Kellen Moore will go down as one of the greatest NCAA football players ever. Does he deserve it? |
Kellen Moore's 4(or 5 if you want to count redshirt) were amazing. They were by far the greatest four years Boise State has ever had. Moore put up all types of numbers and truly was a star, even in Boise, Idaho, a place we like to call the "middle of nowhere" or bumble-you-know-what.
Moore won 50 games. 50 games! That's 5 more than Colt McCoy, who had a ridiculous career at Texas. That means Moore had to win 13 games in each of his four seasons. That stat is absurd, absolutely absurd, even in the NFL. Then you look at his passing numbers: 14,374 yards and 140 TDs, and you just shake your head. Those numbers are great, but they don't blow you away. He's around 4,000 less yards than the FBS record holder and Houston's Case Keenum and 27 TDs less than Graham Harrell who holds that record. Then you look at the opponents he had over his career and you just can't give him a complete nod. You can't sit here and say that he matches up to other college greats like Colt McCoy, Matt Leinart or Vince Young. Who'd he play? What conference was he in? Did anyone ever actually watch this kid play outside of his bowl games?
I'm sorry but winning 24 games against WAC(not counting Nevada and Fresno State cause of their sometimes ranked status) and Mountain West opponents(not including powerhouse TCU) doesn't match up to Colt McCoy who had to battle the likes of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Nebraska, Texas A&M and Texas Tech. No one watched this kid amass most of his 50 wins because they didn't matter. He was frolicking around in a bakery shop smashing cupcakes left and right. Moore's only significant wins are Oregon in '08 and '09, Virginia Tech in 2010 and Georgia in '11. That means four of his wins were on par with Colt McCoy or any other BCS conference QB. Even if we soften the stance on who's "for real" then you can include, Nevada in '08, '09 and this year, and Fresno State all four years. With that we now have 11 legitimate wins. I'm sorry but 11 legitimate wins is not enough for me to enter this guy into the conversation of all-time great college QBs.
Moore really is just an awkward kid from the middle of nowhere Washington who could chuck a football pretty far and pretty accurately. He was blessed enough to be recruited by an up-and-coming program and surrounded by a ton of underratedly talented players. Unfortunately for Moore, football is not played on paper. I'm confident to say he wouldn't have had the same success he had in the WAC and Mountain West in the SEC or Big 12. People can talk about how he was a "winner" and just knew how to win, but again, he was beating mediocre college football teams no one's ever heard of.
Now I might be a little too much of an SEC-Enthusiaist, but I believe people are with me when I say, the strength of schedule over the entirety of his career is a legitimate reason to question his actual talent. I'm all for having field days against a bunch of tier-B athletes all season after beating one top notch opponent. However, his five victories on the BCS stage won't ever make up for his 45 other JV teams triumphs. Moore will forever unfairly rank among the greatest college football players ever no matter how he does. You can't tell me he matches up against the likes of Eric Crouch, Charles Rogers, Peter Warrick and Courtney Brown.
Guess we'll just have to wait 'til the NFL to find out how good Boise's QB#1 is, that is of course, he makes the NFL.
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