Why Isaiah Moore was prepared to become NC State’s interim linebackers coach

Shortly after former NC State linebacker Isaiah Moore’s playing career ended with the Kansas City Chiefs due to injury, he returned to Raleigh and joined the Wolfpack’s recruiting staff last December. 

Moore thrived in that role, helping the Pack impress prospective recruits on campus as someone that lived what the staff was pitching, but he itched to get on the practice field again. Once NC State opened its practice slate in the spring and fall, Moore felt like he couldn’t stay off the field. 

The All-ACC defender approached NC State coach Dave Doeren and defensive coordinator Tony Gibson about doing whatever they needed — he just had to be on the grass. He was willing to do anything, and the two coaches were on board to adjust his role on staff to be more hands-on with NC State’s defense.

Moore helped alongside Gibson with the linebackers, while he also assisted nickels coach Freddie Aughtry-Lindsay on game day. That on-field work helped when Doeren approached Moore to become the team’s acting linebackers coach going into the Military Bowl against East Carolina, a position he was eager to accept. 

“I don’t take it for granted. It’s a big responsibility, and I do think I’m ready for it,” Moore said Thursday. “It definitely means a lot to me. What better opportunity to be able to coach at your university, the position you played under the coach you played for. There’s no other storybook that you could tell.”

While Moore, whose playing career ended just two seasons ago, is a young coach looking to fill big shoes, this isn’t his first time coaching. He spent a couple spring practice slates helping coach at nearby Cardinal Gibbons High, which served as a crash course in football education, during his playing career at NC State. 

He had to be precise, while telling those players exactly what he wanted to see from them each day on the practice field. Now, taking that experience with his time as the Wolfpack’s MIKE linebacker, lining his teammates up on a down-to-down basis in this exact defense, paired together, Moore believes that will make the transition easier over the next two weeks. 

For Doeren, the Wolfpack’s 12th-year coach, Moore has always been a player that he had in the back of his mind for a coaching role as he watched the linebacker on NC State’s practice field nearly every day for his collegiate career.

“He loves this sport, he loves the program, so it was a natural [fit],” Doeren said. “I knew when he was a player, when it was time, that this is where we’d want him — somewhere in our program helping us win.”

Moore is one of four Wolfpack former players on Doeren’s current full-time staff. He joins Aughtry-Lindsay, Director of Strength and Conditioning Dantonio “Thunder” Burnette, offensive quality control coach Gavin Locklear. Moore, who is the most recent graduate of the bunch, thought it wasn’t a coincidence that the Pack has so many former players in key roles on the coaching staff.

“It speaks to what kind of family we have at NC State,” Moore said. “Guys want to come back, guys want to work and give back to the program. I think that speaks volumes to the culture we have here. It’s not just on the football team, but across campus as well.”

Now, Moore has embarked on the next chapter of his football career surrounded by a staff that he views as family. Coaching is what he wants to pursue as a career in football, looking to work his way up the ranks in the process. He doesn’t have a preference of what level or area he coaches, he just wants to be on the field.

Wherever grass and a football are,” Moore said, “that’s where I want to be.”

Is this new role an audition for the future? Maybe. But Moore isn’t looking at it like that. Instead, he’s focused on preparing the Wolfpack’s linebackers to play well against ECU. 

“This opportunity is not about me. It’s about getting these guys to be the best they can be on Dec. 28 when we play ECU,” Moore said. “If it stretches into something further, then it will. But my entire focus is on putting all my energy into these guys playing the best football they can in two weeks.”