Moore’s star power rises as quickly as his stats

KENT NISHIMURA/Special to the Arbiter. Bronco Quarterback Kellen Moore breaks out to pass during second quarter action at a NCAA WAC match up between the Hawaii Warriors and the Boise State Broncos on Saturday, October 24, 2009 in Honolulu, Hawaii.

It’s been three years since Ian Johnson mania. Three years since a Boise State player has been talked about for the Heisman. Three years since the Broncos were lead by a Heisman hopefully to a Bowl Championship Series game. This year it’s Kellen Moore humbly leading the Broncos to victory and BCS talk.

BSU’s sophomore star seems to have a new honor every week as he continues to put up dominant performances. This week Moore moved to No. 5 in the ESPN experts Heisman rankings and made the Davey O’Brain semifinalist list. Moore also leads the nation in touchdowns (21) to only two interceptions all year. With all the accolades pouring in Moore stays grounded.

“It probably brings a little more recognition to our team. I think IJ  went through it too,” Moore said. “Certainly we’ve been around it before and know how to deal with it. I think it’s cool though. Not anything negative or bad. You can’t get too overwhelmed with it.”

Other than Moore’s consistency in outstanding play, he’s consistently humble about his accolades. He attribute’s this to his upbringing.

“It’s the way they (Moore’s parents) did things and I should probably do it the same way. Certainly it has kind of translated. We’ve got enough things to deal with not to get too excited about yourself and those types of things.”

With all the Heisman talk beginning to consume most of the Bronco Nation and national media outlets, Moore continues to keep focused thanks to the Bronco’s previous experience with a media darling, Johnson. The coaches have managed to keep the media exposure for Moore minimal.

“It could be time consuming. I think Ian; it kind of got out of control for him. That is pretty much what they (coaches) told me…I’m fine with whatever. I can handle it either way,” Moore said.

Moore has put up impressive numbers this year with a quarterback rating of 171.3 and 67.7% completion rating. This all comes without skipping a beat from his stellar freshman season. Still Moore practiced to get even better.

“Probably practiced better. I think that’s huge. It probably translates into the game,” Moore said. “Just little detail stuff as far as preparation, decision making. Just practicing the little details.”

While Moore is continuing to impress as each game goes by he’s not going to get caught up in the Heisman being a distraction to him and his teammates. Moore and the Bronco’s still have six games left to play and a Oct. 31 match up with San Jose State that is ready to bring a tough defense to mess up Moore’s rhythm.

“That’s the thing with the defense. They’ll attack you and they’re aggressive. They’re not going to back down,” Moore said. “They’ve really played their own really well. Even against USC. I thought that they played pretty well in that game for a whole half. And against Utah they played well as well. They’ve been pretty close in all these games.”

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