On Tuesday, a press conference at the stadium’s suite level was filled to capacity to welcome the new head coach. Kirby Moore, a Prosser, Washington native, was officially introduced as the 36th head football coach at Washington State University.
In addition to Interim Athletic Director Jon Haarlow and Moore, the room featured many key attendees, including Moore’s wife, who is also a Prosser native and many alumni, players and coaches waiting to meet the new Wazzu coach.
In front of the podium, Moore emphasized his Washington roots.
“Being an Eastern Washington kid, I grew up following the Coug success, especially in football. 19 bowl games, four Rose Bowls, 14 first round draft picks,” said Kirby Moore. “My family and I can’t wait to ingrain ourselves back in the Northwest and the Pullman community. We look forward to getting to know the Cougar fan base and making them proud.”
Moore returns to the Palouse and Cougar Nation after spending the past three seasons as the offensive coordinator at the University of Missouri and Fresno State. Before, he was the wide receivers coach under current Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer, and was then promoted to offensive coordinator when DeBoer left.
Kirby Moore speaks at a press conference at Missouri.
In Moore’s three seasons at Missouri, the team went 29-9. In an interview with The Daily Evergreen, Haarlow highlighted Moore’s background at Missouri.
“Missouri obviously competed in the SEC, arguably best football conference in the country, but Missouri has not necessarily been a powerhouse beyond that, and so they were able to be successful with what they had at Missouri, competing and being successful against the big dogs there, week in and week out,” Harlow said. “Understanding what he was able to do there, and the student athletes that were on his offensive side, with the stats that they put up, the credentials that they put up, thought to be a pretty good fit here, with the history of we know our fan base likes high powered offense and throwing the ball around, and I think he’s going to do really well in that space.”
For Moore, the move to Pullman was a rapid blur. Moore emphasized that it feels good to be home.
“[It means] a ton, growing up in the state, coming to Cougar football practice, it’s kind of surreal. I think it just all happened so fast, right?” Moore said. “But from a relationship standpoint, from a family standpoint, we have relatives in Pullman and Spokane and Tri-Cities, my family’s sacrificed an incredible amount in terms of moving across the country.”
Moore told The Daily Evergreen that he is looking to push players and staff to their personal bests. In his first two seasons calling the plays on offense, the Tigers went from No. 58 nationally in third down conversion percentage, to No. 41 and then to No. 16.
“[It’s the] competing and improving everyday mindset. And that’s everywhere, that is in our academic building that’s on campus, that is in the weight room, practice field and then competing our tails off is going to push everyone’s personal best right,” Moore said. “A guy who’s been here for five-and-a-half months compared to four years, those personal bests are going to look different. But within that, I think we’re going to push each other, our staff is going to push our student athletes, and that’s going to be a daily process.”
As the transfer portal opens, Wazzu will lose key parts as some players have already committed to transferring . WSU will look to bring in players that can improve the team while also retaining players.
“Yeah, there’s going to be certain impact players, guys on offense who can score touchdowns,” Moore said. “That’s going to be really important. On defense, guys who can create and wreck havoc in the backfield. And then we got to create turnovers, guys who are going to play well on the back end.”
He continued to talk about what he wants for the program in the new Pac-12 conference during his press conference. When asked what Moore’s WSU looks like, he preached that it is important to develop in both football and in life.
“I want to make sure we’re chasing the two dreams, a life with football and a life without football. I want to make sure we’re developing an elite edge consistently in terms of everything that we’re doing” said Moore. “We’re going to compete like heck, for championships within this conference on a daily basis. It’s always going to be about competing every day and improving.”
Moore’s Washington State football has officially started.
Watch the audio-form interview below.
