UAB Linebacker Michael Moore poised for special senior season

Image courtesy of UAB Athletics.

By Steve Irvine

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - July 22, 2024

Michael Moore is one of two players representing UAB on Monday and Tuesday at the American Athletic Conference Media Days in Arlington, Texas.

Moore, who will join quarterback Jacob Zeno and head coach Trent Dilfer as the UAB representatives in front of the cameras and media members press conference room, admits it’s a big deal for him. Traveling back to his home state, the Houston native said, is always special, so there is that. It’s also significant, he said, that Dilfer chose him to speak on behalf of the team.

But it’s more than that. Much more. It’s a significant part of a football journey that has been far from easy. A journey that nearly came to a premature end a few times. A journey that includes season-ending injuries, recruiting snubs and a big-city kid living in small-town destinations. A journey that creates a tough outer layer if you don’t let it overwhelm you.

Take all that into consideration and it’s a big deal for Moore that he will be in Arlington.

“I know me, as a person, I don't like to dwell or speak about what happens to me,” the 6-foot-5, 240-pound Moore said. “I kind of keep that stuff bottled in. And so just for me to be able to represent my team and knowing all the stuff I've been through, it's kind of like I'm trying not to tear up and stuff like that.”

Moore began playing football at the age of four in Houston. He picked up basketball a couple of years later. His father, Michael, was a football player growing up but basketball was his first love. The elder Moore was part of a state championship basketball team at Provine High in Jackson, Mississippi and gently tried to coax his son toward basketball.

“He can tell you stories like he knew I was going to be a football player first,” Moore said. “But I think at times he really wanted me to lean towards basketball just because that's what he did.”

Moore played both sports until his junior year in high school when he was basically forced to choose one. By that time, he was certain that football was his future. During his junior year at Pearland High, though, he hit a roadblock. Moore suffered an Achilles tendon injury on the first play of the second defensive series in the season opener. He returned for his senior season but said the recruiting interest never returned after his missed season.

Football, he reasoned, could be over.

“It was about as tough as it can get,” Moore said, “because football is something like I said I've been playing since I was four and I didn't want it to stop.”

Coaches from Bethany College, a NAIA program in Lindsborg, Kansas, came to Houston in late July looking for players. Moore and his parents met with them in a hotel conference room. They offered him an opportunity and he accepted. Not long after, he took a nine-hour trip to a new home that was nothing like what he was accustomed to.

“It’s between, I want to say, Salinas and maybe Wichita and then probably like 30 minutes down the road is McPherson,” Moore said of Lindsborg, which has a population of around 3,800. “That population (in Lindsborg) is small. The only thing that's there is the McDonald's and the Subway. I could wake up in the morning look out my dorm door and see the end of campus.”

Things went well on the field for Moore that season but, because of Covid-19 concerns, the campus closed down for the spring semester. He finished that school year taking online classes. During that time, a friend called and suggested Moore join him at Ellsworth Community College in Iowa. He made the move to another small town and another long drive from his hometown. This time it took a 17-hour drive to get to his new destination.

Once again, things went well on the field for Moore in his first season. He finished with 38 tackles, an interception, two fumble recoveries and a forced fumble in seven games while playing in one of the country’s top junior college conferences. Recruiting interest picked up and Moore figured a strong second season would build on that momentum. However, things changed a week before the opening game when he collided with a teammate while making a tackle.

“I was chasing after the running back, and our safety came from the side,” Moore said. “He misjudged the running back, ended up hitting me. I spun around, and after I spun around, my ankle hit him in the thigh, and then that's when I fractured my ankle. I didn't know it, because after I felt that hit, I was like, okay, I kind of felt it before, so I'm like, okay, ankle sprain. I went to the training room, and they tried to use the Stim machine on me. As soon as they put the Stim machine on me, I kind of screamed.”

Soon after, he found out his season was over before it started.

“That was the worst time for me,” Moore said. “I'm sitting in the room for three, four months. I wouldn't talk to nobody, none of that stuff, because it's just like, I've been through this before, but this time I'm at a junior college. This is my last chance to try to get out. I'm just thinking the worst about everything. I didn't come out the room for four months.”

Recruiting interest quickly ended and recruiting classes filled up. Toward the end of the semester, with summer around the corner, Moore said his phone rang and an assistant coach told him to get over to the football office for a visit with then-UAB offensive coordinator Bryant Vincent and safeties coach Earnest Hill. After the meeting, they told Moore they would be in touch.

“It took a while,” Moore said. “They were trying to call me but instead they would call on my dad. I have no idea how long (they had been calling). If my dad doesn't recognize the number, he's not gonna answer the phone They finally got in touch with me and asked if I was interested in coming down on the visit. I took the visit and Fish (McWilliams) was my host. I liked what I saw and committed.”

Now, if you think that the next step went smoothly then you probably haven’t paid attention to his story.

Moore signed with the Blazers in June of 2022 but his ankle was still bothering him when he showed up that summer. It had been nearly a year since his surgery but said it still felt like “fire shooting up my leg” while running and mobility was limited. He played in two games that first season, recording two tackles. In December, he had another surgery on the ankle, this time to remove the “hardware” in the ankle from the previous surgery. By June, he said, the ankle returned to 100 percent.

He had a tremendous fall camp, moving into the rotation quickly at defensive end. He played in 10 games, starting eight, and was probably the team’s top defensive player when healthy. He played through shoulder pain for much of the season, taping his shoulder down during games, and was the team leader in tackles with 63 through the first 10 games. Unfortunately, his season ended two games early when he fractured his shoulder in a loss at Navy.

“Personally, I was happy,” Moore said of play in 2023. “Like I wasn’t in shock, but I was like ecstatic about how far I had come after all those injuries.  I'm like at that point, I'm thinking, please, don't let it be another one. Please don't let me get healthy and then something bad happen again. I just I had to stop thinking like that and just, you know, have a more positive mindset.”

The coaching staff’s trust in him also showed with his move to inside linebacker four games into the season. For Moore, it felt like he returned home. He spent most of his football career playing linebacker, inside and outside. The first time he lined up on the edge on a full-time basis was when he came to UAB. He spent the rest of the season switching inside and outside, depending on the situation.

That trust didn’t just show in the expanded role.

“From an outside perspective, like a lot of people were like, you're doing good,” Moore said. “But I just felt like at the time, people were telling me that because it’s something that they wanted me to hear. That's how I was thinking about it. But then, you know, I had a bunch of different coaches come up to me.”

One of the chats that hit closest to home came from Lyle Henley, the Blazers Director of Sports Performance.

“This past spring ball, I had something going on mentally,” Moore said. “Coach Lyle talked to me. He kept it real. He said that when I first got here, because of my ankle, he didn't think that I would be able to come back from it. Then, he’s like, you came back from it and had heck of a year. He said I’ll continue to improve and so that's what really stuck with me.”

Now, he’s poised for what could be a special year.