Cal Football Countdown: 23 Days, A Collin Moore Story

Tight end Collin Moore isn't somebody a lot of Cal fans are familiar with, but the former San Marin HS quarterback has turned himself into a rotation player. At 6'4" and 250 lbs, Moore looks the part of a tight end, but he originally came to Cal as a quarterback. Justin Wilcox noted that with a couple of knee injuries for Moore, he tried to get the now-redshirt sophomore to quit.

"He's the best C-Gap blocker on the team now. He's got his weight to 250-ish," Wilcox said,"and I would not be the least bit surprised if he helps us in that role. He hasn't played, but two years ago, I basically tried to get him to quit, not because I didn't like him, but because he had significant surgeries, knee injuries, he was a quarterback. I brought him in and said,"

"Collin, I love you man, you're not going to play quarterback here. You've had two knee injuries, be around the team, we'll find a role for you,' he's just like,

'no way, can I play tight end?'

'are you sure?'

'Let me play tight end, let me try it.'

"So he's that determined."

Moore remembers it a little differently, as he remembered wanting to do whatever it took to be on the field.

"My dream was to play college football, and when they explained the situation to me, I was very understanding of it, but I couldn't imagine my life without football," Moore said, "especially playing football, maybe one day coaching. I just couldn't see myself being completely happy without playing football. I basically said I'll do whatever, if you want me to play defense, I'll play defense, if you want me to play offense, I'll play offense, I'll put on as much weight as possible, I'll do whatever to stay on the team. I was unsure what the future was gonna be, then I got the call for Fall camp (2017), to come and play tight end. That was right after Ray Hudson had a foot injury, I started committing learning tight end and it's been a blast ever since."

Moore's bulked up from 215 to 250 since getting to Berkeley, and his new position coach has seen the development coming.

"Collin's changed his game through hard work," TE coach Marques Tuiasosopo said, "he had a position change when we first got here. That could've taken the wind out of his sails, but he's bounced back from that strong. He does everything right, he works hard, he's put weight on, he's got athletic ability, he's done a great job of believing in himself, and he wants it, you can see that."

The biggest change for Moore has come as a blocker. The quarterback position doesn't have a whole lot of physicality involved, but Moore noted that being a younger sibling helped him develop some of the innate physicality and in his words 'the crazy' needed to be a good blocker.

"I'd have to credit a lot of that to my older brother. I didn't know that when we were kids and we were fighting, he was really teaching me how to become a tight end," Moore joked. "Really, coach Tui says it all the time with blocking, there's technique but at the end of the day you can do a really good job of blocking if there's a want, if you get really gritty and not be scared to hit someone. I guess having an older brother really helped with that."

The receiving end, per Tuiasosopo, has been an easier transition, as having the ball in his hands isn't new for Moore.

"As a former quarterback, he's always had the ball in his hands," Tuiasosopo said, "he's always caught it so catching the ball is natural for him. It's just getting used to running routes and dealing with the defensive backs and linebackers and not letting that distract him in terms of finishing the play, but because of his attitude, he's done a nice job with his transition."

"It has been an interesting experience, as a quarterback you'd maybe complain 'why is the receiver not doing that?'" Moore added, "and now I'm the receiver and seeing 'why wasn't I doing that?' It's a fun transition and I can definitely see it paying off, because I see the grand scheme of things. I know when I'm getting someone else open and how many moving pieces there are from playing quarterback."

Is there a chance of Moore getting to throw a pass during the season? That remains to be seen.

"I still joke around with the quarterbacks, 'let me get a pass,'" Moore noted, "I'm waiting for the double pass with coach Baldwin, I didn't prove to him when I was playing quarterback that I could throw it too well, but hopefully there's still some hope for me to throw a double pass."

Moore's been taking reps with the first and second groups during the first five days of spring ball, and it'd be unsurprising to see him trot out with the starting offense, come August 31st.