Matt Leinart recently stirred up a debate about jersey numbers when he said he refused to let USC give his retired No. 11 to recruits who wanted it. At Oregon recently, a similar question came up with the opposite conclusion.
Dylan Raiola, who previously started at Nebraska and transferred this year to Oregon, will wear No. 8 for the Ducks. Oregon doesn’t officially retire numbers, but the No. 8 jersey has been considered special at Oregon since Marcus Mariota won the Heisman Trophy wearing it, and when Dillon Gabriel wore No. 8 in 2024, it was with Mariota’s blessing. Raiola didn’t take the No. 8 jersey until both Mariota and Gabriel said it was OK.
“The last two people, if you look at it, who wore it were Dillon Gabriel and Marcus Mariota,” Raiola said in a video published by Oregon. “So before I even thought about wearing it, I called Dillon and I asked him, and then I actually asked him if I could have Marcus’s number and I called Marcus and I was blessed with the opportunity to wear it.”
Raiola, Gabriel and Mariota are all from Hawaii and have formed a connection over that, as well as their status as Oregon quarterbacks wearing No. 8. Raiola previously wore No. 15 at Nebraska as part of his effort to emulate Patrick Mahomes, but now it’s a couple of his Oregon predecessors he seeks to emulate in the No. 8.
