It’s trivia time. Aside from being Notre Dame High quarterbacks, what do AJ Surace, Brett Spearnock, Julian Matera, Dillon White and Matthew Rausch have in common?
Give up?
All five have thrown touchdown passes to Wyatt Moore.
And that’s just one indication of his versatility as a receiver.
The Yardville resident could not only adapt to various quarterbacks; but he has lined up at every receiver spot imaginable; and when it comes to running routes he can beat a guy deep for a home run ball or go underneath in traffic to get a key first down.
“Throwing to Wyatt is special,” Irish quarterback Julian Matera said. “He’s a kid that can take the top off the defense or take a slant 60 yards. He is truly a quarterback’s best friend whether it’s making a tough contested catch or sprinting downfield to pick up a block for you.”
Moore completed his three-year career — missing most of his junior season due to injury — with 163 passes for 1,794 yards and 29 touchdowns.
Not bad for a 5-foot-10, 160-pounder, but it shouldn’t be surprising.
Moore is a third-generation contributor to Notre Dame’s program. His grandfather, Chappy Moore, won 298 games, two state sectional championships and 21 division titles. Chappy’s son and Wyatt’s father, Bill Moore, quarterbacked Notre Dame’s 1989 state champion.
And now there’s Wyatt, who Chappy watched with pride.
“Very seldom would I ever critique him because I don’t know what he was thinking,” Grandpa said. “If I saw something that he could do better I’d mention it. There weren’t many things that I saw. He went to receiver camps and had some good coaches early in his career, learning about running routes and releases and things like that. He learned most of that on his own.”
Moore only played one year of Hamilton Pop Warner in fourth grade, but due to his late birthday he was then put into a 100-pound league when he weighed just over 60 pounds so he stepped away from football for a while. His focus was on baseball and basketball, and Wyatt and his family thought they would be his high school sports. He does play basketball and run track, but is being looked at by Ivy League and Football Championship Subdivision schools for football.
“I always knew I would at least play freshman football just because of my dad and my grandfather, and even my uncles played football,” Moore said. “And I always played in recess and backyard football. Me and my dad always had a catch with the football.
“I played freshman football and I loved it. It was so much fun. It definitely sparked the love for me but I never thought I would become a star receiver.”
Even though his organized football was limited growing up, Moore went to Chappy’s camp along with several other camps. He also attended a Rothman speed camp that his grandfather said worked wonders for his ability to get by defenders.
“When he was younger he’d go over to the field and there would be quarterbacks throwing, I could see then that he had very good hands,” Chappy said. “That Rothman camp helped him with form tremendously. By the time he left he was a different kid as far as speed was concerned.
“The next question was how much was he gonna grow? We knew going into Notre Dame as a freshman he had some very good hands, they were into some 7 on 7 leagues he played. We saw he’s not afraid, he’s gonna catch the ball in traffic. Let’s just let him develop.”
Because of his smaller size, Moore had to use his other attributes in order to get open.
“I may have been the smallest person playing in those recess football games or at those camps, but every time I would play up,” he said. “I was too fast and too quick and would just go up and grab a ball over everyone. I always knew I could make people miss. I was always extremely shifty. I knew I had pretty good hands. But not until sophomore year did I realize how good my hands really were.”
Moore exploded in 10th grade, catching a team-high 63 balls for 791 yards and 11 touchdowns. Surace, now at Rutgers, quarterbacked most of the season but did miss several games with injuries, and Moore never missed a beat with his back-ups.
Bad luck hit the following season as he suffered a fractured tibia that didn’t require surgery but made it difficult to even walk. He played just four games and had 24 catches for 237 yards and two TDs.
“It was really frustrating, especially in the playoff game (with Paul VI),” Moore said. “The rest of the year the team was doing great without me. In the playoff game there were a few plays where I thought, ‘Man that was unfortunate, I could have made the play.’”
Moore returned with a vengeance this season, as Matera took over at quarterback and immediately showed he could do most of what Surace did. Unfortunately, he suffered a season-ending injury against Nottingham and missed the final three games.
Moore again adjusted, working with White and Rausch. But Matera’s injury disappointed Wyatt as the two seniors developed a special bond.
“Last year during basketball season, we became incredibly close, now he’s my best friend,” Moore said. “We just built a connection through the winter. Since we played basketball we worked around that schedule. It made it way easier for us to be available.
“When it was snowing we were out there throwing, when we were freezing cold and we’d be out there having fun. In one workout we did with each other it ended in a snowball fight.”
Irish basketball coach Tim Stevens was impressed by the duo as juniors.
“Our coach called us the bash bros,” Matera said. “Two guys that just wanted to grind together whether it was basketball, football or school. Me and Wyatt worked constantly to be the best versions of ourselves.”
Moore worked hard to create chemistry with his quarterbacks, and it was obvious in watching the receiver make a cut or break for the endzone and have the ball arrive perfectly.
“I always had to know where to be at the right time,” he said. “I was able to work every route to perfection just being in the slot. It’s just being able to know the offense through and through. The outside workouts with Juluian and AJ were really helpful. I was able to be where I was supposed to be on every route and they just knew where to throw it in the area that I’d be.”
Chappy felt his grandson was blessed to have great quarterbacks in Surace and Matera, but also praised Wyatt for his ability to be a multi-threat receiver.
“It’s something he was gifted with,” the legendary coach said. “He’s got the ability and mental toughness to go over the middle and he has the speed to run by you and beat you deep. He’s used to press coverage. He’s gotten a lot of it and he’s very athletic. You’re not going to intimidate him and probably not gonna out-athlete him. And he loves doing it.
“Once he got up on the varsity as a sophomore we said ‘Hey he’s got some ability in space.’ You don’t have to be gigantic in space. You have to be fast and have good hands, and he does.”
Wyatt is also blessed to have a built-in family partner to work with, as he and his dad will throw it around frequently.
“Since he was a quarterback and a linebacker in college he understands offensive and defensive schemes,” Moore said. “He coached for Notre Dame a while ago when Tiquan (Underwood) and Rich Gunnell played. He just understands how receivers should run routes, when the ball should be out and how to run routes the same way every time. It makes it easy to go out and run routes with a former quarterback.”
Asked if Bill Moore still has a strong arm, Wyatt hesitated.
“Uh, no,” he said with a laugh.
But then Moore added: “Well, he’s good for the first 10, so I get about 10 perfect routes, then I gotta bring it in to run some slants. Those first 10 he can sling it pretty far. He keeps it a perfect spiral every time.”
As he continues to sift through college offers, Moore is also excited for the upcoming basketball season and will run track again this spring. Off the field he is a member of Notre Dame’s Catholic Athletes for Christ club and with a 4.0 grade point average is a member of the National Honor Society.
“And I go to all the school events,” he said. “I go to other teams’ games, and other events as well. I’m definitely Notre Dame through and through.”
Which is not surprising, considering his family heritage. And while Moore has a bright future in whatever he plans to do, he will always look back at his past four years in Lawrenceville as something special.
“It was definitely everything I hoped for and more,” he said. “It was awesome. It was a lot of fun. I was blessed with great quarterbacks. Even the back-ups were great high school quarterbacks.”
It didn’t hurt that they had a great high school receiver to throw to.
Notre Dame receiver Wyatt Moore is the son of former Notre Dame state-champion QB Bill Moore and grandson of ND coaching legend Chappy Moore.,
