Matt Moore brings a good resume to Blacksburg. He was a Broyles nominee in ‘23, his units have blocked, he’s worked with some of the most innovative minds in the game, he’s produced early-round draft picks, and he’s been an offensive coordinator and assistant head coach at the college level. The ‘23 year looks like his real badge of excellence, as the Mountaineers led the P5 in rushing yards, and were #2 in sacks allowed. Let’s dig a little deeper.
Scheme
Moore’s got Air Raid written all over his resume. His first college gig was in 2006 for Troy under offensive coordinator (and Murray State contemporary of Beamer and Bud) Tony Franklin, who was an OG Air Raid guy with Hal Mumme at Kentucky. A year later, Moore moved up to Texas Tech and was a big part of Peak Air Raid with Mike Leach and Dana Holgorsen. And that Air Raid through-line continues all the way through WVU, as fired Mountaineer head coach Neal Brown was also part of the Air Raid Army.
But that doesn’t mean much when it comes to scheme. A lot of that archetypal Air Raid stuff, with exaggerated line splits and running the ball just enough to keep your QB’s arm fresh, went away a long time ago. Today’s Air Raid keeps a lot of the passing concepts and general aggression of the Leach days, but it pounds the rock a lot more, and with a lot more variety than Inside Zone from a five-man line. WVU ran more than they passed, and they came at it a lot of different ways:
Here’s Counter BASH:
There was also plenty of play-action and pull-protection. Pass protection seemed to hold up pretty well; one difference I noticed is that the line gives up a little more ground setting the pocket/slide than I feel like the Hokies have done lately. That can be safer in terms of reducing free rushers, but it tests the resolve of the quarterback a little more because he sees the line getting pushed back and has to trust everyone to find their feet.
For terminology, he uses at least some of the same play phrasing as the Hokies do, and some more of the same stuff as when Tyler Bowen was at PSU.
Coaching
Actual coaching...teaching players...is probably the most mundane item on this list, but it’s the most important, too, because it’s 100% about his effort with the players. Bowen ultimately controls the scheme, S&C and player health staffers are critical partners in player development, and a million things go into recruiting. But Moore will be the king of the OL room. When Joe Rudolph came aboard, one thing that struck me was how much he thought about drills. Crook’s approach was more about letting guys find their own ways to work within broad rules of technique. With Moore, I notice two things: he’s thoughtful about finding different ways to teach his guys, and he’s a big stickler on footwork.
For the teaching side, look at the leftmost column on this image describing WVU’s basic Inside Zone variations:
“13/12” are the holes for the back’s initial aiming points, depending on whether they’re running to the left or right side of the formation. “Zone L” and “Zone R” indicate that left/right distinction. And “Zelda” and “Zebra” put all that information together into a one-word play call. The “L” in “Zelda” indicates a left-side play, while the “R” in “Zebra” indicates the opposite. If a player hears “Zelda” he knows they’re running Inside Zone to the left side of the formation. Moving across the image, if he hears “Clash,” he knows the plays is Inside Zone to the left with the tight end helping on the backside. If he hears “Fridge,” he knows it’s Inside Zone to the right, with the TE running behind the formation to insert on the backside linebacker.
That’s not too unique, and if Bowen’s using the same lingo from his Penn State days, his scheme has similar terminology. What I like about Moore’s method is that he’s adding images to help create the linkages in his players’ minds, and he tries to find images that are obvious and/or relevant. I might’ve put a picture of Zelda Fitzgerald there in the front, but Moore’s a smarter guy than me, and he put Link from the Zelda media franchise instead. It’s not a game-changer, but it is a thoughtful detail, and hearing him talk, you’ll find he’s very mindful of the details.
He’s also mindful about keeping things as simple as possible. His favorite is the classic “rule of three,” where he tries to keep his lists pared down into clusters of three items. Here’s an example of a visual aid paired with a cluster of three rules:
That’s a photograph (not a chalk-talk drawing) of the three different defensive player alignments possible in Inside Zone. He’s not differentiating between on-the-line and off-the-line, or different shades, or anything like that. Three simple rules. Again, that might not seem like much, but a quarter of a century ago, I learned all this stuff from watching a coach moving traffic cones around the field like it was the world’s biggest shell game while barking numbers at me that could’ve been digits of pi for all I knew at the time. Things have come a long way, and with transfers and young guys being thrown into the mix more than ever, clear, effective instruction is important.
The way he teaches blocking progressions is also simple. He reps man blocks, then moves up to base/combo blocks between two players and the different ways they can be executed. He also uses a lot of NFL film, an approach that grabs attention while legitimizing what’s being taught.
Technique
Take a look at this setup:
The blockers are under a chute, with defenders across from them bearing Bosu-style shields. Those long thin pads lying between the defenders’ feet are “boards,” while the blockers are standing over thin, white plastic tees. That’s a lot of training tools for one drill. The chute is about staying low, and the shield teaches hand placement.
The last two pieces of equipment are about feet. Moore’s big on footwork. Get your feet too narrow, and you’ll get swiped to the side; take steps too long, and you’ll get caught one-legged trying to catch up to a stunt or blunt a bull-rush. The boards teach foot width; if your feet come too close together, you step on the board and you’ll squish and wobble on the pad. The tees teach stride length. If you overstride, you’ll step on the tee and feel it beneath your foot. Chutes and boards are almost universal, but I haven’t seen tools like the tees used very often.
That’s a lot of cuing for one drill. If his playbook teaching aims to be cognitively simply, drills like this are kinesthetically complex. He might work on this stuff individually early in the spring and maybe again early in the fall before combining it into a single drill. If he’s good at making it work, it means he’s got an efficient drill for locking in lots of details. I’d say he’s good at making it work, because...
Development
Moore has put some great players on the field, and his lines have been good overall. Here was a parting shot from him after he was let go by RichRod:
"Struggling to find the words to express my gratitude to ALL of the guys I have had the pleasure to coach here at West Virginia. Thank you for always being the same guy and coming to WORK every day. 6 years, 3 Freshmen all-Americans, 2 top-round draft picks (2 on the way), 2 all-Americans. Multiple all-conference players. I would call that a HARD EDGE!! Love you guys!!"
I will say he came into a pretty stable environment, because his predecessor at WVU (Joe Wickline) is a good coach and had a good roster for him. Even with that head start, though, Moore’s shown he can turn guys (even very young ones) into consistent players, as the freshman All-Americans indicate. Zach Frazier and Colton McKivitz are both starting in the NFL right now, too.
If you need more, scroll through the PFF ratings for WVU’s offensive players. You’ll see a lot of consistent green, as guys are generally grading in the 70’s. That’s good.
Recruiting
Moore’s brought in three guys already from WVU, one of them an honorable mention All-Big 12 guard, and another a young four-star Army All-American. Remember how bad Hokie fans wanted Wyatt Milum? Moore got him. Oh, and he was the lead guy on getting Doug Nester’s scenery change.
Grade him on the curve of being in West Virginia, and the evidence points to him being a good recruiter. I don’t know what kind of transfer portal pitch he has, at least for guys he hasn’t already coached. Looking over his recent WVU rosters, his starters have mostly been full-career WVU guys; Nester is the exception, but Moore recruited him out of high school. He seems to have the draft-pick credentials, though, to have an impact here, especially if Wyatt Milum goes high this year.
Wrapping Up
This looks like a good hire for the Hokies. I don’t think you can look at it say it guarantees an immediate extra a win or two over his predecessor, but I don’t know if there’s a guy out there with that kind of impact, at least in the fall. If Moore gets another win or two in the portal, though, that could translate into something major.