Throughout the history of the Texas Tech football program, there aren’t many instances of 1000 yard receiving seasons. It just hasn’t happened all that many times and that’s for a number of reasons. The vast majority of the 20 instances of a player recording 1000 receiving yards in a single season came during the Mike Leach era.
After Leach left Lubbock, it took a few years for the Red Raiders to get another receiver with at least 1000 receiving yards in a season. But in 2012, there were two Texas Tech football players who made it to that point.
We’ve already talked a bit about Eric Ward and the way he got to 1000 yards receiving. Now let’s talk about Darrin Moore, who also got past that benchmark during the 2012 season right alongside Ward.
Texas Tech football history: Darrin Moore broke through the 1000 yard benchmark alongside Eric Ward in 2012
With 92 receptions, Moore had 1032 receiving yards and 13 touchdown receptions in 2012. Moore and Ward became the first two players following Leach’s firing to each get to 1000 receiving yards in a single season, which we already knew, but they also became the first (and so far only) duo of Texas Tech receivers to each have 1000 yards receiving at any point aside from the Leach era.
And that’s honestly really impressive.
Moore had an interesting season. He didn’t record any receptions in the season opener against Northwestern State and he only had three games of at least 100 receiving yards, but he still found a way to be a consistent receiving threat. A good example of that is against West Virginia, where he had nine catches for 92 yards and three touchdowns.
Or take the Texas game as another example. Seven catches for 108 yards. Against Oklahoma State, Moore had nine catches for 140 yards and a score. Then against Baylor a week later, he racked up 13 receptions for 186 yards and two more touchdowns.