'It's Legal Violence': How Zeke Moore Embraces His Role As Boston College's Ultimate Utility Player

Zeke Moore isn’t necessarily who you think he is.

On the gridiron, he is Boston College football’s versatile tight end and fullback, an uber-physical specimen with a desire to punish — and destroy — the opposition.

In his own words, he is a player that likes to “move” other players.

“At the end of the day, really just moving people and creating lanes for quarterbacks and running backs is what makes me special,” said Moore of his game. “And just being physical. I think every team needs a guy like that. Just more fullbacks, I think, make football better. So I think we just need to do more fullback stuff in the football world.”

But when he's not carrying pads on his shoulders and pursuing outside linebackers in the flats with a flaring, uncontrollable temper, he's actually quite tranquil.

Those two sides to Moore are akin to Bruce Banner and the Hulk — one has the calm, friendly, and well-spoken demeanor, and the other is a raging bull looking to trample everything in sight.

But the irony is that Moore’s wrath comes from nothing in particular. It is simply a mode that he drifts into, and he can’t fully attribute it to anything specific.

Although his musing on the topic is quite humorous.

“It’s a good question,” Moore said. “I have a great family, great upbringing, like I grew up at a country club. So I don’t know. I think my dad would just yell at me if I wasn’t being physical on the field, and so that just got instilled in me as a player.”

He led on: “I guess, like, life. I mean, life sometimes, like there [are] always gonna be things that upset you. So I guess this is my outlet to take whatever I’m frustrated [with] out. Just, it’s fun, like it’s legal violence. You know what I mean? Like that’s, it’s kind of a special thing, and that’s why people love it.”

Whatever it is that makes Moore that type of player, the program needs more of it.

The stuff he is built of is wildly contagious between the lines, and it has naturally led to his teammates and coaches having the utmost respect for him, especially due to the amount of different roles they have asked him to play.

“I like to be as versatile as I can [and] just help the offense, just be on the field as much as possible,” Moore said. “It’s a really fun position [because] I get to do a lot of cool stuff, especially in [Bill O’Brien’s] offense. They trust me to do a lot of different stuff. Maybe a shorter tight end, but they still trust me to throw me the ball and stuff like that, so it’s cool. It’s really fun to be a part of.”

Moore only caught a pair of passes last season, but with starting tight end Kaelan Chudzinski likely sidelined for the entire year with an Achilles injury, his role in the Eagles’ passing game could see a big leap, which is something he focused on during the summer.

“The summer is great to work on that because there’s no pads on, so you can focus more on route running,” Moore said. “Our coaches, like coach [Chudzinski] is amazing at teaching us how to run routes, so that’s something where I’ve really grown. And just like how to get open was a big focus over the summer.”

That work has already been put to good use, as Moore’s utilization in the passing realm has increased substantially since the start of fall training camp, whether that’s as a pass catcher or a blocker.

“I trust my hands,” Moore said. “I think I've developed trust with the quarterbacks, especially scramble drills, stuff like that. You know, just giving the ball to me in the flats, go run people over, but then also down the field stuff, play action. I think because we’re a good running team, and because I’m normally blocking, I think that sets up stuff down the field.”

Regardless of where he contributes, Moore is bringing that same Hulk-like mentality along with him, and that is a certainty.

"Zeke Moore is a hell of a leader," O'Brien said earlier in training camp. 'We feel really good about him."

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