Can Koy Moore revitalize Auburn’s corps?

[aubiefifty 18,248]

Can LSU transfer Koy Moore revitalize Auburn’s wide receiver corps?

By Tom Green | tgreen@al.com

6-7 minutes

---

Koy Moore raised eyebrows and turned heads the day he first stepped foot on Auburn’s practice fields.

The former LSU wide receiver arrived on the Plains this summer, and during his first day of workouts he showed the kind of spark that has been lacking from Auburn’s receiving corps. He snagged the ball on an inside slant and promptly turned it into a long touchdown, leaving the defense in his trails.

Read more Auburn football: Auburn picked to finish last in SEC West

Now at Auburn, Zach Calzada’s toughness at Texas A&M earned him lasting respect

Tank Bigsby on decision to not transfer from Auburn: “If I run, I can’t run forever”

“Everyone’s like hmmm, alright,” Harsin said. “So, you’re like, OK, that dude — he can move. But he’s just got, I don’t know, he’s just got a presence about him when he showed up.”

Moore is one of four new summer additions to Auburn’s wide receiver room — along with fellow transfer Dazalin Worsham of Miami and incoming freshmen Omari Kelly and Camden Brown — and the LSU transfer is already garnering buzz as a potential instant-impact player at the position heading into fall camp. That’s something Auburn needs at receiver, where the team is short on experience outside of fifth-year senior Shedrick Jackson.

Jackson was Auburn’s second-leading receiver last fall, putting together his most effective campaign before opting to return for an additional year. Beyond him, though, the Tigers return just 31 receptions for 410 yards and three touchdowns at wide receiver (not including hybrid tight end/receiver Landen King, who caught five passes for 59 yards and a score last season). While the Tigers have an influx of young talent at the position, with Brown, Kelly and fellow 2022 signee Jay Fair, who enrolled in the spring, as well as Worsham (No. 8 all-time in Alabama high school history in receiving), Moore brings some welcome experience to the room this fall.

At LSU, Moore appeared in 16 games over the last two seasons and caught 27 passes for 248 yards. That included 10 games as a true freshman in 2020, when he had 22 catches for 177 yards, taking advantage of an increased role thanks to opt-outs during the pandemic-impacted season. His role was diminished as a sophomore, though, and he appeared in just six games with five receptions for 71 yards before entering the transfer portal in the wake of Ed Orgeron’s firing.

It’s not exactly an overwhelming amount of experience, but it’s experience, nonetheless.

“He was a guy that, we were on him for a while,” Harsin said. “(Wide receivers coach) Ike (Hilliard) was all about him, and had been from the beginning, just really felt something strongly about him. We were fortunate enough to get him when it was all said and done. He’s just got a presence about him. I think he’s got a certain level of maturity that you feel just front transferring. I think when you transfer, you grow up… because that first opportunity didn’t work out. It’s like we all know this, right? Like, OK that didn’t go as planned, so I’m not here to screw this one up, or I’m going to do everything I can to make this one count.

“So, you get guys, when they come in from the portal, you get guys that come in with a little bit more maturity to them, and he’s certainly one of them. I think he’s been a guy that’s been new, that’s been somewhat of a leader for us.”

That leadership and sense of urgency — to make the most of this second chance at an SEC program — has been on display since Moore arrived on campus. It’s not just in the big-play ability that he showcased during workouts, but it has been in the small things he has done behind the scenes.

“The work,” running back Tank Bigsby said. “I see him out there catching, 9 o’clock in the facility at night, catching balls by himself, doing drills, running routes with Zach Calzada…. When one guy sees somebody working, they’re going to go work.”

Now Auburn is hoping that combination of leadership, work ethic and ability can translate into an immediate impact on the field, given the Tigers’ need for an injection of production and big-play ability at receiver this fall.

“We got to make plays,” Harsin said. “If we’re going to run the ball, you’re going to get some one-on-ones. You’re going to get opportunities on safeties; you’re going to get chances to move the ball down the field. We did that, like you look at the Arkansas game last year, we ran the ball, we took a couple shots and got some explosive plays that turned into touchdowns. That’s really what you want it to be, so you got to have guys that can do that. I do think we have them, but we got to go prove it. We got to go do it in fall camp. We got to go prove it during the season, that we can get open, and we got to get it to them. I think the quarterbacks, you’re counting on them, but then the wide receivers, yeah, we want to hit some explosive plays.”

Harsin added that he believes Auburn has the type of players who can generate those explosive, game-altering plays — the guys who can turn a 6-yard hitch into an 80-yard touchdown. Moore, a former four-star prospect out of Louisiana, is certainly one of them, Harsin said. But he’s not alone, and the newfound competition at a position that was relatively thin through the spring has brought a renewed energy to a group that has been in need of revitalization.

“Wide receiver is wide open,” Harsin said. “It really is. It’s wide open, and those guys are all getting their chances. That’s why the little things, like extra throwing sessions on Wednesday or Saturdays, or whatever days they choose to go out there and do it, you’re building that chemistry with your quarterback, and if you’re not out there, you’re just missing an opportunity. And I don’t think these guys are trying to miss many opportunities.”

Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.

[aubiefifty 18,248]

Excitement for transfer Koy Moore builds inside Auburn’s locker room and out

JUSTIN LEE jlee@oanow.com

5-6 minutes

---

It could be 9 o’clock at night, Tank Bigsby said, when he’d peer out onto the field at the Auburn athletics facility and see Koy Moore out there working out.

He could be by himself. He could be out there catching passes from his fellow transfer, Zach Calzada. He’s speedy. He’s driven, so it seems. And if Moore has his way, those nights will be the story of one Auburn football star at the facility passing by Auburn football’s next star in the making.

Moore is Auburn’s new wide receiver transfer from LSU, who has gotten the fans excited — and the Auburn representatives at SEC Media Days certainly said they’re excited, too.

“The work,” Bigsby said, on what makes Moore a big addition. “I see him out there catching — 9 o’clock in the facility at night, catching balls by himself, doing drills, running routes with Zach Calzada. Just seeing him out there.”

 

People are also reading…

 

For Bigsby, it’s two-fold: For one, everyone’s fired up to see what Moore can do on the field as an individual addition. He was a four-star prospect coming out of high school, and he’s joining a wide receivers group that needed more weapons entering last offseason.

Auburn wide receivers coach Ike Hilliard was all about him from the start, apparently. Bryan Harsin told the story of Moore flashing his speed in one of his first practices with the Tigers, catching a pass on a short route then splitting the defenders to burn everyone and house it.

The other part of it is, for Bigsby, that work ethic is contagious — and that says something coming from Auburn’s top star.

“If you guys can be around someone and they’re working, if you’re a competitor and you see a guy out there get more attention, getting more stories and stuff, what are you going to say? You’re going to be like, ‘Oh, I need to be on my game,’” Bigsby went on. “That’s how it is on the team right now. When one guy sees someone working, they’re fixing to go work. That’s where I feel like we’ve worked so hard to get to this point.”

Auburn needs new talent at receiver and Moore could be a leading man. In the wide receivers room, only Shedrick Jackson and Ja’Varrius Johnson return with a healthy sampling of receptions and targets.

In two seasons at LSU, Moore caught just 27 passes for 248 receiving yards, but Harsin said Moore has a presence about him that he likes.

“I just like him as a person, first thing,” Harsin said. “I think the first day he was there, we ran a little inside slant, and he snatched it and just took off. So, everyone’s like, ‘Hmmm. Alright,’” Harsin smiled. “So, you’re like, ‘OK, that dude, he can move.’ But he’s just got — I don’t know — he’s just got a presence about him when he showed up.

“He was a guy that, we were on him for a while. Ike was all about him, and had been from the beginning, just really felt something strongly about him. We were fortunate enough to get him, when it was all said and done. He’s just got a presence about him.”

Harsin also said that, in his experience, transfers who’ve been in multiple places grow up fast — and he’s hoping Moore is bringing some additional life experience to Auburn while employing everything he learned at LSU and mixing it with everything he’s learning at Auburn.

Two of Auburn’s best quarterbacks ever, Cam Newton and Nick Marshall, both transferred in and made an instant impact, lending some credence to what Harsin said about transfer players being a bit more worldly and a bit more mature.

“I think he’s got a certain level of maturity that you feel just from transferring,” Harsin explained. “I think when you transfer, you grow up. You went one place as a high school player; for whatever reason, it didn’t work out. So, when you’re leaving, and a Zach Calzada or a Koy, or these guys come in, you grow up, because that first opportunity didn’t work out.

“Like, ‘OK that didn’t go as planned, so I’m not here to screw this one up,’ or, ‘I’m going to do everything I can to make this one count.’ So, you get guys, when they come in from the portal, you get guys that come in with a little bit more maturity to them, and he’s certainly one of them. I think he’s been a guy that’s been new, that’s been somewhat of a leader for us.”

That’s fine by Bigsby. That’s fine by Harsin.

When Auburn opens practice Aug. 5, the fans will be eager to hear what plays Moore can make as he tries to make an instant impact.

The coaches and players will be eager to see it for themselves, too.

0 Comments