Washington State has hired Kirby Moore as its next head football coach, interim athletic director Jon Haarlow announced Friday.
Moore agreed in principle to a five-year contract, becoming the 36th head coach in program history at Washington State.
He replaces Jimmy Rogers, who left Pullman after one season to take the head coaching job at Iowa State.
A Prosser, Washington, native, Moore arrives in Pullman after three seasons at Missouri, where he served as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach under head coach Eli Drinkwitz.
The 34-year-old coach has been widely viewed as a rising offensive mind and will be taking on his first head coaching role.
“Today is a great day for Cougar Football and we are thrilled to welcome Kirby, his wife Kayla, and children, Sutton, Cohen and Crew to the Cougar family,” Haarlow said. “Kirby Moore is regarded as one of the top young coaches in college football with proven success throughout multiple levels of his coaching career. He has an innovative offensive mind and a team-oriented approach that will resonate with and elevate our student-athletes.
“Throughout the process, his energy and commitment to holistically developing our student-athletes, on the field and off, along with his ties to eastern Washington and familiarity with Washington State University make him the right leader for Cougar Football.”
Moore’s coaching background spans more than a decade and includes stops across the Northwest and beyond.
After a five-year playing career as a wide receiver at Boise State, he began coaching in 2014 at Idaho, working with the Vandals’ wide receivers.
He then spent the 2015 and 2016 seasons at Washington as an offensive graduate assistant, gaining experience in a Power Five program before moving on to Fresno State.
Moore joined the Bulldogs in 2017 as wide receivers coach and was promoted to offensive coordinator ahead of the 2022 season.
Most recently, he helped guide Missouri’s offense during three seasons in the Southeastern Conference, working closely with quarterbacks and overseeing offensive strategy against top-level competition.
Moore also comes from a well-known coaching family.
He is the younger brother of New Orleans Saints head coach Kellen Moore, and the son of Tom Moore, who spent many years as head coach at Prosser High School.
Washington State did not announce financial terms of the agreement, which is pending final contract details.