, a reminder of how early these labels land.
Preseason crowns rarely last until December
CBS Sports itself flagged the risk. Last year’s preseason Player of the Year Smith finished behind Vanderbilt’s Diego Pavia. Coach of the Year Franklin was fired at Penn State months later; Indiana’s Curt Cignetti took the final honor. Freshman Underwood yielded to Miami’s Malachi Toney.
The clean sweep the other way is the caution sign hanging over every August ballot.
- Player of the Year flipped from Ohio State’s Smith to Vanderbilt’s Pavia
- Coach of the Year flipped from Penn State’s Franklin to Indiana’s Cignetti
- Freshman of the Year flipped from Michigan’s Underwood to Miami’s Toney
The pattern is older than one cycle. Early favorites often run into injuries, scheme changes, or simply better stories that emerge in October and November. Moore tops several early Heisman lists circulating on X, and Oregon fans already project a title run. Those same posts sit beside reminders of two straight CFP exits that were not competitive.
Lanning’s path looks familiar to anyone who watched Day and Smart absorb years of “can’t win the big one” talk before they did. The difference is that Oregon has never won a national championship. The drought remains intact.
Hiter’s award is the purest projection of the three. He has not played a down. Underwood held the same label a year ago and did not keep it. That history does not indict Hiter. It only underlines how fragile freshman crowns are when the calendar still reads August.
Oregon Keeps Feeding the Heisman Conversation
Moore’s preseason Player of the Year nod fits a recent pipeline out of Eugene. Nix and Gabriel both reached New York as Heisman finalists in their final Oregon seasons. Mariota remains the program’s lone winner, from 2014.
The through line is not complicated. When the Ducks stack talent around a veteran quarterback and stay near the top of the polls, the national ballot follows. Oregon opens at No. 2 with 14 first-place votes. Moore already owns a top-10 completion rate, a top-10 passer rating and an Orange Bowl offensive MVP from the last playoff run.
| Quarterback | Heisman stage | Program context |
|---|---|---|
| Marcus Mariota | Winner, 2014 | First Oregon player to win the award |
| Bo Nix | Finalist, final Oregon season | Reached New York |
| Dillon Gabriel | Finalist, final Oregon season | Reached New York |
| Dante Moore | Early lists, 2026 preseason POY | Returned after top-five draft projection |
None of that guarantees a trip to New York. It does explain why the preseason ballot treated Moore as the headliner. The roster around him, the play-caller continuity under Mehringer and the unfinished business from the 56-22 semifinal loss all feed the same narrative.
For Oregon, the Heisman talk and the national title talk are linked. The program has produced finalists and one winner. It has not produced a championship. Moore’s decision to return put both pursuits on the same clock.
Why the Playoff Losses Still Frame Eugene
Lanning’s 48-8 mark and consecutive College Football Playoff appearances would end the debate at most programs. At Oregon they are the setup, not the punch line. Both expanded-playoff losses came against the eventual national champion. Neither was close. The latest was that 56-22 Peach Bowl defeat to Indiana.
That math shapes how the Coach of the Year label lands. It is praise for the body of work since 2022. It is also a wager that the next step is finally available. Day and Smart absorbed the same early-tenure questions before they broke through. Lanning is in that seat now, with a loaded roster and a quarterback who already turned down the draft.
- Regular-season standard: 13-1 and 13-2 seasons, a Big Ten title, ranked among the nation’s best records since 2022
- Playoff standard: consecutive CFP trips, wins in the first round and Orange Bowl, then exits to the eventual champion
- Program standard: still hunting the first national title in school history
The returned defensive front and skill talent give the Ducks another clear path. Mehringer takes over play-calling with history beside Lanning. Moore brings proven production. The pieces line up the same way they have when Eugene has been most dangerous.
August awards do not close the gap. They only spotlight it. Until Oregon wins the game that ends the season, the 48-8 record and the preseason crowns will keep sharing space with the same unfinished question.
Big Ten power leaves little oxygen elsewhere
The conference’s preseason dominance shows up beyond the awards. Ohio State and Oregon occupy the top two AP spots for the first time in 65 years. Multiple Big Ten teams sit inside the top 16. Earlier CBS Sports Big Ten rankings earlier this year already reflected the depth, and Michigan’s coaches poll spot drawing side-eye underscored how even mid-tier conference teams draw national attention.
That concentration raises the bar for everyone else. A non-Big Ten team will need an almost perfect season and some help to crack the top of the playoff picture. Inside the league the margin for error is thin; one bad month can drop a contender out of the conversation.
The awards ballot is another symptom of the same tilt. Player, coach and freshman all landed inside the conference for a second straight year. Oregon and Michigan supplied the names. Ohio State sits alone above the Ducks in the AP poll. The rest of the sport is already playing uphill in the perception game.
Moore, Lanning and Hiter now carry the early labels. History says those labels often get rewritten by the time the trophies are actually handed out in December and January. The games will decide which version of the story holds.
