By Chadd Cripe
ccripe@idahostatesman.com

It’s striking how much confidence the Boise State football coaches have in freshman quarterback Kellen Moore.

Every time he does something remarkable, they shrug it off as expected.

Moore was named the Walter Camp Football Foundation’s national offensive player of the week Sunday and the WAC offensive player of the week Monday. He’s a candidate for USA Today’s player of the week award, which is determined in part by fan voting here.

Moore was 25-of-37 for 386 yards and three touchdowns in Saturday’s 37-32 upset at Oregon. He tossed one interception.

Coach Chris Petersen said he wasn’t surprised.

“We just really felt like he could do what we needed him to do, which is run the offense,” Petersen said. “We never thought about scaling it back.”

Even Petersen, though, was impressed by Moore’s 14-yard throw to wide receiver Jeremy Childs. It was third-and-12, the Ducks brought more blitzers than the Broncos had blockers and Moore threw the ball to a spot just before getting drilled. The ball hit Childs right in the hands.

“I know Oregon will put that play on and go, ‘How do you defend that?’ ” Petersen said.

Moore has completed 72.2 percent of his passes and is ranked seventh in the nation in pass efficiency.

“That just goes to show that the coaches were right when they made the decision on quarterback,” senior tailback Ian Johnson said. “They saw something that we could only get a little glimpse of.”

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Boise State was named the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl National Team of the Week on Monday by the Football Writers Association of America. Alabama, East Carolina and USC were the previous honorees this year.

The FWAA has named a team of the week since 2002. It is determined by the FWAA board of directors and All-America committee.

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Other highlights from Petersen's press conference Monday:

On Ellis Powers’ hit that knocked Oregon’s quarterback out of the game: "Hey, we want to play by the rules, and you’re always walking that fine line because you’re trying to get these kids to play so hard. That’s what you've got to do on defense. We've just got to play smarter in terms of that kind of thing. … We don’t want to play dirty. We don’t want to give up any easy yards to them — that’s not good, disciplined football.”

On Jeremy Childs’ play: “He made two spectacular catches. … On the one-on-one, the deep ball, he went up and it was his. That’s the kind of play we have to have to really have a great pass game.”

On losing that underdog label: “I hope not. It’s kind of how Boise State’s always been and it’s a role that these kids play well in.”

Audio of Petersen's press conference is available here.