Wednesday, September 22, 2010

How Fast is Tavoy Moore?

Z103 DJ Brad Collins, who is a Bengal enthusiast, recently was struck with an entertaining idea while watching the Idaho State at Northern Colorado football game; “Tavoy Moore looks fast, but just how fast is he?” Many armchair fans have become so desensitized by the speed of athletes that they think they could somehow be in the same realm as collegiate players. On Wednesday afternoon Collins experienced Division I speed first hand by racing head-to-head with Moore in the 40 yard dash. Last week Moore was named National Punt Returner of the Week and Kickoff Returner of the Week by the FCS as well as Big Sky Player of the Week for his efforts.

After hitting the weights hard and tiring himself out in the Jared Allen Strength and Conditioning Center Moore came down to Holt Arena where Brad Collins and the timing mechanism were set up for the 40 yard dash. Unfortunately, the timer was struggling a bit with the automatic start, but luckily Head Track and Field Coach Dave Nielsen, who is being honored with the Distinguished Service Award at Homecoming, was there to step in and set the timers off by hand which means that naturally due to human error and timing the speeds recorded for Tavoy are a fraction faster than listed.

Moore smoked Collins in the first race by 1.2 seconds leaving the Z103 DJ 12-15 yards behind when he crossed the finish line. Moore's 40 yard dash was clocked at 4.58 seconds while Collins rolled in at 5.78 seconds. It just isn't a fair fight pinning the average Bengal fan against the 5-7 junior transfer who was named National Punt Returner and Kickoff Returner for the FCS.

Collins was given a second shot at trying to beat Moore, but fell behind by 1.5 seconds in the second match up. Video footage of the competition will be available on Wednesday, Sept. 29 at the Idaho State main athletic webpage. The video will also be teamed up with the Get on Board videos that have been produced all season. For now, we will just entice you with photos of the race!





(Photo 1: No Brad in site at the 25 yard line)





(Photo 2: Moore at the 32, Brad just getting to the 22)





(Photo 3: Moore sooo fast the camera can't even catch him as he crosses the finish line, 12 more yards for Brad to cover before he gets to the end.)



To give fans a better idea of Moore's talent, he posts the second best punt return average with 34.44 in the nation. He posts the fourth best All-Purpose return average with 211.67 yards per game in the nation.


BENGAL FOOTBALL...GET ON BOARD!!!!