BREAKING: WSU to hire Kirby Moore as their next head football coach

Washington State is set to name Kirby Moore as the 36th head football coach in program history.

Exactly one week after Jimmy Rogers’s surprising move to Iowa State, sitting athletic director Jon Harlow and school president Elizabeth “Betsy” Cantwell have found their guy. Moore was the offensive coordinator at Missouri for the past three seasons.

Moore, the younger brother of legendary Boise State quarterback and now New Orleans Saints head coach Kellen Moore, makes his return to the Evergreen State, having grown up in Prosser, Washington. He becomes the fourth head coach for WSU since Mike Leach’s departure for Mississippi State in 2019.

There are multiple upsides to this hire. First off, Moore has proven to be a solid coach quickly moving up the college football ranks. Moore got his start as a wide receivers coach at the College of Idaho directly after his playing days in 2014. He then moved on to be a grad assistant at Washington (gross) from 2015 to 2016. After his GA days at Washington, he moved on to become the WR coach at Fresno State. Moore was promoted to passing game coordinator in 2020 and later offensive coordinator in 2022. Only one year after becoming the offensive coordinator at Fresno State, in 2023, Eliah Drinkwitz hired Moore to serve under him as the OC at Missouri. The following offseason, Moore was given an extension as he became a popular name in coaching searches around the country, such as at Washington State.

Moore’s first year at Missouri, the Tigers went 11-2, defeating #7 Ohio State to win the Cotton Bowl, and finishing 8th in the final AP poll. Missouri’s offense scored 32.5 points per game, which was 29th out of 133 FBS teams. While the offense dipped a little to 28.9 ppg in 2024, it was back up to 32.2 this past season. Missouri finished eighth in average rushing yards per game in the country this season with 234.1.

This article will be updated as more details emerge.