Imagine doing a push-up and holding it for as long as you can while supporting yourself on your forearms or hands and staying off the floor with your upper body, lower body and butt in a straight position.
This exercise is called a plank and is used by the typical YMCA athlete to tone the abdominal muscles. Beginners are happy if they can hold the position for 30 seconds. Stronger athletes can hold it for several minutes or longer.
And then there is Terrence Moore.
When Pitts Center and his teammates do planks in the weight room on the first floor of the Aaron Donald Football Performance Center, they get as much physical benefits as anyone else. But it’s also a test of will, endurance and strength.
And what is an offensive game but a determined attempt to move a man against his will from point A to point B? You had better have the physical and mental abilities to do that.
Moore (6’5″, 290 lbs) is the team’s plank champion. He said he held his plank position for 25 minutes one day. Moore admitted it wasn’t perfect. “I want to record that here.”
“The rule was that you couldn’t touch the ground with your knees. Of course the coaches would shout, ‘Keep your butt down. Keep your butt down.'”
After the players have been off the ground for several minutes, the coaches place a weight plate on their backs, just to make it a challenge.
“It just takes mental strength and the will to do it,” Moore said.
Planks are part of a training program developed by Michael Stacchiotti, Pitt’s conditioning and strength coach, designed to identify players who have the endurance needed to withstand fourth-quarter comebacks.
Moore, a junior who played at high school power Massilon Washington in Ohio, was a backup in his first two seasons at Pitt (2021 and 2022). Last year, he started nine times when Jake Kradel was out with an injury or played guard.
This season, he’s competing with NC State transfer Lyndon Cooper for the starting center spot, while coach Pat Narduzzi is looking to improve the offensive line overall. If Moore wins, Pitt can field four 300-plus pounders, including tackles Branson Taylor and Ryan Baer and guard BJ Williams, who started six or more games last season.
In addition to his experience and strength, Moore stands out among his teammates in other ways. He graduated from Pitt in three years with a 3.85 GPA and a bachelor’s degree in communications.
It’s not easy, but Moore says all it takes is discipline to study, get good grades and meet the requirements of a football scholarship.
“It really helped me to be here in the spring of my freshman year,” he said. “It gave me a taste of college life before I actually went to college.”
He said the life skills course, which is required for freshmen, helped him develop important organizational and time management skills.
Moore said that with his academic and football background, the possibilities after Pitt are “endless” and that he could make a living in business, education, coaching, football and/or communications, or he could find a path to further his education on his own.
“Nobody takes football for granted,” he said. “I will have at least two degrees, maybe even three.”
Jerry DiPaola has been a reporter for TribLive covering Pitt sports since 2011. A Pittsburgh native, he joined the Trib in 1993, first as an editor and page designer in the sports department and later as a reporter covering the Pittsburgh Steelers from 1994 to 2004. He can be reached at [email protected].
