Brooks Rasmussen
Every kicker knows the feeling. The snap, the hold, the swing of the leg, and then a few seconds that seem to last forever. The kick is either good or it isn't, and either way, the next one is already on its way.
For Boise State sophomore kicker Canaan Moore, that reality has become a way of approaching everything. It's why his personal goal for this season fits into just four words.
"Make the next kick," said Moore. "I can't look too far in the future because you have to control what you can control. Every time I go out there, there's a new opportunity."
It's a simple mindset from a player whose path has been anything but simple. Two years ago, Moore was a high school senior in Vancouver, Wash., who saw himself as a soccer player first and a football player second, if at all. Today, he is the Broncos' starting kicker. Once a walk-on who appeared in just one game as a freshman, Moore earned the starting job during a tough fall camp.
Moore is the youngest of four children, with two older brothers and an older sister who set the example for him.
"I come from a great family," said Moore. "Great parents, three older siblings who have all paved the way for me. All of them are incredibly smart and very successful."
Everyone in the Moore house grew up playing soccer, but Moore was the only sibling who took athletics to the college level.
The biggest reason was his dad. As a college soccer player, Moore's father, Jason, saw his career derailed by a collection of knee and ankle injuries. To stay involved in the sport, Jason took the coaching route. He later coached soccer collegiately for 16 years at Concordia University of Portland throughout Moore's childhood, but was never far from his son's soccer career. He served as an assistant coach on Moore's club team throughout high school and as the head coach of his high school team.
"The older I got, the more time I spent with him in an athletic sense,” Moore said. “He was definitely the one that was propelling me the most."
With the support of his family, Moore became one of the best soccer players in the state of Washington. He was named the 4A GSHL Offensive Player of the Year in both his junior and senior seasons.
Soccer came naturally to Moore, but there was always a thought in the back of his mind about putting a different ball at the base of his foot.
During his freshman year, Moore noticed a football sitting on the field during a soccer practice and kicked it just to see how far out he could make a field goal. After a few warmup kicks, Moore found himself at the 35 yard line nailing effortless 45 yard field goals.
"I knew I had the ability to do it," said Moore.
The football team kept saying they needed a kicker. Moore's fall sport at the time was cross country, something he did only to stay in shape for soccer. So, heading into the summer before his junior year, he decided to try something new.
"I was never serious about cross country," said Moore. "I didn't really enjoy it that much, so I was like, ‘Let's give football a shot.’"
Moore felt zero pressure to continue playing past high school, but his family was extremely supportive of his future.
"They were very open to supporting the decisions I wanted to make,” said Moore. “When I decided I wanted to play a sport in college, they did everything they could to support me."
Then something shifted. Moore started to realize what he had. He didn’t miss a single PAT all season, and even drilled a career-long 47-yard field goal his senior year. His impressive feats led him to be named a first team all-state kicker and first team all-region as both a kicker and punter.
"Not being a true football player, I didn't understand how well I was doing," said Moore. "It took having the voice of my head coach in my ear saying, 'Hey, you're actually really good at this. You might want to consider playing in college.'"
Some smaller NAIA and division two schools told Moore he could start for them right away. It was a compliment, but it wasn't the goal.
"I didn't want to settle for anything less than I could be," said Moore. "At that point I'd only kicked for a little over a year. I was still very new to it. I trusted that like anything, I would continue to develop, and I have."
The door to Boise State opened through a single connection: Stacy Collins, Boise State's special teams coordinator, had a good relationship with Moore's high school football coach, and that got Moore's foot in the door. His accolades and film did the rest.
With limited roster space, there was talks about him coming out in January to walk-on for the following season. That timeline got moved up when he received a call in the late summer of 2025. The Broncos wanted to bring him out for fall camp.
Initially under the impression that he wasn’t going to join the team until preparation for the next season began, Moore had a lot to do. He had to adjust his housing, classes and so many other things to fit his football schedule because he was currently registered to be a traditional student at Boise State.
His classes changed, he moved into athlete housing, and the whole process sped up.
The only nerve-racking thing to Moore was that the team had been together for months.
"When I got here, it was a little intimidating," said Moore. "I could definitely feel that the team had already sort of meshed. It's nothing against the team at all. It was just trying to find what my role would be and who I would be to fit into the team."
Nothing truly sank in for Moore until the Broncos traveled to Tampa to open the 2025 season against South Florida.
"We landed in Tampa, and we got a police escort from the airport to the hotel," said Moore. "That was the moment I realized, ‘Okay, this is just different.’ Then seeing 40,000 fans at a game was completely different than any sort of environment I’d played in. I quickly realized I'm in a very great spot here, and wanted to make the most of it."
Moore's collegiate debut came on Sept. 5, 2025 against Eastern Washington, and it couldn't have gone much better. He connected on a 35-yard field goal and went a perfect 4-for-4 on PATs.
His nerves, though, were another story.
"My nerves in that first game were almost indescribable," said Moore. "Thankfully, my first kick was a PAT, because if it was any further, I don't know what would have happened.
"That experience was monumental in my development because it reaffirmed why I chose to be here," said Moore. "Being able to get in a game as a freshman, especially as a specialist, is pretty rare. I knew that even if I didn't play the rest of the season, I still made the right choice."
It turned out to be the only game he played in as a freshman. Instead of letting that discourage him, Moore took it as motivation to refine the small details and come back to try and earn the starting job.
"Practice is the foundation for how you play in games, but practice is also where you can refine things," said Moore. "Our offseason is so long that you have plenty of time to work on different things."
Getting an appearance in one game his first season allowed him to feel free at practice. The older players around him kept him focused on one thing at a time from winter workouts, then spring ball, then summer workouts, and finally fall camp.
"Anyone will tell you that jobs are won in the fall," said Moore. "I knew that by fall camp, I wanted to be hitting certain numbers and reaching certain levels. Then it was just trusting myself to go out and operate, trusting my snapper and my holder."
He did that while battling in a very competitive field. Moore never tried to do anything outside of his process. He just kept stacking good days.
When Moore found out he had won the job, he was sitting in class.
The news came five days before their first game at Oregon. The first message came from Oscar Doyle, the Broncos' punter, over text. Head coach Spencer Danielson followed right after.
Moore couldn’t hold in his excitement. He didn’t know how to act for the rest of his class and couldn’t focus on anything.
"I knew the decision was going to come soon, and I was feeling pretty good about how I had been doing," said Moore. "Actually getting told was such a relieving feeling. Then it was quickly followed by, ‘Okay, we're playing against Oregon. Time to go.’"
The first people Moore told outside of football were his parents. For him, it meant a little more because of his dad. When he chose college football over soccer, he felt a responsibility.
"I got to make sure it's worth it for him, because I know his soccer career ended in a way that you would never want to see for anyone," said Moore. "I think in his heart, he probably wanted me to go the soccer route too. Seeing me get in a game last year, and then seeing that message of me winning the starting job this year, I think that kind of just proved everything to him. He was super grateful and super proud of me."
Moore's first opening day start as a Bronco came in one of the toughest places to play, against an Oregon team that at the time was ranked No. 2 in the nation. But it was also just a two hour drive from home. His parents, his girlfriend and his best friend from high school were all there.
After a year of refining his process, Moore had learned to put the noise aside.
"I had my head screwed on the right way," said Moore. "I made sure to keep my composure, trust my kicks and just focus on the things I can control."
With a stadium full of 57,652 fans, Autzen Stadium was a true test for Moore and the Broncos.
"I'm not thinking about how many people are out there yelling or how loud it is," said Moore. "I'm thinking about what I can do to help the team. The team needs these points, and that’s my job."
If you ask Moore what has changed from last year to this year the answer comes back to his routine.
"My approach to each kick is pretty much the same," said Moore. "Whether it's a PAT 20 yards away or my career-long against Fresno, it's just pick your spot, trust it and kick the ball."
That career long came against Fresno State, a 49-yarder with two seconds left in the first half to extend Boise State’s lead to five.
"It's a position of pressure," said Moore. "The biggest change between my first year and second year is just focusing on each individual kick without thinking about the outside things. I don’t think about the last kick, the people in the stands or the pressure of the scenario. Just focus on the thing I've done thousands of times and go out and replicate it."
Moore credits Colton Boomer, who he beat out for the job, for being a mentor for him this season. If anyone knows what a modern kicker goes through, it’s Boomer.
"He's a great role model and a great individual," said Moore. "The specialist room in general has been really good about helping everybody be in the mental headspace they need to be in for games. Talking to someone who has the experience that I didn't have has been monumental."
The Broncos are off to a strong start to their first season in the Pac-12, boasting a 6-1 record. Moore is a perfect 27-27 in PATs and 10-11 in field goals, including the 49-yarder on the road against Fresno State.
For Moore, being part of a winning team is a special feeling, and that stems from the players in the locker room.
"A lot of people choose to come to Boise State for that winning culture, but it comes from the time we spent together in the offseason," said Moore. "I can go around the locker room to almost anybody in there and have great conversations and just have fun. That's the biggest thing, we have fun."
The team's goals are big. They want to win more than the team on the other sideline and are hungry to prove themselves in their new Pac-12 journey.
"One game at a time," said Moore.
It was never about one big moment, but going back to handling the moments leading up to where Moore is now. As a walk-on who played in one game as a freshman, he kept working, and now he is a starter that is lining up another one because it’s never about the past, but the next kick instead.