New coordinator Kirby Moore takes reins of Mizzou offense with personal touch

Special to the Post-Dispatch
13 hrs ago
COLUMBIA, Mo. — Kirby Moore doesn’t stand still.
Mizzou’s new offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, running drills in the team’s second practice of preseason camp, is a man in constant motion. Dressed in all black from fitted cap to long-sleeved T-shirt and pants, Moore blends in with the end zone turf at the program’s new indoor practice facility.
But there he is, arms stretched upward, running pantomimed interference as his QBs toss touchdowns against air. He jogs at the front of the quarterback group as they cross the length of the field between practice periods. Even when back-to-back drills take place in the same spot, Moore manages to take 60-some steps while giving instructions.
“Got some juice to him,” wide receiver Mookie Cooper said.
Moore is taking on a pivotal role in a revamp of the Tigers’ offense.
After Tigers coach Eli Drinkwitz decided to delegate control of his offense for the first time in his coaching career, he picked Moore, who arrives after rising through the ranks at Fresno State.
This step up to the Southeastern Conference will be a big one for Moore, who turns 33 later this month. And after Drinkwitz relinquished play-calling responsibilities with three games to go in the 2022 regular season, there’s opportunity for Moore, roughly a decade removed from his collegiate playing career, to continue his ascension as a coaching prospect.
“He wouldn’t be in the situation he’s in now, be a coordinator in the SEC, had he not developed an approach that is about work and focus and details,” Drinkwitz said.
When Moore arrived in Columbia in January, he promised to take stock of the talent available in the Tigers’ arsenal.
“I think offensive football, first it’s got to fit our personnel,” Moore said at his introductory press conference. “So that’s one thing I’ve got to dive into, and our offensive staff and Coach Drink, and we’ve got to figure out what our guys do well, and then do that over and over and over.”
True to his word, he did his research.
Not long into his tenure, Moore invited players to share their thoughts about the previous season’s offense and what they wanted to see from the next version.
That outreach resonated with Cody Schrader, a graduate running back who transferred to Missouri ahead of last season.
“When he first got here, he opened his door to everybody and had genuine conversations with guys,” Schrader said. “Really involving his players in his offensive scheme has been something that’s been really cool.”
What exactly that scheme will entail remains to be seen. But Moore is billed as a pass game guru, especially after last year’s Fresno State offense posted 270.6 passing yards per game and a 71% completion percentage, generating the No. 26 efficiency rating in the country.
And while he sought input from his players, he also looked outside of the Missouri program for ideas.
Moore spent his offseason talking frequently to other football coaches on Zoom, “asking them a ton of questions and just seeing if that stuff fits us,” he said. This year, against some opponents that faced the same coaches he talked to, he might deploy some concepts he learned about.
“I’m just very intrigued all the time about football,” said Moore, a former wide receiver at Boise State and the younger brother of Los Angeles Chargers offensive coordinator Kellen Moore, the former star QB at Boise State. “I don’t have a lot of hobbies. I love football.”
He’s the kind of football nerd who pitches play-calling as a “thrill … just trying to find matchups and different ways to get our guys the ball.”
But for all his time spent scouring film and all the seriousness of preparing a new offensive scheme, Moore’s emerged in another role for Missouri: meeting room jokester.
Redshirt freshman quarterback Sam Horn described Moore as “sneaky funny.”
That could be because Moore’s sense of humor is a little advanced in its nature.
“He says some jokes that maybe some people won’t understand,” Schrader said. “But that’s just like a dry sense of humor that makes people crack up in offensive meetings.”
Those moments, the energy, that “juice,” have become qualities Missouri’s more experienced players quickly noticed.
“The way he’s able to connect with us on a deeper level than just football is huge when you bring somebody new into a program because you always will be kind of skeptical at first,” Schrader said. “Then once they show you who they are, you know, as a man, as a father and then as a football coach — I think he’s done an excellent job.”
For all his relentless pacing on the practice field, there’s still something Moore needs to prepare for: On Sunday, seated at a table overlooking the field inside Memorial Stadium, he pointed up to the press box.
“I need to get upstairs,” he said, “get in the press box and get comfortable with that and call some plays.”
“Then,” he said, “it feels real.”
Moore has five to seven seconds to call plays when he’s perched above the game with a headset. That’s not much time to think, which requires instincts to take over.
Missouri’s 2023 schedule — rated by some metrics as one of the nation’s toughest— will require Moore to be ready quickly. The way he’s built connections with the Tigers’ offensive personnel is just the foundation.
“I know he’s prepared for the opportunity and the moment,” Drinkwitz said. “Now, it’ll be about trusting your preparation and then applying your instincts.”