National Title Run Brings Out a Quentin Moore Connection

HOUSTON — Everyone wants to talk University of Washington football right now and their impressions of it and wide-ranging connections to it.

On Friday, radio show The Sports Animal, at 97.1 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, asked a UW beat writer — me — to join a mid-day talk show hosted by Erik Gee and Pat Jones to answer several questions about the Huskies' run to Monday night's CFP national championship game against Michigan, matching a pair of 14-0 teams.

Jones was a former Oklahoma State football coach who, it turns out, brought his second team to Husky Stadium to open the 1985 season and it beat the UW 31-17 in the first game after Don James' players had toppled Oklahoma 28-17 in the Orange Bowl nine months earlier.

The Huskies could handle the Sooners, but not the Cowboys.

Running back Thurman Thomas that day rushed 40 times for 237 yards, which remains sixth-best for a UW opponent. Jones mentioned how Thomas got a little riled up after he was hit late by the Huskies while going out of bounds.

Jones also wanted to know about current Husky tight end Quentin Moore, acknowledging it was sort of an off-the-wall question.

The former coach was informed that Moore plays in every game and even scored the game-winning points in the Pac-12 title game, coming up with a 2-yard touchdown catch in the 34-31 win over Oregon, his first score as a Husky. 

He was told that Moore, a one-time Kansas junior-college transfer and Kenmore, Washington, product, will challenge for a starting job entering next season once the older guys graduate.

Jones finally explained his interest in Moore — the player's father, Mark Moore, was an Oklahoma State cornerback for him and later briefly a member of the Seattle Seahawks.

Long forgotten, the coach told how Mark Moore intercepted a Hugh Millen pass in that 1985 game at Husky Stadium and returned it 49 yards for a clinching touchdown with 5:14 left to play.

The father of a Husky beat up on the Huskies. 

Jones likely didn't know that Quentin Moore has never had much of a connection with his father. Asked a month ago by a Seattle TV broadcaster about his relationship with him, Quentin replied, "Not good." The younger Moore couldn't offer any childhood memories of his birth father.

Either way, Jones will be watching for the younger Moore when the national title game unfolds. He passed along a message to him.

"You tell him when you see him," Jones said, "his dad's coach was asking about him and said hi."