Eric Moore Looks to Make an Impression : Football: Rancho Alamitos graduate, a redshirt last season at Washington State, hopes to be a big hit at tight end.

Since leaving Rancho Alamitos High School two years ago for some Northern exposure at Washington State, Eric Moore had been playing a waiting game.

His time wasn’t exactly spent at Excitement Central.

There weren’t any opponents. His uniform got soiled only by leaking Gatorade cups. And there wasn’t anything to hit--and if there’s one thing Moore loves to do on a football field, it’s hit.

Moore’s life as a redshirt freshman last year meant weekday practices on the scout team and Saturday afternoons on cheerleading detail.

“That was pretty tough,” said Moore, 19. “You go from your senior year not leaving the field to standing on the sideline. It’s a little frustrating.”

That probably will change this season.

As the Cougars attempt to improve their 4-7 record (3-5 in the Pacific 10 Conference), Moore will try to increase his playing time.

Moore, 6 feet 4 and 235 pounds, is listed third at tight end on the Washington State depth chart behind senior Clarence Williams and junior Brett Carolan. On the surface, that doesn’t look promising, but two factors might help Moore see a lot of action.

For one, most of the Cougars’ offensive formations last year required only one tight end. This season, the team will frequently use two, giving Moore a better opportunity to play if Williams or Carolan can’t. That came awfully close to happening even before practices began a few days ago.

Williams, who last season was third on the team in receptions with 31, partially tore knee cartilage in a mountain bike accident this summer, giving the Cougar coaches--and himself--a scare. He had surgery and has recovered, but the mishap was an example of how quickly and unexpectedly things can change.

But Moore said an injury to a teammate is not the way he wants to crack the lineup, so he’ll wait a little longer and take whatever comes his way. He said his status with the Cougars wasn’t a surprise.

“There wasn’t anything phony about how they recruited me,” Moore said. “They laid it out right in front of me. The best player gets the spot.”

Moore, also a basketball and track standout at Rancho Alamitos, definitely had his spot on the Vaqueros’ football team.

He was an All-Garden Grove League tight end and also played defensive back his senior year. That season, he caught 34 passes for 665 yards and two touchdowns, and tied for the team lead with five interceptions. His ability to hang on to balls gave Rancho Alamitos a reliable offensive weapon, but it was his reckless play on defense that impressed Coach Mark Miller.

“He was damn good as a safety,” Miller said. “He was a real good hitter. Our first game in 1990, against Troy, he hit this guy right in front of our sidelines and almost knocked him into a flip. There was this loud crack. To this day, it’s the hardest hit I’ve seen.”

The Washington State recruiters didn’t see that crunching tackle in person, but they saw plenty of others that impressed them enough to offer Moore a scholarship. Washington State was one of only two Division I schools--San Diego State was the other--that even contacted him. The Cougars courted Moore because of his defensive skills and later switched him to tight end since his speed (about 4.7 in the 40 yards) was a little slow to play safety in college.

“I actually came down to look at another kid,” said Mike Zimmer, Washington State’s defensive coordinator. “I saw him (Moore) flying around all over that field, hitting people. Then I watched him playing basketball and he was pretty aggressive. I was even more impressed.”

Zimmer said he sees Moore contributing to the Cougars’ cause this season and certainly in the ones to come.

“He (Moore) is doing good,” Zimmer said. “He has been getting a lot of work in practice. He has a good future ahead of him.”

Moore, who is majoring in sports management with a minor in business, is eager for that future to begin, but is willing to accept the gradual process. He loves the outdoor opportunities that Pullman and its surroundings offer, including fishing and skiing in nearby Canada or Idaho, and the support the community gives the Cougars even in their poorest seasons. The playing time might not be great, but the fringe benefits are outstanding.

“I liked it here from the start,” Moore said. “The country is beautiful. Pullman is a college town and they get behind the team. That was one of the reasons why I came up here. You feel like you’re not just a number but you’re part of the family. Everyone is working together on and off the field.”

On the field, Moore has two things in mind this season--to play and to plow over people when he is on the field.

“I love to hit,” he said. “If I honestly had the speed to do it in college, I’d like to play safety, but at tight end at least I have the chance to hit someone. You know you are not quick enough to outrun those DBs (defensive backs), so you’ve got to run them over.”