Rondale Moore to Visit Saturday

Rumor has it, Rondale Moore will be at Ross-Ade tomorrow afternoon for the battle against Michigan.

Rondale has chosen a great weekend to schedule this visit, as Boiler Nation will be in full force. There are only a couple thousand tickets left in Ross-Ade for tomorrow. It will be packed in there.

If you remember correctly, one of Coach Brohm’s first offers was to Rondale when he got the job, way before anyone else got on the trend. He runs a 4.33 forty yard dash, has a 42 inch vertical and is the explosive receiver that every team in the nation covets.

At 5’9”, he seems like a slot type kid in college, but with that vertical who knows, he could play outside as well. A duo of Jackson Anthrop and Rondale Moore is mouth-watering.

Moore would be Purdue’s best wide receiver pick up since Dorien Bryant, and it’s not hard to see the similarities between the two players. I will say, however, that I expect Moore to be less of a WR and more of a Swiss Army knife in the Purdue offense. Brohm will line him up all over the field, use him on jet sweeps, and in the return game.

If you’re looking for a college comparison, watch how Clemson uses Ray-Ray McCloud. Ray-Ray is often put in motion for the jet sweep look for Clemson because his speed is always a threat to the edge of the defense and must be accounted for on every play. He is also heavily involved in the screen game, catching numerous passes at or behind the line of scrimmage, allowing him a more open field to navigate. What makes Ray-Ray (and Moore) a true game breaker is threat of the double move. Once teams start biting on the screen, the fake screen is an absolute killer.

In somewhat of a surprise, Rondale verbally committed to Texas this summer after blowing up in several high profile national camps, but with Texas doing Texas things - losing on the big stage - he decided to open it all back up.

Rondale’s commitment to Texas came as a surprise, not because Rondale isn’t good enough to play for Texas (he most certainly is) but because Texas has an extremely insular recruiting footprint. The University of Texas is expected to recruit players from the state of Texas. Texas High School coaches have big egos, and a perceived slight, such as going to Kentucky to recruit a WR instead of taking an instate prospect, is seen as treasonous to a few high profile Texas boosters.

Charlie Strong attempted to use his deep standing recruiting ties to Florida during his tenure as the Longhorns head coach, and that didn’t go over well...at all. Tom Herman has attempted to expand the Texas brand slightly, but out of his 18 recruits, only 5 come from out of state, and frankly, I’m not sure how well that’s going to go over in Longhorn country.

Texas football is 50% football and 50% politics, and I think it may be difficult for Rondale, even with his enormous football talent, to succeed in what is often a toxic football environment in Austin. If it’s close, the nod will always go to the instate player in terms of playing time.

Purdue, Texas, Ohio State are all in the mix. With 247 Sports as a 71% lean towards our Boilermakers.

If Coach Brohm were to flip Rondale, it would be one of his biggest recruits to date. Take a look at his mid-season highlights he posted the other day, he has jaw dropping abilities.

It’s not like he is playing nobodies either. He plays at Louisville Trinity, who is a national powerhouse in high school athletics.

I believe I read a bunch of the verbals we have will be in attendance tomorrow. Boilermaker will be in full force to show out for this team and for the recruits that will be there Saturday. Boiler Up, Rondale, let’s make this your permanent home!