USC Trojans linebacker Desman Stephens II hit Oregon Ducks quarterback Dante Moore as he was sliding on Saturday, Sept. 26. Moore was taken to the hospital, and Stephens was ejected for targeting after he was caught on the sideline celebrating the hit.
Between the injury and lack of remorse, it’s impossible to defend Stephens in this situation. And yet that’s exactly what USC radio’s Pete Arbogast did in the immediate aftermath of the play. Arbogast, the longtime radio play-by-play voice of the Trojans, immediately went into damage-control mode after the hit. Or at least you hope it was damage control. In the call, shared by Oregon TV sports anchor Brenna Greene on X, Arbogast initially tried to excuse the hit because of Moore’s sliding form. He was also convinced that Moore had gone headfirst and “ducked into the hit.”
When his broadcast partner, former USC defensive lineman Shaun Cody, agreed with an off-camera voice that Moore was laying on the ground with his feet forward, which would suggest he was sliding, Arbogast argued that the Trojans had “spun him around.”
MORE: USC football suspends Desman Stephens after dirty hit on Dante Moore
USC radio call of Dante Moore hit
This USC radio broadcast footage is just straight embarrassing. pic.twitter.com/cuVeZzRRP3
— Brenna Greene (@BrennaGreene_) September 29, 2026
As they watched the replay, Arbogast continued to blame the sliding quarterback saying it was “more of a knee slide.” The final line from the clip has Arbogast saying, “It didn’t look like targeting on the replay to us,” while Cody goes full Jim Halpert, making a face at the camera in the booth.
MORE: Chris Simms says Dante Moore put defender in no-win situation on brutal hit
In the annals of local sports team broadcasts, this will go down as an all-time biased homer call. Even if you were going to be sympathetic to the situation, Stephens was in at that moment like NBC’s Chris Simms; you can’t ignore the reality that Moore was sliding.
Arbogast, who graduated from USC, has been calling Trojans games for a long time. He did play-by-play for the school from 1989 to 1994 and then returned for good in 2001.
— Enjoy free coverage of the top news & trending stories with The Big Lead Newsletter —