Monday, November 3, 2008

Moore earns Player of Week honors


UW photo
Wyoming senior running back Devin Moore plunges over the top for one of his three touchdowns Saturday in the 35-10 win over San Diego State.

By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org

For much of the season, it seems like Wyoming opponents have played well enough for an individual or two to be named their respective conference's player of the week.

The Cowboys have turned the tables this week, as one of their own -- senior running back Devin Moore -- garnered Mountain West conference Co-Player of the Week honors.

Moore shared the award with BYU tight end Dennis Pitta.

Moore rushed for a career high 234 yards in the 35-10 home victory over the Aztecs. It not only marked Moore’s career high for rushing yards, but it was the third best single-game rushing performance in University of Wyoming history.

His 234 rushing yards is a Mountain West Conference high this season, and is the only 200-yard rushing game by an individual in the conference this season. It also ranks as the eighth best single-game rushing performance among NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams this season.

Moore’s 290 yards of all-purpose yardage was a personal best (234 rushing yards and 56 kickoff return yards). His previous high was 262 all-purpose yards versus Ohio in 2007. His three rushing TDs were also a career single-game high.

Moore became the eighth Cowboy in school history to rush for 1,000 yards in a single season when he exceeded the 1,000-yard mark last week vs. SDSU. Moore now has 1,036 rushing yards on the season. It is the first 1,000-yard rushing season of senior Moore’s career.

With his 234 yards, Moore also moved into second place on UW’s career rushing list. He has now rushed for 2,698 career yards. Moore is now just 208 yards behind school record-holder Ryan Christopherson on Wyoming’s career list.

Moore said after Saturday’s win that he does have individual goals for himself and for now, winning is the only thing that matters to him. He would share those individual goals after the season finale against CSU. At the same time, he also said that these type of accolades.

“They (individual accolades) mean a lot but at the same time, it means more to me that we are winning games now,” he said. “I will look back and I will cheese up to here (pointing to his eyes). Right now, I’m just looking forward to winning games.”

This was Moore’s third MWC Offensive Player of the Week honor of his career. He also earned the award for his performances versus San Diego State as a sophomore in 2006 and against Ohio as a junior in 2007.

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