STORRS, Conn. - The Foundation for Teamwork, which has presented the Joe Moore Award for the Most Outstanding Offensive Line Unit in College Football since 2015, today announced the twenty-two members of its 2024 Mid-season Honor Roll with the UConn offensive line earning a spot among the programs honored.

The Huskies offensive line is among a group of o-lines from #7 Alabama, Army, #10 Clemson, Iowa, #18 Kansas State, Louisiana, #13 LSU, #6 Miami, #24 Michigan, Navy, #2 Ohio State, #3 Oregon, #4 Penn State, Rutgers, #25 SMU, #8 Tennessee, #1 Texas, Texas Tech, UNLV, Western Michigan, and West Virginia to make the mid-point honor roll.

The Joe Moore Award voting committee will make its selection of its semifinalists on Nov. 12, 2024 and its finalists on Dec. 3, 2024. Selection of the 2024 Joe Moore Award Winner will be made public after the award's annual surprise visit to the winning university's campus, which will likely be in late December. The Joe Moore Award voting committee judges solely on six criteria: toughness, effort, teamwork, consistency, technique, and finishing. Evaluations for the Mid-season Honor Roll were made exclusively through weekly review of actual game film, including offensive line coach-provided cut-ups. 

The UConn offensive line, tackles Chase Lundt and Valentin Senn, guards Christopher Fortin and Ben Murawski and center Wes Hoeh, are coached by offensive coordinator Gordon Sammis, in his third season with the program. Through six games in 2024, the Huskies only allow pressure on 22.7% of drop backs, the sixteenth best rate in the nation.  UConn has been sacked on just 2.2% of drop backs this season, ninth best rate in the nation. In the running game, the Huskies O-line paves the way for an offense that is averaging 220.3 yards per game to rank 17th nationally. R-Freshman running back Durrell Robinson is the leading freshman rusher in the nation at 421 yards and twenty rushing first downs.

After The Joe Moore Award Semifinalists and Finalists have been selected, a vote will be held to select the 2024 Winner of the Joe Moore Award by a voting body of 200-plus members. This voting body includes all of the current O-line coaches at the Division I/FBS level, as well as former players, coaches, colleagues of Coach Moore and select, qualified 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. 

About the Joe Moore Award

The Joe Moore Award is named after Joe Moore, widely regarded as one of the best offensive line coaches in college football history, most notably 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 trophy in college football, 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. 

Past Award Recipients

Past 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), Oklahoma University (2018), LSU (2019), the University of Alabama (2020 - first repeat winner), The University of Michigan (2021 and 2022  - first back to back winner), and the University of Washington (2023).

Voting Committee

The Joe Moore Award voting committee is composed of 14 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 2024 voting committee includes Charles Arbuckle (UCLA, Indianapolis Colts); Randy Cross (UCLA, San Francisco 49ers); Chairman Cole Cubelic (Auburn, SEC Network); Gerry DiNardo (Notre Dame, head coach at LSU); Mike Golic, Jr. (Notre Dame, Draft Kings and TNT Game Analyst); Greg Hudson (Joe Moore grad assistant, long time college coordinator); Eric Mac Lain (Clemson, studio analyst ACC Network); Trophy Guardian Duke Manyweather (Humboldt State, player and coach; founder of OL Masterminds); Geoff Schwartz (Oregon, Carolina Panthers); Steve Shankweiler (four decade O-line coach, ECU); Phil Steele (publisher of Phil Steele's College Football Preview, ESPN); Aaron Taylor (Notre Dame, Green Bay Packers); Brandon Thorn (editor of Trench Warfare); and Lance Zierlein (NFL draft analyst, NFL.com).