NC State's New No. 1: Isaiah Moore
NC State redshirt linebacker Isaiah Moore will be a leader on and off the field for the Wolfpack this year.
Coming off a season in which he finished third on the team in tackles, Moore was named a team captain and earned the squad’s No. 1 jersey for this season, something given annually by head coach Dave Doeren to a player for his leadership, work ethic, and accomplishments. Moore has also been a leader for NC State football’s involvement in the #PackUnited Movement, which stands against racial violence and social injustice.
How much does seeing Louis Acceus have to stop playing due to injury put things in perspective, and will you guys be dedicating this season to him?
Louis is one of my closest guys on the team. He’s my brother. Me and him are from the same recruiting class, came in together, played with each other. So my heart hurts for him. I definitely shed some tears for him. It definitely affected all of us.
It definitely put things into perspective for a lot of us. Any down can be your last down, any snap can be your last snap, so you’ve got to go out there and give it all. I know we’re all going to be playing for him, and we’re going to keep him involved so he’s right there with us the best that he can.
We spoke to Ricky Person yesterday and he talked about you guys playing with a chip on your shoulder. Other teams aren’t giving you the respect you may deserve after last year. Can you speak to that and what the feelings around this time are in regards to that?
Last year was one of the hardest years I’ve been through personally, and as a team that we’ve been through. We didn’t live up to expectations, we didn’t do the things we wanted to do, we didn’t accomplish the things we wanted to accomplish. So coming into this year, we know that we want to accomplish all the goals that we had last year that we have this year, as well. So we want to make sure we put NC State back on the map as one of the top programs in the country.
You were named a team captain and earned the No. 1 jersey; how much does that honor mean to you?
It definitely means a lot. I’m grateful to earn the respect of my coaches and my teammates. I’m definitely honored. I definitely know the meaning behind the number and those that wore it before me, so it’s my obligation to wear it the right way and wear it proudly.
Do you feel like having that leadership role plays an even more important part of this season when things are so different?
2020’s been a crazy year. We’ve all been through a lot. A lot of the young guys coming in, I definitely feel for them, because it’s an abnormal year. They need veteran guys and older guys who they can lean on him to show them the way and get them through it. I’m going to do my best to be the best leader I can be for my teammates.
Do you feel like the linebackers can be the strength of this defense?
I think we have a lot of guys in that room who played a lot of football, played a lot of snaps, very experienced. I think we have the ability to be [the strength], but we want to be strong as a whole on defense. That’s the key. Everybody has to do their part, D-Line, linebackers. We don’t really think about who’s the strength; we want to be strong as a whole.
You’ve been a leader off the field and you’re very passionate about the social justice movement. You’ve gotten a lot of feedback, and I’ve seen it on Twitter, both positive and negative. How have you handled all that, and how difficult is it to see some of the people who don’t necessarily support what you’re trying to get across?
I think the biggest thing is we didn’t start this thing just to get reactions out of people. We have a cause that we’re fighting for and we’re going to keep fighting for that cause. Those people who want to preach negativity, we just want the team to be positive. Because I feel like we’ve made a lot of progress and we know with Pack United, we’ve done really good at being advocates for change. We want to keep the positivity going and not pay attention to the negativity.
Has the Pack United movement that you and Grant Gibson are really leaders in helped bring this team together?
I think it’s helped a lot. I think we’ve had a lot of difficult conversations and now continuing into the season just about different things that are going on in our country, outside of football. I think the more you can talk about life outside of football and what’s going on in the world, the more you get to know people. That definitely translates on the field, and I do feel like we’re a lot closer than we were last year.
Coach Doeren mentioned the zone-read offense that Wake Forest is going to run this week. The linebacker unit is going to have its hands full dealing with the run-pass option. How have you guys prepared that?
They have a very unique system with a long bench on their zone-read. We’re definitely going to have to be prepared for that, fit our gaps, and hold our gaps as long as we can, for as long as their read carries out. It’s something that we’ve seen before on the defensive side of the ball. They’ve really kept it consistent the last couple years. They’ve done some different things, some different gap schemes and stuff like that. Overall, we’ve just got to keep gap integrity, and then at the end of the day just run to the football. Get to the football every play and we should be alright.
With everything that’s happened this offseason, is this the biggest season opener ever because you guys can relieve so much stress that’s been building up in the offseason going into this game?
It’s been a crazy 2020. It’s been crazy for a lot of different reasons. This is just another thing. I think over the summer, getting shut down in spring ball, to getting to the summer and figuring out how we’re going to get everybody back, getting to fall camp and hearing one day we’re going to play and then the next day we’re not. I think everything that happened leading to the Virginia Tech game getting cancelled and all that, we’ve been through a lot as a football team, and I think now it’s finally game week and it’s something we’ve been waiting for for a long time. We just want to go out there and play the best football we can.
How strange is it going to be to play in an empty stadium?
It’s definitely going to be unusual, but nothing’s normal about this year so far, so it won’t be anything new. So it’s going to be unusual, but we’re going to have to feed off each other. We’re going to have to bring our own juice, get everybody excited just like we do every day in practice. So just generate off each other. I know our staff will have music blasting so we’re going to be out there jamming, doing what we can to get ready. We’ll just have to create our own juice.