Everything from Virginia Tech OL Coach Matt Moore After Wednesday's Practice

Virginia Tech offensive line coach Matt Moore spoke to the media after practice on Wednesday, Nov. 12. Here's the entirety of what Moore had to say:

Virginia Tech OL Coach Matt Moore Media Availability (11/12/25) pic.twitter.com/DZbrWwgT6Y
— Kolby Crawford (@kolby_crawford) November 12, 2025

On the weather:

"It's really nice out there. Beautiful. We were inside today. I was hoping we were out. We went inside yesterday. All the O-lineman have practiced at some point outside. It was about 35°. So, that's a lot."

On how Moore feels his group is coming along:

"I'm finally getting to play with the same group for the last three or four weeks, which has been really nice. Because we were just shuffling people around the first six or seven games, it was a different lineup every week. At one point, I had a true freshman and three redshirt freshmen starting out there. And it was difficult, not able to do things the way we want to. But I feel like we're coming together and they're communicating well. And they're playing well together right now.

On where Moore sees the communication the most, especially on the field:

"It shows up in goal line, short-yardage situations where you got a lot of bodies around the ball and you got to make sure you get hats on everybody. In open field stuff, it's not as hard because the boxes are a little lighter. When you get down there inside the 10[-yard line], inside the five, and the safeties are low. And everybody's got to be schooled up on who are we blocking, who are we starting with, and we got to make sure to get a hat on everybody, because that's half the battle. If you can get a hat on everybody, you give running backs a chance to score, not letting penetration occur."

On when the team plays the same offensive line combination four straight games, where the dividends show up the most:

"It starts showing up when you're running the ball, when you're able to get hats on hats and fit things up with blitz. Versus Louisville, it was a lot of blitz. They blitzed us almost 80% of the downs. They were blitzing us and we were running the ball and we had heavy boxes. That's when it shows up, when you got guys communicating, seeing the blitz pre-snaps, seeing the leverage or the alignment that they're in and the linebacker leverage. They're communicating with each other and they're talking about the blitz they're going to see and that's when you really see it. When you're able to run the ball versus blitz and it's not just a bad blitz, it's actually a good blitz and you pick it up. That's when it's really nice to say, 'Okay, these guys are working well together'.'

On if the team's able to hang its hat that it tallied the most rushing yards of any team vs. Louisville this year:

"Louisville did a great job of blitzing the run. They did a really good job. They're really good tacklers in the secondary. We saw that all week. We knew Cal wasn't quite as strong as secondary tackle and we thought Louisville was really good. And they're really good at stealing signals. They're really good. They do a great job. It's all legal. They just do a really good job of making you constantly fight that.

Q: The run blocking seems to be a little bit ahead of pass blocking right now. Is that typical of most O-lines? Is that unique to this particular offensive line?

"It's usually typical. Pass pro is is more difficult, especially when you're trying to go down the field with the ball and you're trying to hold on the ball a little bit. [Aidan] Lynch, the right tackle is a redshirt freshman who's been forced into playing with some injuries [to other players], but he's getting better every week. He's struggled with some pass pro stuff. So, we try to help him out when we can over there at right tackle. He's going to be a great player. It's just the way O-line goes, especially playing tackle young, is you take your lumps. You know, I had the same issue with Wyatt Milum. I had him at West Virginia. He was a young player and he played as a true freshman, and as a sophomore and struggled. But it worked out pretty good for him. He's with the Jaguars right now, so he's playing well. So, I'm thinking the same thing with Lynch. He's going to come along. Maybe not this year. He's getting better, but he's going to continue to get better. He's going to be a great player."

On how much the offensive line encourages the coaching staff to run the ball more:

"Of course. That's every O-line in the country. Hey, run the ball, run the ball, run. They're wanting to run, especially when they go out there and they feel like they can make some hay and they can push some people around. This week, we've got our hands full. Very, very large front. Their nose guard. He's 6'5", 340 pounds. And that's what they list him as. So, I don't know what he really is, but he looks like he's about 280. He is a big human being. They've got a lot of big long guys. Alabama struggle to run the ball on them. Virginia actually ran the ball well on them. I think they've got more yards than anybody on them. Their linebackers are big. They're physical. I mean, they're a Florida State team. As you guys seen in the past before, we're going to go out there and we're going to strain and we're going to play hard and we've got some stuff we're going to do. We're going to get after them. So, we look at it as, we're excited about it. Our guys are excited about testing. Sending a redshirt freshman out there versus a redshirt senior, one of the biggest nose guards in the country. And he's excited. Altuner is excited about it. Can't wait to go out there and and just play against great people."

On the challenge of playing against such a large nose guard in Darrell Jackson Jr.:

"Oh, it's a challenge. It's a challenge. Altuner is going to have to play with great technique and strain and just be able to get leverage on him. When you go against a big guy like that, you got to be able to leverage and you got to double team him when you can. And it's definitely going to be a battle. And it's been a battle there. You watch that kid, every center he's gone against in the country, whether it was Alabama, he's done a great job. Clemson, knocking them back. He's a big long strong physical kid and it's going to be a really big challenge for us to block these guys up front this week."

On the evolution of the team's offensive identity:

"I've seen as far as us realizing like, 'Hey, we're going to have to be a run first team.' And we didn't start that way, but we've morphed into that. And I think with the backs that we have, especially when Terion [Stewart] got healthy and he showed us what he could do in the NC State game. Kind of came out like this kid's a really good, cuz he was injured up to that point. And so, seeing our backs and them being able to make people miss and make runs after contact, they've done a really good job of that and that's kind of morphed into the [run-first team] The tight ends are playing really well, really physical. We do a lot of stuff with them and it always helps with that plus-one run with the quarterback. We've got a 240-pound quarterback. And [Kyron] Drones, he runs angry. He runs downhill. You got to make him slide. He don't want to slide. And that mentality is kind of the same thing, that the O-line's going off of. Just built around that of just,' Hey, if he's going to be a tough guy, we're going to be a tough guy.' The running backs are are are tough guys. So, that's the mentality that we have right now."

On the development of the second-stringers of the line:

"It's coming along. We're still just young and we're not physical enough right now. They're getting better and doing what they're supposed to do, but there's some bright spots on the young part of the O-line. Gavin Crawford is really coming along. Nate Wright, as a true freshman, I've seen some really good things out of him. So, I'm excited about those guys down the road. They're going to develop into good players for somebody."

Q: Have you ever had someone like Tomas play start at four different positions in a season?

"You know, I never have. I had him for three years at West Virginia. He never played anything but left guard. I never moved him. He played one spot and then he comes here. I think the last time I checked, he's over 100 snaps at three different and like 60 [at all] four, maybe over 100 in all four of them. But it helps him down the road. It's something we had to do when we had all these injuries, we had to play him at left tackle. We had to play him at right tackle. And now, since Lynch has come along, he's really settled in that guard spot. He's a really good guard. That's what he played for me in West Virginia, was a freshman all-American. But I've never had a guy play that many snaps at that many different spots.

On how difficult it is to move around:

"You got to be a seasoned guy. It helps that he's playing a ton of snaps. And you got to be a seasoned guy to be able to do that and to flip things in your head. Really, moving from guard to tackle isn't big of a deal, but when you move from left to right, because everything flips over your head as far as your stance, the play calls, the numbers, you're on the even side and odd side. So, you got to be a seasoned guy. I wouldn't do it with a with a young player. You might turn some people loose. You don't want to do that."