Fresno State Athletics

  Last updated Jan. 4, 2023
 
Kirby Moore has been a part of the Fresno State coaching staff since Jeff Tedford initially hired him as the wide receivers coach in 2017. The 2022 season was his sixth season on the staff, making him the longest-tenured coach on the Bulldogs’ staff this season.
 
With the return of Tedford as head coach of the Fresno State football program in December 2021, Moore was promoted and announced as the Bulldogs' offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach on Dec. 23, 2021. Moore was the youngest offensive coordinator in the Mountain West in the 2022 season.
 
His season as offensive coordinator at Fresno State was a memorable one as the Bulldogs became the first program in FBS history to start the season 1-4, and finish with 10 wins. Fresno State ended the year on a nine-game winning streak, and won the 2022 Mountain West Championship and the Jimmy Kimmel LA Bowl.
 
In his first season with play calling duties, Fresno State was once again the top offense in the Mountain West as the Bulldogs led the league in scoring offense (30.57 points per game), total offensive yards (5,639), total offense (402.79 yards per game), total offensive average per play (6.01), total offensive touchdowns (50), pass completion percentage (71.04), pass completions (336), and passing yards (3,788).
 
The Bulldogs totaled 5,649 yards of total offense with 3,788 yards in the passing game in Moore’s first season as offensive coordinator. The Bulldogs’ offense was led by a group of veteran players in quarterback Jake Haener, wide receivers Jalen Cropper, Nikko Remigio and Zane Pope, and running back Jordan Mims.
 
For the first time since 2014, Fresno State had a rusher and a receiver surpass 1,000 yards in their respective categories. Mims rushed for 1,372 yards and 18 touchdowns in 2022 while Cropper added 1,086 yards receiving and five touchdowns.
 
In 2022, 13 different Bulldogs scored an offensive touchdown under Moore’s play calling leadership. Fresno State scored 28 rushing touchdowns and 22 passing touchdowns.
 
With his position coaching emphasis being in the quarterbacks room in 2022, Moore overcame adversity throughout the season as starting quarterback Jake Haener was sidelined with injury in Week 3 at then-No. 7 USC. Moore coached up sophomore Logan Fife to step into the starting role in place of Haener. Fife, who earned the first start of his career in Oct. 2022, went 2-2 as the starter for Fresno State while winning two pivotal Mountain West matchups. Both Haener (.720) and Fife (.700) had the top two best single-season pass completion rates in Fresno State history in the 2022 season. Fresno State’s combined .710 completion percentage (336-of-473) is the highest for the program’s offense since at least 1991.
 
Eight of Fresno State’s 12 All-Mountain West selections were offensive picks in 2022 - Haener (first team), Cropper (first team), Mims (first team), Remigio (second team), offensive lineman Bula Schmidt (second team), offensive lineman Mose Vavao (honorable mention), offensive lineman Jacob Spomer (honorable mention) and tight end Raymond Pauwels Jr. (honorable mention).
The 2021 football season marked Moore’s fifth as an assistant coach at Fresno State. Since his arrival in 2017, he has coached the wide receivers group. 2021 was his second season with the additional duty of being the pass game coordinator.
 
In 2021, the Bulldogs amassed over 4,000 yards through the air for just the fourth time in program history, totaling 4,247 yards on the year. The Bulldogs wide receivers were led by two all-conference selections in Jalen Cropper (second team) and Josh Kelly (honorable mention). Fresno State had two wide receivers selected as all-conference caliber players for two consecutive seasons under Moore as the position coach.
 
Moore had his first taste of play-calling experience at the 2021 PUBG New Mexico Bowl, leading the Bulldogs to a 31-24 win over UTEP, securing the 10th win of the season. The Bulldogs produced 467 yards of total offense - 181 rushing and 286 passing.
 
Hired by former Fresno State head coach Jeff Tedford in 2017, it was Moore’s first full-time assistant coaching position and he proved from the start that he was a great fit. In each of his first two seasons at Fresno State, Moore was named to the annual 247sports.com 30-under-30 lists as one of college football’s rising stars.
 
Moore was paired with then-offensive coordinator Kalen DeBoer during the 2017-18 seasons, and upon DeBoer’s hire to lead the Fresno State program in 2020, that was when Moore gained the role of pass game coordinator. 
 
The 2020 season, while a modified six-game season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, displayed an explosive offense led by a wealth of talent in the wide receiver room. Two in the room, sophomore Jalen Cropper and senior Keric Wheatfall, both earned all-conference honorable mention recognition at the season’s end. The Bulldogs’ offense produced a conference-best 479.3 yards total offense per game in 2020, and a large reason for that was because of Cropper, Wheatfall and others under Moore’s tutelage.
 
Moore’s third season at Fresno State was much different from the first two in that 2019 the wide receiver corps was a much more by committee group rather than having a target like future NFL product KeeSean Johnson catching passes for the Bulldogs. The Bulldogs’ 2019 recruiting class ushered in four wide receivers and each one of them saw a start in the 2019 season – three freshmen (Jalen Cropper, Jamal Glaspie & Josh Kelly) and one junior transfer (Keric Wheatfall). Sophomore Zane Pope led Fresno State with 47 receptions and 525 yards.
 
During the Bulldogs’ 12-2 championship season in 2018, the offense amassed over 3,000 yards through the air for the ninth time in program history, totaling 3,629 yards in 2018. Leading the way was Johnson as the standout exploded in his senior campaign. Johnson led the team in receptions (95), receiving yards (1,340) and touchdowns (8). His 95 receptions ranked fourth-most in the FBS in 2018 and fifth-most in a single season in program history while his 1,340 yards ranked sixth-most in the FBS in 2018 and the fifth-most in a single season in program history. The following offseason, the second-team All-Mountain West selection heard his name called in the sixth round of the NFL Draft, selected by the Arizona Cardinals.
 
In Moore’s first season at Fresno State, he helped guide Johnson to All-Mountain West honors after the junior accounted for nearly half of his group’s production in 2017 with 1,013 yards coming on a then-career-best 77 receptions.
 
As a graduate assistant (2015-16), Moore reunited with his college coach Chris Petersen at Washington, and worked alongside former Fresno State head coach Jeff Tedford for one season at the Pac-12 program. Tedford was an offensive consultant for the Huskies in 2016 and later hired Moore to come with him to Fresno State in 2017. While at UW, Moore worked with wide receivers John Ross and Dante Pettis, who led the nation in touchdown receptions as a duo with 32 in 2016. Ross was named a first-team All-Pac-12 selection. The Huskies won the Pac-12 Championship and advanced to their first College Football Playoff berth to cap a standout season.
 
In 2014, Moore’s season in between his playing days at Boise State and serving as a graduate assistant at Washington, he coached the wide receivers at the College of Idaho.
 
The Boise State graduate earned four varsity letters as a Bronco (2009, 2011-13), lettering on a 14-0 team as a true freshman in 2009. After redshirting the 2010 season, he helped Boise State compile a record of 31-8 over his final three seasons. As a senior in 2013, Moore caught 36 passes for 280 yards despite missing six games due to injury. In 2012, he was the team’s second-leading receiver with 36 catches for 368 yards. Following the 2013 season, he earned Academic All-District VII and Academic All-Mountain West honors.
 
As a freshman, united with older brother Kellen Moore, the two were a part of the Broncos’ 2010 Fiesta Bowl win over TCU. Both brothers attended Prosser High in Washington, where Kirby set a national record with 95 career touchdown receptions. Playing for his father, Tom Moore, he was first-team all-state as a junior and senior and was named the Washington 2A Player of the Year as a senior, when he had 131 receptions for 2,126 yards and 34 TDs.