The Joe Moore Award Voting Committee announced today that Clemson’s offensive line has been named as one of 10 semifinalists for the Joe Moore Award, presented annually to the nation’s top offensive line. Additional information from award organizers is included below.
NEW YORK (Nov. 19, 2019) — The Joe Moore Award announced its annual selection of the semifinalists representing this year’s Most Outstanding Offensive Line Units in college football. The Joe Moore Award has presented the unique award since 2015. The ten semifinalists include #5 Alabama, #3 Clemson, #4 Georgia, Kentucky, #1 LSU, #2 Ohio State, #8 Oklahoma, #6 Oregon, Washington, and #14 Wisconsin.
This year’s semifinalists represent five conferences (in alphabetical order): ACC (1), BIG TEN (2), BIG 12 (1), PAC 12 (2), SEC (4). For games played through Nov. 16, this year’s semifinalists have a combined record of 86-15 and average 495.9 total yards per game (compared to the national average of 405.4 total yards per game). In addition, the following five O-line units received Honorable Mention recognition for their play this season (alphabetical order): Appalachian State, Air Force, Buffalo, Louisiana, and Navy.
“There was healthy debate this year which required a thorough reexamination of game tape,” said Cole Cubelic, SEC Network sideline analyst and Chairman of the Joe Moore Award Voting Committee. “We also solicited the opinions of more than thirty head coaches that had personally faced the O-line units under consideration. This award matters to the O-line community and the voting committee doesn’t take that responsibility lightly.”
“What’s fascinating is to see how positively correlated tough, physical, well-coached O-line play is to winning football,” said Aaron Taylor, CBS college football analyst and co-founder of the Joe Moore Award. Taylor played guard at the University of Notre Dame for the award’s namesake, the legendary offensive line Coach Joe Moore. “As the season winds down, performances in the “gotta have it” moments over the next couple of weeks should reveal all we need to know about which of these units is the Most Outstanding Offensive Line Unit in college football.”
The Joe Moore Award voting committee will announce its selection of finalists on Dec. 10, 2019, and the selection of the 2019 Joe Moore Award Winner will be made public after a surprise visit to the winning university’s campus in late December.
Semifinalist Criteria and Selection ProcessThe Joe Moore Award voting committee judges solely on six criteria: toughness, effort, teamwork, consistency, technique and finishing.
Evaluations for semifinalists were made primarily through weekly review of actual game film and offensive line coach-provided cut-ups on the DragonFly Division I Network. In addition, Stats Perform (formerly STATS Inc.), one of the industry leaders in AI and sports data analytics, provides advanced O-line data and analytics to give context and clarity and to help streamline the film evaluation process.
Voting CommitteeThe Joe Moore Award voting committee comprises 13 individuals who are highly knowledgeable about offensive line play, including former linemen, coaches, talent evaluators and media analysts. This group conducts in-depth analysis by reviewing game tape every week of the season to assess both the fundamentals and subtleties of overall O-line performance.
The 2018 voting committee includes Chairman Cole Cubelic (Auburn, SEC Network); Charles Arbuckle (UCLA, Indianapolis Colts); Randy Cross (UCLA, San Francisco 49ers); Gerry DiNardo (Notre Dame, head coach at LSU); Mike Golic, Jr. (Notre Dame, ESPN); Dave Harding (Duke, Blue Devil Network); Pat Hill (head coach at Fresno State, O-line coach at Atlanta Falcons); Barrett Jones (Alabama, St. Louis Rams); Duke Manyweather (Humboldt State, player and coach); Geoff Schwartz (Oregon, Carolina Panthers); Phil Steele (publisher or Phil Steele’s College Football Preview, ESPN); Aaron Taylor (Notre Dame, Green Bay Packers); and Lance Zierlein (NFL draft analyst, NFL.com).
Looking AheadAfter the finalists are selected on Dec. 4, a vote will be held to select the 2018 recipient of the Joe Moore Award by a voting body of 200-plus members. This voting body includes all of the current offensive line coaches at the Division I/FBS level, as well as former players, coaches, colleagues of Coach Moore and select media members.
In addition to reviewing game tape every week of the season, the Joe Moore Award voting committee will later go through each of the finalists’ season-long highlight reels and multiple back-to-back quarters of game film.
Past Award RecipientsPast recipients of the Joe Moore Award include the offensive lines of the University of Alabama (2015), the University of Iowa (2016), the University of Notre Dame (2017), and the University of Oklahoma (2018).
About the Joe Moore AwardThe Joe Moore Award is named after Coach Joe Moore, widely regarded as one of the best offensive line coaches in college football history. He is most notably recognized for his work at Notre Dame and the University of Pittsburgh. Coach Moore sent 52 players on to the NFL, including Bill Fralic, Mark May, Russ Grimm, Jimbo Covert and others. The Joe Moore Award trophy, crafted by legendary sports sculptor Jerry McKenna, is the largest trophies in all of sports, standing at a height of 6 feet and weighing in at 800 pounds. The perpetual trophy is made available for display by the winning university until the conclusion of the following college football season.
