Less than a year and a half ago, Marcellus Moore wasn’t sure what the future held as a dual-sport athlete at Purdue. While football was his first love and what had gotten him this far, it wasn’t panning out how he had hoped.

“I kind of felt like I was stuck in the same place,” Moore, who is now a senior at Texas, said. “I was playing two sports, and I just felt like I wasn’t getting better at either sport. I felt like I just needed a change of environment.”

Moore was used sparingly during his time with the Boilermakers. During his 2020 campaign, he appeared in just one game, returning a kick for four yards. Listed at 5 foot, 8 inches and 160 lbs, Moore’s small stature became a barrier to him getting field time, and after similarly low usage at the start of his second season, he entered the transfer portal in October of 2021.

But Moore certainly does not regret his leap of faith.

Moore announced his transfer to Texas in December of 2021. He turned his focus solely to track and field, the sport he had shown greater promise in during his time at Purdue.

Moore immediately stepped into a prominent role during his junior year as a consistent sprinter whose second-place finish in the men’s 60m and seventh-place finish in the 200m helped the Longhorns to a Big 12 Indoor Championship in 2022.

“I don’t even know how to describe it,” Moore said about winning the Big 12. “It was magical when it happened. And so I want to have that feeling all the time now.”

Given Moore’s production this season, along with the records broken seemingly weekly on the women’s side, the Longhorns look to be in prime position to retain their conference title.

Just last weekend at Clemson University’s Tiger Paw Invite, Moore set the Texas program record in the 60m with a time of 6.56 seconds, breaking Senoj Jay-Givans’ nearly eight year-old record.

Moore has improved across the board in year two with the Longhorns, placing first in the 60m in three separate competitions and narrowly finishing in second at the New Mexico Collegiate Classic. He has added multiple top-10 finishes in the 200m.

Moore chalks up his success this year to his ability to devote himself completely to sprinting. As a football player, he lacked the opportunity to train in the fall, but he has taken advantage of the additional training time at Texas.

“One of my main focuses was trying to get my endurance up, get some more mobility and get the consistency down with my block start,” Moore said. “When I was playing football, I was splitting the year in half.”

Now in his final semester at Texas, Moore has a better grasp of his future than he did when he was juggling two sports at Purdue. His main goal is to go professional in track, but he also hopes to get into physical therapy school and eventually open a practice of his own. 

“I would be lying if I said I did not miss football,” Moore said. “But right now the focus has just been track, and it’s paying off for me.”