BY GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
New LSU center Braelin Moore of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, has been fantasizing about his first week in Baton Rouge last January as temperatures have routinely reached 100 this month.
“I came in, and we had that snowstorm,” he said. “I’m like, ‘Hey, if it snows down here, I’m going to be all right.’ Well, that went out the window.”
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The snow in Baton Rouge last Jan. 21 was the city’s first since 2018, and the 7.6 inches that fell was the most recorded snow in the area since snow records began being recorded in 1892.
The only thing out Moore’s window now is suffocating heat. It was 94 degrees at 3 p.m. Tuesday with a heat index of 100 degrees with 67 percent humidity. In his hometown at the same time, it was only 74 degrees with 41 percent humidity and a 53 temperature expected at night. There is nothing close to the 50s in the Baton Rouge forecast. In Blacksburg, Virginia, where Moore played from 2022-24 at Virginia Tech, the temperature and humidity numbers were about the same.
“I’m from Pennsylvania and played at Virginia Tech, where it’s not as hot,” Moore said after a recent practice. “So coming down here, oh my gosh! It’s like a microwave out here when I’m practicing.”
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Somehow, Moore has managed to persevere while perspiring and has earned the No. 1 center job going into No. 9 LSU’s season opener at No. 4 Clemson on Saturday (6:30 p.m., ABC).
“You just learn how to fight through it,” he said. “The heat adds on to the endurance I’m building. That was big. I just sit out there and sweat my butt off. I personally have not found any tricks to staying cool. I’m a natural sweater. And there’s really no cool parts of the day. I was surprised how hot it is at night. It’s hot all day around.”
He remembers that first wave of bayou heat hitting him like a hot slap in the face last June.
“The first time I actually experienced it, we had a player-ran practice outside,” he said. “And I thought I hydrated enough. We warmed up in the indoor facility, and I was like, ‘OK, I’m feeling good.’ But as soon as you go through those doors, and you’re in that heat, it kills you.”
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“I think I’ve adjusted,” he said. “I just knew I had to take better care of my body each and every day – hydrating, nutrition, recovering really good. I’ll be all right.”
And the good news is, Moore gets to open the season at Clemson, South Carolina, which is expected to have temperatures in the mid-70s at kickoff on Saturday with that decreasing to 70 by the end of the game with no chance of rain.
“I’m looking forward to it,” he said. “Football weather.”
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