Kellen Moore: A Retrospective
With Kellen Moore ending his college career last night, I found myself reflecting back on a 4-year stretch of excellence. If you never watched him play, consider yourself forever poorer for having missed out on the #11 experience. Better wordsmiths than me will surely craft elaborately detailed accounts of his success, but I wanted to focus on a few of his more quantitative accomplishments here. So farewell to one of the greatest college QBs we may ever see and thank you for all the memories.
Kellen Moore:
Record: 50-3
#1 all-time in career wins. This requires not just being a 4-year starter, but also averaging 12.5 wins a season. Colt McCoy (second place on the career wins list) of Texas, also a 4-year starter, and aided by the Big XII having a championship game, still only put up 45 wins. Argue all you want about strength of schedule, but 50 wins is still a staggering number.
Passing Yards: 14,667
#5 on the all-time list behind Case Keenum, Timmy Chang, Graham Harrell, and Ty Detmer. Not bad company to keep.
Total Yards: 14,534
Good enough for #8 on the all-time best list. Impressive for a pocket passer with -133 career net rushing yards.
Passing TDs: 142
#2 on the all-time list behind Case Keenum (currently 152, with a bowl game still on the schedule).
Career Passer Rating: 169.0
#3 on the all time list behind Sam Bradford and Tim Tebow.
Single Season Passer Rating: 182.6 (2010)
Third best score ever posted (currently, RG3 and Russell Wilson have higher scores, but have their bowl games remaining).
Lowest Interception Percentage: 0.696% (350+ attempts)
#1 all time for QBs with at least 350 attempts, this mark was set during the 2009 season. Kellen Moore threw 3 INTs on 431 pass attempts.
Career Completion Percentage: 69.78%
#2 all-time behind Colt Brennan (70.4%)
Versus BCS AQ-Conference Teams: 6-0
Versus Top-25 Teams (when played): 7-2
In BCS Bowl Games: 1-0
2010 Heisman Trophy: Finalist
Conference Championships: 3 (WAC)
Other Notes:
Against VT last year and U(sic)GA this year, Moore is 2-0 against ACC and SEC division champions, while considering that both season-opening games were played at "neutral" sites that were anything but. The Hokies game was at Fedex Field near Washington, DC, an area with a huge VT alumni base. The Georgia game was in Atlanta in the Georgia Dome, also a home to a large alumni base. Not to mention the travel time required for Boise compared to their opponents. In 2009, Boise hosted then #16 Oregon to open the season (one of the few teams brave enough to visit Bronco Stadium) and sent the Ducks home with a loss. Kellen Moore has three straight season-opening wins against ranked BCS AQ teams, two of them effectively in road games.
Moore's three losses were by a combined 5 points. Two of those losses were 1-point margins against TCU. Two of those losses involved missed field goals on the final play of the game. Last year, a missed FG against Nevada in overtime almost certainly cost Boise a spot in the BCS championship game and definitely cost them a BCS at-large spot. This year, even with a win, Boise would likely have been jumped by Alabama and OSU, but the missed FG against TCU certainly cost them another BCS bowl, and possibly a BCS championship game slot.
Beginning next year, the Touchdown Club of Columbus will rename their annual College Football Quarterback of the Year award after Moore.
Kellen Moore has been named to more All-American lists than you can shake a stick at.
With about 3:30 minutes remaining in the 4th quarter of the 2011 Las Vegas Bowl, Boise had 1st and goal on the 2 after two consecutive ASU penalties on the previous play. While Kellen Moore was talking to coach Chris Petersen on the sidelines, I saw him gesturing at fellow senior Doug Martin. Martin returned the opening kickoff for a TD, but hadn't scored a rushing TD all game. Rather than trying to set up a play to get himself another TD or even try to find fellow senior Tyler Shoemaker (who already had a receiving TD in the game), Moore was actively campaigning for Petersen to keep Martin on the field and give him a chance to score a rushing TD in his final game as a Bronco. And really, amidst all the mind-boggling stats for a kid who's too small and doesn't have a big enough arm to play football, if that doesn't tell you everything you need to know about Kellen Moore, I don't know what will.
Kellen Moore:
Record: 50-3
#1 all-time in career wins. This requires not just being a 4-year starter, but also averaging 12.5 wins a season. Colt McCoy (second place on the career wins list) of Texas, also a 4-year starter, and aided by the Big XII having a championship game, still only put up 45 wins. Argue all you want about strength of schedule, but 50 wins is still a staggering number.
Passing Yards: 14,667
#5 on the all-time list behind Case Keenum, Timmy Chang, Graham Harrell, and Ty Detmer. Not bad company to keep.
Total Yards: 14,534
Good enough for #8 on the all-time best list. Impressive for a pocket passer with -133 career net rushing yards.
Passing TDs: 142
#2 on the all-time list behind Case Keenum (currently 152, with a bowl game still on the schedule).
Career Passer Rating: 169.0
#3 on the all time list behind Sam Bradford and Tim Tebow.
Single Season Passer Rating: 182.6 (2010)
Third best score ever posted (currently, RG3 and Russell Wilson have higher scores, but have their bowl games remaining).
Lowest Interception Percentage: 0.696% (350+ attempts)
#1 all time for QBs with at least 350 attempts, this mark was set during the 2009 season. Kellen Moore threw 3 INTs on 431 pass attempts.
Career Completion Percentage: 69.78%
#2 all-time behind Colt Brennan (70.4%)
Versus BCS AQ-Conference Teams: 6-0
Versus Top-25 Teams (when played): 7-2
In BCS Bowl Games: 1-0
2010 Heisman Trophy: Finalist
Conference Championships: 3 (WAC)
Other Notes:
Against VT last year and U(sic)GA this year, Moore is 2-0 against ACC and SEC division champions, while considering that both season-opening games were played at "neutral" sites that were anything but. The Hokies game was at Fedex Field near Washington, DC, an area with a huge VT alumni base. The Georgia game was in Atlanta in the Georgia Dome, also a home to a large alumni base. Not to mention the travel time required for Boise compared to their opponents. In 2009, Boise hosted then #16 Oregon to open the season (one of the few teams brave enough to visit Bronco Stadium) and sent the Ducks home with a loss. Kellen Moore has three straight season-opening wins against ranked BCS AQ teams, two of them effectively in road games.
Moore's three losses were by a combined 5 points. Two of those losses were 1-point margins against TCU. Two of those losses involved missed field goals on the final play of the game. Last year, a missed FG against Nevada in overtime almost certainly cost Boise a spot in the BCS championship game and definitely cost them a BCS at-large spot. This year, even with a win, Boise would likely have been jumped by Alabama and OSU, but the missed FG against TCU certainly cost them another BCS bowl, and possibly a BCS championship game slot.
Beginning next year, the Touchdown Club of Columbus will rename their annual College Football Quarterback of the Year award after Moore.
Kellen Moore has been named to more All-American lists than you can shake a stick at.
With about 3:30 minutes remaining in the 4th quarter of the 2011 Las Vegas Bowl, Boise had 1st and goal on the 2 after two consecutive ASU penalties on the previous play. While Kellen Moore was talking to coach Chris Petersen on the sidelines, I saw him gesturing at fellow senior Doug Martin. Martin returned the opening kickoff for a TD, but hadn't scored a rushing TD all game. Rather than trying to set up a play to get himself another TD or even try to find fellow senior Tyler Shoemaker (who already had a receiving TD in the game), Moore was actively campaigning for Petersen to keep Martin on the field and give him a chance to score a rushing TD in his final game as a Bronco. And really, amidst all the mind-boggling stats for a kid who's too small and doesn't have a big enough arm to play football, if that doesn't tell you everything you need to know about Kellen Moore, I don't know what will.
posted by Rev. Adam at
3:36 PM
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