Joe Moore

You are a former offensive lineman for the University of Notre Dame.

You have an affinity for offensive linemen, so much so – that you are the creator of the Joe Moore Offensive Line Award.

Can you talk a little bit about that? Because I've seen it in person.

It's gigantic.

for Fat Guy.

And that was really the brainchild.

I always wanted to do something to kind of preserve the legacy and principles of my offensive line coach there at Notre Dame, Joe Moore, sent 52 dudes to the NFL.

in 18 seasons, never had a senior starter at Notre Dame that didn't at least get invited to have a cup of coffee in the NFL.

Iowa football is enjoying its bye week at the midway point of the season, and some mid-season accolades are coming in for the Black and Gold.

The offensive line has once again landed on the honor roll for the Joe Moore Award.

Iowa won its second Joe Moore trophy a year ago.

This season's starting five has paved the way for three 200-yard rushing games and three 100-yard rushers in the same game, a first for the program since 1983.

The O-line includes center Cale Winter, guards Kaden Peper and Leighton Jones, and tackles Trevor Lauk and Jack Doetzler.

The Hawkeye offense is averaging 31 points and 403 yards a game.

The running attack is churning 193 yards an outing, and the line has given up just five sacks in six games.

The Joe Moore Award winner will be announced in early December.

I think they're playing way better than people think.

And I've said it, it's like, "Guys, go listen to Aaron Taylor," uh, him talking just Joe Moore stuff on his YouTube page.

He's...

He has talked about the fundamentals they've played with.

Kudos to Aaron.

Big AT out there.

Watch his Joe Moore award shows he does every single week, where they break down every offensive line in the country, and every time they've talked about Notre Dame, all they say is, "Man, that's a well-coached group.

They're getting better.

I think offensive line was obviously a key thing there.

And it's been a key thing for his entire career as a head coach, whether you look at the Michigan days and, you know, the multiple, you know, Joe Moore award winners, and they've sent so many players to the NFL, whether it was the 49ers with their, You know, granted, like he inherited a group, you know, one future Hall of Famer and some other guys who are all pro level kind of caliber players.

Stanford, you know, had several players go to the NFL.

You know, if the Joe Moore Award was a thing back then, they probably would have won it.

So offensive line was like the key thing.

And it was, you know, tip of the spear and offensive line are weapons like everything like that.

Otherwise, Tyler, not a whole lot has gone well with the offensive line.

and this is easily the most frustrating thing and for all of these yes there's more than just jim harbaugh specifically at play but when you hire jim harbaugh this is the first thing that came to mind and after watching what has you know been a pretty rough patch for herbert pre-2024 you think okay like if nothing else whether it's ben johnson jim harbaugh whoever the line's got to be the lines you get jim harbaugh again coming from michigan Not that their linemen were great, but for a college program, they were awesome.

How, how are you guys gonna be, how are you guys gonna be more physical as an offense this year? It's heard all of that.

Like my guy hadn't coached a Joe Moore award offensive line at Washington and ran for over 1,000 yards with Dylan John.

I dig- I digress.

Let me, let me chill.

You know, you mentioned I used to be at, uh, practice every day.

What, how, what better teacher is there than to be standing 50 feet from Joe Moore coaching the offensive line? I, I was privy to all those things on a daily basis and, you know, eventually at the end of the Holtz era, he started closing practices and then Davie said, "If I'm ever head coach, I'll pra- the practices will be open." Well, that wasn't true, and then, so that went away.

But, you know, I had some really, really great teachers along the way, the assistant coaches especially.

Holtz, you know, I would, I always tried to ask technical questions about things that I didn't understand.

And so, and

even, even the year Tyler that Notre Dame won the Joe Moore award, Georgia was a problem in 2017 for that line.

Yeah.

Yeah, and so I think the context that you bring in terms of, okay, these are what these teams are doing well and aren't doing well matters in terms of like Marcus Freeman's talked about the race to being the best team in the country to improve quicker than everyone else or however he has phrased it.

I got a chance to know him in the early 90s.

I had a couple teammates at Washington, Mark May and Russ Grimm that When he was the GA under Joe Moore, so they knew all about Coach Ferentz and got a chance to get together with him a couple times.

We used to scrimmage his Steelers every year, so we'd see them in the preseason and just got to know him.

And then obviously with Luke playing there, we got to know him a lot.

This has been something that's happened at Notre Dame my entire life.

There were even years where Notre Dame had games where Joe Moore didn't do that well.

I mean, it happens.

So the other team gives out scholarships too, and I'll give them credit.