Coach Brandon Moore: Measuring Success

Head coach ready to lead San Diego football forward in 2024

To understand how San Diego Football Head Coach Brandon Moore measures success, you have to understand what makes him tick.

Yes, he has won an NCAA Division I National Championship as a stand-out linebacker for the University of Oklahoma. He enjoyed a lengthy career as an NFL defender, mostly with the San Francisco 49ers. Yes, he led Colorado School of Mines to the NCAA Division II National Championship as a first-time head coach. And yes, he grew up in a family that loved sports. His older brother, Rob, was a wide receiver in the NFL for more than a decade.

But, those things don't begin to define how Coach Moore measures success.

Between his playing and first-time coaching gigs, Coach Moore was a detention officer for the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office in Arizona. At that point, he thought his football days were behind him. But his wife, Sheree, thought he had more to give and more to accomplish. She told him he needed to coach. That's when he found his passion for teaching, for helping young players become responsible, aspirational men.

If you listen to him talk, often intently and animatedly, you'll get an idea of what that means.

"The lessons I learned from my father, which is how I measure myself, were about being a good human being and doing what's right, for yourself, for your family, and for others," said Moore. "Obviously, football – and striving to win on the field – has been an enormous part of my personal experience, but it's not more important than helping people navigate life."

Those priorities were never more critical to Coach Moore and USD than during the early days of preseason 2023, when the team was rocked with allegations of hazing and bullying. When Moore first learned of the allegations, he immediately halted program activities, reported them to both the university and police authorities, and suspended players associated with the misconduct.

"This has absolutely no place in athletics," Moore said. "I have spent much of my life in some of the strongest football and sports programs in America, and I know that kind of activity has no place in winning cultures."

He does, however, have deep-seated beliefs about what winning cultures do have in common.

"In my experience, the two words and traits that have defined the strongest programs and environments are 'love' and 'discipline,'" he said. "That is how we got through last fall together as a team, finally began to win some games and, ultimately, began to trust one another. Trust, love, and discipline can get you through an awful lot."

Moore said those beliefs were crucial to his decision to come to USD in the first place.  He wanted to coach at a university where he could better practice philosophies that would not only lead to victories on the field, but would also guide athletes on how to realize success in life.

"I wanted to come to a university, frankly, where I could pray with my players," he said, "something I couldn't do at a public university. I know the power of being able to pray, to share, and to grow together.

"I appreciate the values and the vibe of coaching at a university with a mission rooted in faith," Moore said. "It provides an atmosphere where leadership, faculty, administrators, coaches, and athletes can speak a common loving language – which I happen to believe better equips us all to meet any challenges we might face."

This offseason has been a busy one for Coach Moore. He has been gathering some new staff members around him and is still spending long days on the road recruiting for the Toreros' 2024 roster, and beyond.

"Recruiting for the coming season and seasons after that is nonstop," he said, "but I never get tired of our recruiting message. I tell young players – whether they are rising freshmen or transfers – that USD is special; that we are building an exciting program that has known success in the past and will enjoy it again.

"I tell them we demand maximum effort, positive teamwork, total discipline, and respect for each other and for the sport they play," he said. "I tell them I have been blessed to win at every level and that they should expect that here. In fact, I tell them we intend to win the conference championship this season; not sometime out in the future, but this season."

In Alcala Park, where excellence both on and off the gridiron has long been the standard, Moore and his values will be tasked with getting Torero football back on track.

— USD News Center