With a chip on his shoulder, Trey Moore making the most of his Power Five opportunity
When Texas needed additional pass-rushing help from the transfer portal, they pursued a player very familiar to the program.
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Trey Moore was with UTSA from 2021-23, which meant he was on the Roadrunners team that gave Texas a good battle on September 17, 2022 before the Longhorns eventually prevailed 41-20. During that game, Moore tallied two tackles with 0.5 tackles for loss.
That was part of a freshman All-American season where the Roadrunners went 11-3 and won the Conference USA title in the program’s final season as members of the league before jumping to the American Athletic Conference. The step up in competition was a small hurdle Moore easily cleared. He tallied 45 tackles including 17.5 tackles for loss and 14.0 sacks on his way to earning AAC defensive player of the year honors.
Among the eight transfers the Longhorns brought to Austin in the 2024 class, Moore is the only one from a Group of Five program. Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian believes the move to a Southeastern Conference program functions as motivation for the 6-foot-3, 242-pounder from San Antonio (Texas) Smithson Valley.
“What I like about Trey first of all is his work ethic,” Sarkisian said Monday. “You can tell (Trey is) a guy who comes into the program and has a chip on his shoulder. Trey has got something to prove, and I think there’s some value to that in the portal when you can recruit a guy that’s maybe is not coming from an SEC school or a Big 10 school. Now they get here, they’ve got something to prove.”
According to Pro Football Focus, Moore tallied 38 pressures in 2023 and earned a pass-rush grade of 84.0. His overall defensive grade was 78.4, an improvement from his 2022 grade of 75.6 despite the step up in quality of play from Conference USA to the American Athletic Conference. His highest-graded game was against UAB, where he logged five tackles, 3.5 sacks, one forced fumble, and one fumble recovery as part of a 41-20 win over the Blazers.
The Texas EDGE room he joined already had a couple of veteran players expected to remain at the top of the depth chart in Barryn Sorrell and Ethan Burke. The Longhorns also brought in two very talented rushers in the 2024 class in Five-Star Plus+ Colin Simmons and top-200 prospect Zina Umeozulu, not to mention regular contributor Justice Finkley and promising young players like Colton Vasek, Billy Walton, and J’Mond Tapp remained on the roster.
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Moore’s work already has him near the top of the depth chart. During Monday’s practice, Moore was with the second team during pursuit drills at one of the two EDGE positions in Texas’ defense opposite Finkley.
For Sarkisian, that type of play and effort has been what Moore has brought to the Longhorns ever since he joined the program in January. As a result, the Longhorns should be able to reap the benefits of Moore’s effort when the season comes around in August.
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“The way he worked all winter conditioning and the way he practices, he practices with real intent,” Sarkisian said. “He’s an extremely effective pass-rusher. His really good in his awareness of the game of football and the things that we’re doing beyond just rushing the passer. He has a sense of physicality in the way that he plays.
“I think it starts with his approach. He maximizes every day. He tries to squeeze every drop out of the day and it shows in the way he works in practice.”
