INDIANAPOLIS – Kellen Moore stood tall during his career at Boise State.
Moore, 6-0, 191, finished his career as college football's winningest starting quarterback with a 50-3 record (.943). He completed 1,157-of-1,658 passes for 14,667 yards, with 142 touchdowns and 28 interceptions. Few quarterbacks achieved that greatness.
Moore measured in a six feet at the Combine in Indianapolis, where he faced questions about his height.
"Oh it's fine. There's a lot of ways to evaluate a quarterback," said Moore. "Some evaluate it and put a lot of emphasis on that. That's fine. Smile, and move on.
"There's a lot of ways (to evaluate a player). Certainly I think there's a lot of tape out there on a lot of us that can be evaluated. I think that's bottom line what most people look at. There's a lot of other pieces that they can evaluate and better compare and understand me. … It is what it is, bottom line. At the end of the day you're going to get an opportunity to play football. Once you get that opportunity, essentially it's up to you. It's your opportunity to showcase what you can do."
Moore stands second all-time in touchdown passes, fifth in career passing yards, and he is one of only six players to top 14,000 career yards. He also is the career efficiency leader with a 168.97 rating.
Every time Moore took the field, memorable exploits could happen. He had 16 career 300 games, and he threw for multiple touchdowns in 26 consecutive games, the longest active streak in the nation. For his career, he threw for two or more touchdowns 47 times, three or more 31 times, four or more 10 times and five times hit for five scoring passes. In 2009, he set the NCAA seasonal record for the lowest percentage (0.70) of passes intercepted (three-of-431).
Moore threw for at least 3,486 yards in each of his four seasons. He passed for more than 3,000 yards and gained more than 3,000 yards in total offense for four consecutive seasons, the only FBS player to do so. In 2011, Moore was 326-of-439 for 3,800 yards, with 43 touchdowns and nine interceptions. He set the Mountain West seasonal mark in touchdowns, while ranking second nationally. Moore's 74.3 completion percentage ranked first in the nation, and he was fourth for points responsible in a game (19.85) and passing efficiency (175.19). Moore completed passes to eight different receivers in all 13 games last season. In all-time Boise State games when 30 passes were attempted, Moore last year posted the three top completion percentage games in school history (86.7 against Colorado State, 26-30; 84.8 against New Mexico, 28-33; 82.4 against Georgia, 28-34).
Moore thought his offense at Boise State was a good preparation tool for what he hopes to experience after college.
"I think bottom line is there's a lot of variety, very similar to the NFL," said Moore. "We game-planned very specifically to each game. That requires a lot of preparation into each week. I think that very much will prepare you for this. Certainly terminology, and maybe there's some concepts, might be different from what you ran in college but at the end of the day, I think it was one of the best preparations you can ask for."
In a competitive field for collegiate awards that included Robert Griffin III and Andrew Luck, Moore was the Quarterback-of-the-Year by the Touchdown Club of Columbus, Ohio. He was a finalist for the Maxwell, the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm and the Manning Awards. He was a semifinalist for the Davey O'Brien and Walter Camp Player-of-the-Year Awards.
Like every collegian, Moore studied NFL players and how they worked their craft. Two that make impressions on him are a couple of the best in the league.
"Drew Brees, I think, certainly I can relate to (him)," said Moore. "(We have) some similar fashions. I love watching the way he plays, the way he moves in the pocket. He's constantly moving, doing a tremendous job of finding lanes and throwing the ball downfield. Tom Brady is another guy. I think there's so many guys in the league that you love to watch. You try to pick a piece or two out of them and take that and better yourself."
Moore was successful academically as well. He earned a bachelor's degree in Communication in less than four years, sporting a 3.38 grade point average. Moore is pursuing a master's degree in Exercise and Sports Studies, Behavioral Studies. He is a three-time first-team academic All-WAC choice (2008-10), and he earned first-team CoSIDA Academic All-District and second-team Academic All-America honors in 2010.
Moore attended Prosser High School in Prosser, Washington.
DRAFT NOTE: The first overall pick in the NFL Draft has been a quarterback in eight of the past 10 years. Here is a list of the top two quarterbacks taken since 2002:
Year Names (team, overall choice)
2002 David Carr (Houston, first); Joey Harrington (Detroit, third)
2003 Carson Palmer (Cincinnati, first); Byron Leftwich (Jacksonville, seventh)
2004 Eli Manning (San Diego, first); Philip Rivers (New York Giants, fourth)
2005 Alex Smith (San Francisco, first); Aaron Rodgers (Green Bay, 24th)
2006 Vince Young (Tennessee, third); Matt Leinart (Arizona, 10th)
2007 JaMarcus Russell (Oakland, first); Brady Quinn (Cleveland, 22nd)
2008 Matt Ryan (Atlanta, third); Joe Flacco (Baltimore, 18th)
2009 Matthew Stafford (Detroit, first); Mark Sanchez (New York Jets, fifth)
2010 Sam Bradford (St. Louis, first); Tim Tebow (Denver, 25th)
2011 Cam Newton (Carolina, first); Jake Locker (Tennessee, eighth)
