MORERicht sees game as SEC indicator
ATHENS, Ga. - Saturday night's LSU-Oregon game is the biggest matchup of college football's opening weekend, but it's not the premier quarterback showcase.
That will be found in the Georgia Dome, where Boise State's Kellen Moore and Georgia's Aaron Murray will guide offenses with young receivers but the potential to sizzle. Moore is a redshirt senior who is 38-2 as a starter and needs eight victories to become the all-time winningest major-college quarterback, while Murray is the consensus All-SEC preseason quarterback as a redshirt sophomore.
"He's accurate, and he's a tremendous leader, and that's what I'm striving to be myself," Murray said Tuesday. "He definitely has a couple of years on me, and I hope when I'm in his situation as a senior that I'm sort of in the same spotlight as he is."
Moore completed 273 of 383 passes last season for 3,845 yards with 35 touchdowns and six interceptions, and he became the first Heisman Trophy finalist in program history. He set an NCAA single-season record two years ago by throwing just three interceptions in 431 attempts (.0069), and he set an NCAA freshman record in 2008 by completing 69.4 percent of his passes.
All this from Rivals.com's No. 31 pro-style quarterback in the 2007 signing class who picked the Broncos over Idaho and Eastern Washington.
"I don't think anybody could have predicted this," Boise State coach Chris Petersen said. "You hope for all those things. He's got a great feel for the game and is an accurate thrower, and he came out of the gate and played at a high level from the start."
Murray, the No. 3 quarterback in the 2009 class, held his own out of the gate as well, throwing for 3,049 yards last year with 24 touchdowns and eight interceptions. Despite those numbers, Georgia wound up 6-7, suffering its first losing season since 1996.
Each quarterback had a prolific redshirt freshman season, but Georgia coach Mark Richt believes it's too premature for comparisons.
"I wouldn't put Murray in his category yet," Richt said. "Kellen has done so much and will end up being the winningest quarterback in the history of college football. It's not a slight against Aaron, but Aaron just hasn't played as many games or won any championships or anything like that.
"Kellen right now is deadly accurate. There is a difference between completions and hitting a guy on a dead run. He throws it so accurately and allows his receivers to get some good yards after the catch. Aaron is getting there, but I don't know if he's there yet."
Murray isn't focusing on the quarterback aspect of the opener, pointing out that winning the game is all that matters. Some of his teammates, however, recognize the showdown under center could be pretty intriguing and hope the sophomore can outperform the senior.
"I think it will be good for Aaron," safety Sanders Commings said. "Kellen Moore will have all the hype coming into this game as a Heisman candidate, and Aaron is a good SEC quarterback, but people don't think he's Kellen Moore. I think this will be a great opportunity for him to show he can be that guy."