NC State LB Isaiah Moore announces return; defensive star had knee surgery this month
Big Uno is coming back for one more year.
Isaiah Moore, N.C. State’s linebacker who has had the honor of wearing jersey No. 1 for the past two seasons, announced on Tuesday that he is coming back for one more year.
Moore, a graduate student who already earned his degree in communications, will take advantage of the COVID year and play for the Wolfpack again in 2022. The Chester, Va. native played in seven games before a knee injury suffered against Miami cut his season short. Moore had surgery and is expected to make a full recovery.
With his degree already in his hand and four years on the field under his belt, Moore could have bolted for the NFL. With his 2021 campaign cut short, Moore decided to come back to Raleigh and try to improve his draft stock.
When he went down earlier this month, Moore was putting together an impressive season. He had 43 tackles, including five tackles for loss and one interception.
For his career, Moore has 259 tackles and has started in 42 games. He was voted preseason All-ACC by Athlon Sports as the Pack’s linebacker group was considered the best in the league and one of the top groups in the nation.
Moore and linebacker Payton Wilson, an All-ACC first-team selection in 2020, both suffered season-ending injuries this year. Wilson could also return in 2022, meaning the duo, along with Drake Thomas, could be together for a third straight season.
Thomas, a sophomore, has taken over in their absence, leading the team in tackles with 91 — good enough for fourth in the ACC.
Considered the leader of the entire team, Moore earned the coveted No. 1 jersey, given out by head coach Dave Doeren each year. Moore is a two-time captain for N.C. State.
The Wolfpack complete the regular season on Friday against North Carolina.
WHAT THIS MEANS FOR DEPTH CHART?
With Moore’s return, the Pack is getting back an important piece of its defense. If Moore can recruit Wilson and Thomas — who is also draft eligible — to return, the N.C. State defense shouldn’t miss a beat.
They haven’t missed much without Wilson and Moore. Jaylon Scott and Vi Jones filled in nicely when Wilson went down. After losing Moore, freshman Devon Betty jumped into the starting lineup and has responded with 16 tackles in the last three games, including four tackles for loss.
That means defensive coordinator Tony Gibson could return six linebackers who started games in 2021. Highly touted freshmen Jordan Poole and Cade Fordham are also waiting in the wings. Poole has only played on special teams this year. Fordham has 17 plays on special teams and played in 25 snaps from scrimmage against Furman.
WHO ELSE WILL RETURN?
There are only seven players who have exhausted all of their eligibility for N.C. State: Emeka Emezie, Chris Ingram, Daniel Joseph, Dylan Parham, C.J. Riley, Tyrone Riley and Chandler Zavala.
Zavala, who was injured after five games, has submitted a waiver to the NCAA for another year. Due to COVID, there are several players who are seniors in the classroom, but underclassmen on the field. Doeren told the media on Monday that a lot of those players will participate in the Senior Day festivities on Saturday. But he doesn’t want outsiders to read too much into that.
As Doeren explained, some of the guys haven’t made decisions yet about their futures.
“These guys have bought into waiting until the season is over,” Doeren said. “And trying to finish and play as undistracted as they can be.”
The NFL doesn’t get grades back on underclassmen until after they’ve played their final regular season game, according to Doeren. After the Wolfpack’s game on Friday, they can submit information to the NFL for up to five underclassmen. The information takes two weeks to get back to the players and staff.
“As always, we’re going to gather all the information we can from the NFL,” Doeren said. “We have a great partnership with them. They’ll tell us what they think guys should do. We’ll give that information to the families of our players and the kids, and let them make great business decisions. We’ll do everything we can to support them.”
This story was originally published November 23, 2021 at 1:15 PM with the headline "NC State LB Isaiah Moore announces return; defensive star had knee surgery this month."
