Invited to be the football team’s chaplain at Georgia Tech in 2002, Derrick Moore thought he might stay there for the rest of his career. He had reason. He loved the job and had the appreciation and respect of those he worked for and with.
In a recent interview, Moore joked that he might have been on his way to eventually being buried in a corner of Grant Field.
“I never imagined myself not being at Georgia Tech,” he told the AJC on Friday.
However, as he spoke, the 53-year-old Moore was driving back to Atlanta from Columbia, S.C., where he had just finished his first week as executive director of character and player development for the South Carolina football team.
“Right now, just learning faces and names and what door unlocks to some secret hallway,” he said with his easy laugh. “The first week was really invested in just building relationships and getting to know the players.”
At South Carolina, Moore has been charged with the personal and professional development of Gamecocks player.
“It’s been really good,” he said. “They’ve got quite a place over there, I can tell you that.”
Moore said that new South Carolina coach Shane Beamer reached out to him upon his hire in early December. Moore said that other schools had previously inquired about his interest in jobs, “but this was a great fit for me for several reasons. We decided that we needed a change. It was time for one.”
Naturally, Moore raved about his new boss, saying of Beamer that “there isn’t a more delightful person on the planet. He is just an incredible person. He’s a phenomenal person and a very smart man, and he will do well as a head football coach. He’s going to be exceptional.”
The feeling is mutual. Beamer had heard Moore address the Oklahoma Sooners before their appearance in the Peach Bowl in 2019 when Beamer was an assistant there, but his awareness of Moore went farther back than that.
“Derrick is a fantastic human being,” Beamer said in a statement for the AJC. “He is someone I’ve known of for a long time, from being at Virginia Tech and Georgia and playing against Georgia Tech each season. I’ve spent a lot of time watching his YouTube videos on my own because they were so good. He’s a ‘home run’ hire for us. He’s already made an immediate impact in his short time here with our players and staff.”
Despite his excitement for a new challenge, Moore called it “extremely difficult” to leave Tech, calling his 19 years there “the most incredible experience of my life.” First as the football team’s chaplain and later as character-development coach, Moore was a mentor, counselor and friend to hundreds of Tech players, earning their love and admiration with his enthusiasm and care.
“You cheer your guts out for them not just on the field, but in life, and it wasn’t just leaving the kids that are there now, but it’s all the ones I’ve had a chance to mentor and support over the years,” Moore said.
Calvin Johnson, newly voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, has valued Moore’s friendship and mentorship so much that he said that he was considering asking him to present him at induction ceremonies in August in Canton, Ohio. In an interview when his hire at South Carolina was announced in January, former Jacket defensive end KeShun Freeman called Moore a “forever type of guy” and said that he still considers him a mentor. Jackets players have often said that they thought of Moore as a father figure, turning to him at times of personal difficulty for counsel and support.
Beyond that, his fiery pregame pep talks and presence on the sidelines on game days made him a recognizable and beloved figure among Jackets fans.
“You could ask anybody,” former Tech running back Synjyn Days said. “Everybody loves D-Mo.”
In explaining his rationale for leaving a place he thought he might stay forever, Moore said that “circumstances sometimes dictate change.” He said that it was not a matter of South Carolina offering him a full-time position as opposed to being on contract at Tech, but declined to go into further specifics. He said that he held no hard feelings about Tech.
“Circumstances sometimes make decisions easier, and sometimes circumstances make situations more difficult, and I’ll leave it at that,” he said.
Moore spoke with fondness and gratitude for Tech and the people he had worked with. Simply being granted access to the team was favor enough, he said.
“There wasn’t a more gracious person to receive me” than then-athletic director Dave Braine, Moore said, highlighting Braine’s trust and support of his work.
“The lives of those young kids are what it was about for me,” Moore said. “And I would not have had that if the institute did not support me being there. And so, because of those people that made that possible, I had the chance to encourage some young minds and lives. So I’m forever indebted to Georgia Tech, and I couldn’t live 1,000 lives and repay them.”
While no longer officially connected to Tech, Moore said that “I’m here for Georgia Tech anytime Georgia Tech needs me.”
Tech may need his help in dismantling a common foe – Clemson.
“We’ve got to take them down,” Moore said with a laugh. “We’ve got to beat them jokers – and Georgia.”
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