Inside The Huskies

Quentin Moore Knocked Purdue Player's Block Off

The Husky tight end overwhelmed his opponent with a fierce pancake on Jordan Washington's touchdown dash.
Dan Raley|
Tight end Quentin Moore waits for the UW play to begin.
Tight end Quentin Moore waits for the UW play to begin. | Dave Sizer photo

Quentin Moore, in one play, turned Husky Stadium into a scary Jurassic Park.

Providing a lead block on Jordan Washington's 68-yard touchdown dash, the University of Washington tight end rumbled into the secondary and devoured a Purdue defensive back like some ferocious carnivorous dinosaur. All that was missing was a loud belch.

Coming out of a stance at the 32, Moore got a running start, made contact with his opponent at the 37 and unmercifully drove the guy all the way to the 43 and pancaked him.

"Quentin is a fantastic run-blocker [as] a tight end," UW coach Jedd Fisch said, smiling when that particular play was brought up on Monday.

That one block alone could get the 6-foot-4, 260-pound Moore drafted next April, yet there have been countless others.

Except for last year, when there were almost none.

The Kenmore, Washington, product missed all but the 2024 opener after a Weber State player, realizing he should be in the game, ran off the sideline illegally and undetected and blindsided Moore, who had caught a 14-yard pass, and left him with a season-ending knee injury.

Moore needed someone like himself to block the guy.

Said Fisch about losing his senior tight end, "One of the biggest things that we missed last year was Quentin Moore -- the difference in being able to score in the red zone, the difference in being able to convert short yardage, the difference in being able to run the football. We've added a another element."

He no doubt was thinking about the 2024 Apple Cup against Washington State that was decided on a fourth-and-1 option run at the goal line that failed near the end.

Moore, in his fifth UW season following a JC year in Kansas, had come all the way back this season before going down again against Michigan, when he was blocking and got hit in an awkward manner. He suffered a concussion and missed the following game.

He's started four of the nine games this season that he's been part of, lining up in double tight-end formations with sophomore Decker DeGraaf. Moore has four catches for 51 yards.

With the ball in his hands, he looks quicker than ever for a man his size and he resembles a full-service tight end.

Yet, of course, his speciality is moving guys out of the way, roaming the football earth like a Tyrannosaurus Rex looking for road kill with his blocking.

"We ended up not having him after the Michigan game and we certainly took a step down in our running game a little bit," Fisch said. "To have him back is big."

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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