WVU Offensive Line Coach Matt Moore

MORGANTOWN — It’s funny how things work in a football press conference. You ask a question, expecting a certain answer, and the interviewee comes out of left field with his response.

So it was with offensive line coach Matt Moore on Wednesday afternoon when he was asked about the mental side of being an offensive lineman.

Before we get to his answer, let us first take a side trip into the public perception of the game of football.

We think of the mental approach to the game being built around as much emotion as you can draw from within. The image maybe first was presented to us in the black and white days of newsreel film when Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne gave his fire breathing “Win one for the Gipper” speech to his team, which ended his way:

“We’re going inside of ’em, we’re going outside of ’em — inside of ’em! and outside of ’em ! — and when we get them on the run once, we’re going to keep ’em on the run. And we’re not going to pass unless their secondary comes.too close. But don’t forget, men — we’re gonna get ’em on the run, we’re gonna go, go, go, go! — and we aren’t going to stop until we go over that goal line! And don’t forget me — today is the day we’re gonna win. They can’t lick us — and that’s how it goes. The first platoon men — go in there and fight, fight, fight, fight! What do you say, men?”

Football has always been pictured as that intense. Urban legend has it that Harvard’s football coach once choked a bulldog to inspire his team to a victory over Yale.

Fanaticism is pictured as the norm. It is WVU fullback Owen Schmitt hitting himself with his helmet as he walked off the field with blood running down his face from the beating he had inflicted upon himself. It is last year’s effort from WVU All-American center Zach Frazier who refused to go down despite a broken leg, helping a teammate reach a first down, then crawling off the field so as to not have to be charged with a time out.

We now return you to reality, to Wednesday’s press conference and how Matt Moorre wanted his offensive linemen to approach their jobs mentally on a football Saturday.

Remember now, these are all 300-pound plus men who engage physically on every play with an opponent equal in size, able to use his hands far more than they can and hell bent on destroying the ball carrier or quarterback. How does he want his player’s mindset to be and how is it different than at other positions?

“Offensive linemen? Less emotional,:” he answered. “I tell my guys all the time, for you to get on the field, we’ve got to trust you. And for us to trust you, you have to go out there and do the same thing, over and over. If this is as good as you are, I want you to be that all the time. I don’t want highs and lows.”

The picture he paints of what he wants is different than the picture painted in folklore.

“You have to be non-emotional and be the same guy every day, every snap,” he said.

Now that doesn’t mean take a low key approach. It doesn’t mean you should be blase about your effort.

What Moore looks for is consistency and, as it seems it always comes back to, he uses last year’s All-American hero at center Zach Frazier as an example.

“Now Frazier, he was up here every day,” Moore said, indicating an emotional high. “But he was there every day.”

Committed, he was. Unforgiving he was. But he didn’t play out of his mind. He was what Moore wanted him to be, the example he would use for everyone about his consistency in approach, in practice, in work ethic and in performance.

“I’m looking for non-emotional guys,” he said. “From a mentality standpoint, you have to be able to overcome losses. You have to have a short memory. You know the only lineman who never has lost is one who never played.”

See, football is a game where you win or you lose on every play, especially in the offensive line. You have an assignment and you must carry it out or, chances are, the play is a bust. Enough individual busts and you go home as part of a team that has a loss.

You can’t allow a missed block on one play to screw up the following play. The guy on the other side of the ball is as big as you, as quick as you, as smart as you, as well coached as you. You win some, you lose some.

“You’re gonna get beat. You are going to lose a rep, but you have got to be able to snap back on the next play and keep it rolling,” Moore said.

There’s so many things that can happen. “You are going to jump offsides sometimes,” Moore noted. “You just have to have that short memory.”

And there is something else … again typified by Frazier.

At most positions in football — for that matter, in all sports — having an ego is considered an asset. This is a YouTube, Tik Tok, X and Facebook era. It is where athletes shoot to make ESPN’s Top Ten plays. It is one-handed catches, celebratory dances, 10-rated dunks.

But, on the offensive line, let’s face it, you mostly get noticed when you are called for holding or commit a false start.

Funny, isn’t it, that the officials take time to the microphone to point out, “Holding, No. 75, offense” but you never hear them say “hole opened by No. 75 offense”.

Ego in the offensive line, according to Moore, is a detriment.

“Ego? None,” Moore said when asked what role that played. “Our offensive line does a really good job of that. They want to start, they want to be the guy, but if the guy behind them is up and going, they will coach them up and tell them what they are doing wrong, but there’s no ego in our room.”