Penn State has a new wide receivers coach. On Monday, the Nittany Lions hired Kashif Moore to fill the role that was unexpectedly vacated early this month.
There may not have been an assistant on Matt Campbell’s Iowa State staff that Penn State needed to follow its new head coach to Happy Valley more than WR coach and passing game coordinator Noah Pauley.
Pauley did come to Penn State, but shortly after he was introduced to the media, the Green Bay Packers came calling, and the allure of the NFL was too strong. With Pauley departing, Campbell was forced to look outside and landed on Moore, who followed Jim Mora Jr. from UConn to Colorado State this offseason.
Penn State is set to hire Colorado State's Kashif Moore as its wide receivers coach, sources tell @On3.
— Pete Nakos (@PeteNakos) February 16, 2026
The former UConn WR coach emerged as the target this morning, as @On3 reported earlier. Developed Skyler Bell into a Biletnikoff Award finalist in 2025.… https://t.co/ilQJybg7xv pic.twitter.com/LKWAtrnBrj
Penn State hires Kashif Moore as wide receivers coach
Pauley arrived to replace Marques Hagans, who struggled to develop wide receiver talent at Penn State across the final years of James Franklin’s tenure. The issue came to a head in the 2025 Orange Bowl loss to Notre Dame when Penn State wide receivers failed to record a single reception.
Coming off that performance, Franklin completely overhauled the position, showing Harrison Wallace III and Omari Evans the door and adding Trebor Pena from Syracuse to join fellow senior transfers Devonte Ross and Kyron Hudson. That veteran triumvirate proved to be only a marginal upgrade in Penn State’s disastrous 2025 campaign.
Campbell primarily addressed the wide receiver position by bringing in his own talent, not just Pauley, but also quarterback Rocco Becht’s top two targets from Iowa State last season, Chase Sowell and Brett Eskildsen. Now Moore will be tasked with leading that group into the inaugural year of Campbell’s tenure.
Moore played wide receiver at UConn from 2008-11 and coached at the high school level before quickly ascending the college ranks, beginning as the wide receiver coach at Division III Wesleyan University in 2020. He jumped to Cornell in 2021 and Albany in 2022 before landing with Mora at UConn in 2023.
While Moore’s track record doesn’t include Christian Watson, Jayden Higgins, and Jaylin Noel, who Pauley helped to develop, he did coach UConn wide receiver Skyler Bell to an All-American campaign in 2025 with 101 catches for 1,278 yards and 13 touchdowns.