Saturday, Jul. 19, 2008

Moore of the Same: Fresno wideout aims to play smarter but teammates hope he keeps edge

By JAMES BURNS
jburns@mercedsun-star.com

FRESNO -- One by one, Fresno State players and coaches tried to console their dejected Bulldog. Cornerbacks A.J. Jefferson and Damien Owens gave it a shot, then head coach Pat Hill and receivers coach John Baxter.

"It's not your fault," they would say in their own way. "Let it go, bud."

It wasn't that easy -- not for Marlon Moore, who sat in his stall in the visitors' locker room with his head hung low.

The Fresno State wide receiver was sure he had just cost the Dogs a nationally televised win in one of the toughest venues in all of college football -- at Texas A&M.

ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW VIDEO ...

"That's the one play I'm going to take with me to my grave," Moore said some eight months later.

"That was a game-changing play. If I hold on to that ball, we win that game. There's no doubt about it.

"We beat them, but my one mistake was that I tried to do too much. I should have just done my job, held onto the ball and gone out of bounds."

The play in question came during the first overtime of the Dogs' 47-45 triple-overtime loss on Sept. 8 in College Station.

With Fresno State trailing 32-29 after an A&M field goal, quarterback Tom Brandstater found Moore on a crossing route at the Aggie 8-yard line -- and he had plenty of room to run.

"I got hit right after I threw the ball, so I didn't see it," Brandstater said. "But that's a play we've run before and it was a good throw.

"When I heard the crowd, I thought we had won."

Quite the opposite, actually.

As Moore raced toward the pylon, he was hit from behind by Aggie cornerback Marquis Carpenter.

The blow was just enough to knock Moore off balance. He tried to stretch the ball across the goal line as he stumbled out of bounds, but...

The ball slipped from his grasp and tumbled into the end zone. The Aggies recovered.

Then things got fishy.

Officials ruled Moore had stepped out of bounds, which would have given the Dogs first-and-goal at the 1.

Fresno State almost certainly would have won the game from there.

But a second review reversed the call, giving the Aggies possession of the ball -- although that was negated by a roughing the passer call.

When the officials finally made sense of the mess, the Dogs were given the ball back at the 13. They eventually forced a second overtime with a field goal.

"It was chaotic. It went on for at least 15 minutes," said Brandstater, who actually had his team lined up at the 1-yard line when the game official went back to the phone for a second time.

"We thought we had the ball at the 1, then they had the ball and then were at the 13. We didn't know what to think.

"When it was all said and done, we were emotionally drained. We got the ball back but we weren't ready to have a successful drive.

"Not after all of that."

The loss had a carry-over effect for the Bulldogs, who were trounced one week later at Oregon.

Fresno State (9-4) recovered brilliantly, winning eight of its last 10 games, but Moore -- the kid from Sacramento with some of the surest hands on the team -- was slower to heal.

"It was one of the most painful situations I've been in. It was like losing as a kid," Moore said. "I broke down (emotionally) after that. That was a big game."

Though he says he's let go of the play and that his focus is fixed on the future, sometimes -- especially on slow summer days like these -- his mind wanders back.

What if?

"I think about that play all the time," Moore said. "Just about every day.

"I could have played the situation differently," he added. "That would have been a season-changer if we'd have won that game."

Eight months later, Moore is doing everything he can to put the play behind him.

His summer workouts have become the stuff of legend among the freshmen and sophomores.

And he vows to play smarter -- at least, more conservative -- football in the fall.

Brandstater hopes that's not the case. He wants Moore to continue to take chances.

"He's a playmaker, plain and simple," Brandstater said. "For him to do what he can do, he has to make plays. You can't harness that.

"You can't tell a guy to change the way he plays. He's going to make more good plays than bad. You'll see."

James Burns is a Sun-Star sports reporter. He can be reached at jburns@mercedsun-star.com.

Want Moore?

2007: Marlon Moore led all Fresno State Bulldog receivers with 48 catches for 694 yards and 5 TDs.