TEMPE — Arizona State Sun Devils defensive end Travez Moore may not be a new face, but he’ll feel like a new addition after suffering a season-ending knee injury last year.
After transferring from LSU following the conclusion of the 2020 campaign, Moore played in three games for ASU in 2021 before going down with an ACL tear against BYU.
In those three contests, the defensive lineman collected six total tackles (2.5 tackles for loss) and one sack.
“When my injury happened, I did a lot of self-reflection, talking to myself,” Moore said at the Sun Devil football media day for returning players on Monday.
“It sounds crazy, but that’s what I did. … I went through like a little phase where I was like depressed for a good two weeks. Then I remembered everything (DL coach Robert Rodriguez) — all the advice he gave me. I said, ‘Okay, let me close, let me go well, let me get ready for next year.’
This advice was the Latin phrase “Amor fati”, meaning to love fate or the hand dealt in times of great adversity. Moore used the Latin phrase to remind himself to “stay tough.” He also gave credit to his former coach at LSU, Ed Orgeron.
Moore added that because it was the first time he had ever been injured, many around him began to question whether or not he could return to the high level of athleticism and play expected of the defensive end when he transferred to Arizona State. . .
“I’ve always kept that in the back of my head, so I’m going to prove you wrong,” he said. “When I come back, fall camp – you’ll see, it won’t fall. I just held it in the back of my head.
“People around me every day didn’t believe me. It’s okay, I’ll tell you something. So I went into this offseason to get my mental right, to get into the playbook more because I couldn’t run, I couldn’t lift weights like I wanted to. So that was my whole approach: get myself in shape mentally and get into the playbook.”
The 6-foot-3, 245-pound defensive end made it clear what his personal goal on the field is: double-digit sacks.
And if all the outside noise doubting his and Arizona State’s ability as a team wasn’t enough, Moore took self-motivation to a whole new and personal level.
“I have people saying a lot about me on Twitter. … So what I did, I literally spent two to three hours and went through every tweet that said something negative about me,” he said. “I wrote it on the wall.
“And that way, before I walk out the door, I see him at my door. Whatever everyone said on Twitter about me, I see what they said. And I’m like, ‘Okay, okay. I have to prove this person wrong, I will prove him wrong today or I will do this today to prove him wrong. So that was my motivation to use it.”
