Jacob Moore: Mr. USU 2025
The cheers and applause of hundreds of Aggies filled the Newel & Jean Daines Concert Hall on Oct. 16 during this year’s Mr. USU Pageant. The event, a Utah State University Homecoming week tradition, is organized annually by the USUSA Traditions Committee and invites representatives from each college to come and compete for the Mr. USU crown.
2025 Mr. USU winner Jacob Moore, who competed as Mr. Business, said he didn’t expect to walk away with the crown — he just wanted to make sure everyone had fun.
“I didn’t expect to win,” Moore said. “I was mainly there to have a good time, and I wanted everybody in the crowd to have a good time too.”
The night began with an introduction to this year’s judges, among them being last year’s Mr. USU Henry Silva.
“We were looking for someone who could be charismatic but also authentic and who could have an impactful reaction on the audience,” Silva said. “That’s how we choose the new Mr. USU.”
Competitors from the business, agriculture, arts and sciences, engineering and education colleges – as well as from campus organizations such as Greek life, athletics, residence life and campus involvement — opened the event with a group dance to some of Pitbull’s greatest hits.
“We practiced the group dance for like four hours a week, sometimes more,” Moore said. “I didn’t know any of the guys before, and now we’re like a little family.”
According to Silva and Moore, preparing for the group dance alongside their competitors was one of the most rewarding parts of the experience.
“When we do the rehearsals for the group dance, we develop those close ties,” Silva said. “You could see that connection they had built up on stage.”
They then moved into the talent portion of the evening, filled with various portrayals of talent in singing, dancing, drawing and even hobby horsing.
Silva said watching this year’s performances as a judge was a “surreal” experience, one that made it hard to keep his composure.
“Some performances were so amazing that I could not hold in my excitement,” Silva said. “That was the hard part about being a judge — to not show too much emotion.”
Silva said he saw parts of himself in Moore’s performance, especially in the boldness and creativity that engaged the audience.
“I saw that he was brave and bold, and he broke the walls with interaction with the audience,” Silva said. “I did that a little bit with my performance last year, but he raised the bar.”
Moore’s winning performance blended charisma, dance and audience participation, a combination that caught the attention of judges and spectators alike. Drawing inspiration from social media videos and his background in swing dancing, Moore choreographed his entire routine in just two and a half weeks.
“I went swing dancing for the first time in high school,” Moore said. “Then I actually took a class here at Utah State, and that’s where I learned a lot of the lifts and the moves. I wanted it to look nice and organized like a show, and I wanted to get the audience involved too. The more the audience would scream, the better.”
Despite his experience as a performer, Moore said the moments before the show were still nerve-wracking.
“I really like being in front of people and entertaining people,” Moore said. “I don’t get super nervous about these things, but I was feeling it right before, and I had to really hype myself up.”
Moore said one of his most memorable moments of the night came when he walked the stage arm in arm with his grandmother during the formal wear and questionnaire section of the event.
“One of the highlights definitely was walking out with my grandma,” Moore said. “She was super excited. After I won, she was shook.”
That night, Silva also performed his dance and song mash-up talent that won him the crown last year as a final goodbye. He said his goal for this year’s show was to make his own performance feel like “a celebration” as he passed the crown on to his successor.
“For me, it felt like a goodbye, but I wanted to leave this goodbye as a good memory,” Silva said. “It was a way to say ‘I’m passing the crown, but I want to make this a celebration of my experience and his experience as well.’”
Silva said the advice he has for this year’s Mr. USU moving forward is to keep being authentic.
“Be true to yourself,” Silva said. “There’s nothing you can do to control what people think about you or feel about you. I think the responsibility for Mr. USU is just to stay true to who he is because people chose him for being himself.”
Now that he holds the title, Moore said he hopes to stay involved on campus and give back to the community that supported him.
“I think I’m going to try to be more involved, whether that’s with the Traditions Committee, USUSA or just events on campus,” Moore said. “Winning makes me feel proud to be a student at USU.”