Jireh Moe doesn’t fit the usual college defensive tackle mold, and that was exactly the point for Utah.
He’s listed at 6-foot on the Utes’ roster, though Morgan Scalley said he’s actually shorter than that. At 280 pounds, he’s also lighter than most of the players around him in Utah’s defensive tackle room. That profile, plus his background at San Jose State, likely pushed some schools away when he hit the transfer portal after the 2025 season.
Utah never blinked.
Scalley said the staff studied Moe’s film and kept coming back to the same thing: production in one-on-one battles, especially against Power Four opponents. The Utes’ analytics backed up what they saw, and Scalley said Moe was one of the best defensive tackles available in the portal.
247Sports ranked him as the No. 97 defensive lineman in the 2026 portal, while On3 had him at No. 293.
“What we saw on film is he’s a football player,” Scalley said. “He’s a football player and you saw him going up against really good competition, and again, you always look for those one-on-one matchups. When they’re in a one-on-one situation, are they winning?
“Our analytics said that he was the best in the pool of anyone, but people, because of his size, a lot of people shied away from him. We did not, because again, he showed it versus powerful teams. I don’t know of many that have a better personality.”
Utah has made a habit of finding players other programs overlook, and Scalley pointed back to Devin Lloyd as an example of that eye for talent.
Moe’s first season at San Jose State in 2025 never included a start, but he worked his way into a steady rotation role and earned the staff’s trust. His debut came at No.
6 Texas, where he logged two tackles and a quarterback hurry and graded out as one of San Jose State’s best defenders in the game. He also stood out against Stanford.
Over the season, he finished with 28 tackles, two tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks and a team-high PFF grade of 83.1.
That body of work convinced Utah that he could handle a much bigger stage.
Defensive tackles coach Luther Elliss had been praising Moe all offseason, and during fall camp he pointed to the consistency Moe had shown since spring ball.
“He understands that he has to be a technician, and he’s very good, if not one of our best technicians day in and day out, so I think that really helps him,” Elliss said. “He is strong and explosive. He’s very explosive and he has some really good things.”
Elliss also pushed back on the idea that Moe’s frame should be a limiter, citing a list of successful defensive tackles who made their mark without ideal measurables.
“Just start looking at John Randle, Warren Sapp, Aaron Donald. You look at all those guys, some of the greatest ones here recently are around that six-foot mark, 280-ish, 300 maybe,” Elliss said.
“To me, size, the measureables are what they are - measureables. At the end of the day, it’s about can you play this game, and (Moe) can play this game.”
Utah opened the season against Idaho, and Moe started that game but played only 14 snaps without recording a tackle. The Utes chose to hold him back for the Arkansas game and use some depth options instead.
Against Arkansas, Moe looked every bit like the player Utah believed it was getting.
He posted eight tackles, two tackles for loss, a sack and a quarterback hurry, and PFF graded him as Utah’s top defensive performer at 85.7. Scalley said he was “all over the place,” and pointed to the same trait that drew Utah to him in the first place: winning in isolation.
“Jireh Moe, eight tackles, two TFLs, one sack - all over the place,” Scalley said. “He didn’t show up on the stat sheet Game 1.
Sometimes that happens, but the biggest reason we took that guy in the portal was because of the one-on-one matchups that he would consistently win, and that guy is so active. Impressive game from him tonight.”
His best snap came on the sack of Arkansas quarterback KJ Jackson, when he used a spin move to slide past Kobe Branham and bring Jackson down.
“Just playing fast and just trusting my coaches too on play calls and all that, just putting us in the right spot,” Moe said.
Moe and fellow starter Karson Kaufusi helped quiet some of the preseason questions around Utah’s young defensive tackle group. The Utes limited Arkansas to 2.2 yards per rush, sacked Jackson four times, hit him with seven quarterback hurries and batted passes at the line.
Moe said he and Kaufusi work well together.
“Me and Kars, I’m blessed to have him on my side,” Moe said. “Kars, he’s a very lengthy guy.
He’s a technician, too. He’s a really good player, a really smart player, too.
He helped me be who I am today too, technique-wise and getting smarter and getting in my playbook, but I believe we complement each other.”
Utah will face tougher fronts than Arkansas this season, and Scalley made clear the Razorbacks still brought real size. But the Utes handled the first test.
“If you look at any SEC team that you go against, it’s impressive size. At our press conference on Monday, I said, the tale of tape’s going to be the offensive line, defensive line and I was so proud of them,” Scalley said.
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