When Boise State heads to Pullman this weekend, there will be a very familiar face waiting on the Washington State sideline.
Kirby Moore, once a Broncos wide receiver and now the Cougars’ head coach, has taken a long road from Bronco blue and orange to his first head coaching job. He spent four seasons at Boise State from 2009 to 2013, and more than a decade later, he still speaks about that stretch like it left a real imprint.
“It’s a great program. I had a lot of great memories there,” Moore said in his weekly press conference on Monday. “It’s where I got into coaching, the coaches I was able to be around, and the players and the teams and everything that came with that.”
Moore’s Boise State ties run deeper than nostalgia. As a student-athlete in the Petersen era, he was shaped by former head coach Chris Petersen, who became one of the biggest influences on his career. Moore missed half of his final season with a serious foot injury, but instead of simply watching from the sideline, he asked to wear a headset during games so he could listen in on the coaching staff’s communication.
That curiosity eventually turned into a coaching path of its own. After a year coaching wide receivers at the College of Idaho, Moore followed Petersen to Washington in 2015 and spent two seasons there.
From there, he moved on to Fresno State as wide receivers coach, then became offensive coordinator there in 2022. He held the same job at Missouri from 2023 to 2025 before landing his current role at Washington State.
Even now, Moore still keeps in touch with Petersen. He said they talk somewhat regularly, including during the offseason and before Washington State’s Apple Cup game against Washington earlier this season, a 24-10 loss for the Cougars. Kellen Moore, now head coach of the NFL’s New Orleans Saints, also stays in close contact with Petersen, as does current Boise State head coach Spencer Danielson.
Moore said the lesson he took from Petersen wasn’t just about scheme or game plans. It was about building something from the ground up.
“When we got to Washington, I just had so much appreciation for (Petersen),” Moore said. “Because it wasn’t a carbon copy, he had to create a whole new culture, a whole new environment in Seattle, and it didn’t happen overnight.”
That is the task in front of Moore at Washington State, where he has already brought in three former Boise State teammates as assistants: offensive coordinator Matt Miller, defensive line coach Andrew Browning and cornerbacks coach Brandyn Thompson.
Miller made the move from Boise State directly, after coaching the Broncos’ wide receivers since 2020 and serving as co-offensive coordinator in 2025. He told the Idaho Statesman in January that he went to Washington State to challenge himself.
So far, though, the challenge has been steep.
The Cougars are 1-6 and 0-3 in the Pac-12, sitting at the bottom of the standings. Last week, Moore took over play-calling from Miller, and Washington State responded with its highest-scoring outing of the season in a 48-30 loss to Oregon State.
Moore also made a quarterback change before that game, replacing junior starter Caden Pinnick with sophomore Owen Eshelman. The offense finished with a season-high 459 yards, with Eshelman throwing for 289 yards and running for a game-best 136.
Even with the changes, Moore said he is leaning on the same mindset he learned at Boise State: “Passion and persistence.”
“Once you make a decision, you want to stick with someone,” Moore said. “… You’ve got to work through things, and nothing is going to work overnight. You’ve got to have passion and persistence to find a way, whether that’s at quarterback, special teams, receiver, and so we’ve gone through that process with a number of guys this year.”
No. 21 Boise State visits Washington State on Saturday at 4 p.m.
Mountain time at Martin Stadium in Pullman, Washington. The game will air on KBOI 670 AM and KBOI 93.1 FM/Sirius XM Ch. 84 with Bob Behler and Michael Callahan on the call.
Boise State is a 13.5-point favorite, and the forecast calls for a high of 56, a low of 34, humidity at 58%, partly cloudy skies and a 10% chance of rain.
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Still, the opening in front of Boise State comes with a sharper edge now. New Mexico, Oregon State and UTSA are still in the mix, and their upcoming games could keep the picture fluid for a while longer, but the Broncos are the team with the clearest route as long as they keep winning. The margin for error is thin, and the pressure only grows with every week that passes. [Read more 🡒]