Previously: Last year’s profiles. P Tommy Doman Jr.

Clayton, OH – 5'11", 180
[David Nasternak]		247Sports:      3.97	4*, 90, #348 overall #28 S, #12 OH
		Rivals:      3.63	3*, 5.6, NR overall #50 S, #26 OH
		ESPN:      3.81	3*, 78, #56 MW #34 S, #14 OH
		Composite:      3.78	4*, #508 overall #40 S, #17 OH
		Other Suitors	ND, IU, Wisconsin
		YMRMFSPA	Brandon Harrison but tall or Tyree Kinnel but fast
Previously On MGoBlog	Hello post from me.
Notes	Twitter. Teammate of decommit Markus Allen
Film
Senior Year:

Bob Shoop did all of his coaching at Michigan via Zoom (why remains a mystery), but his short time in Ann Arbor did leave us this one undersized, perhaps underrated safety prospect to unwrap in a few years.

I say perhaps because there was substantial disagreement about Moore between the two sites that explain themselves. 24/7’s Michigan team was calling him a sleeper, and Allen Trieu was telling anyone in earshot last summer that Michigan found itself “a playmaker on tape with good ball skills.” Trieu took an extra long victory lap (for him) when explaining why they decided to move Moore up to a 4-star:

He has track times that are still good considering they are almost two years old now. That speed and his fluidity are noticeable on film. It will be interesting to see what Michigan does with him. At 5-foot-11, 175 pounds, he is not small but is not huge either. He looks like he could play some corner but is more experienced as a free safety currently. I think he could be just the right fit for a Michigan team that likes to ask their safeties to play man on slots at times.

That was also written when Don Brown and Cover 1 were still the things at Michigan. A few things changed over the course of this recruitment.

[Hit THE JUMP for some speed in space, defensive edition.]

One of those things was his 24/7 rating, which started at an 82 (low 3-star), shot up to 89 shortly before he committed, and hit 90 (four-star) by the end when the senior tape came in despite Steve Lorenz promising us to keep Moore eligible as our Sleeper of the Year candidate. You have failed us again, Steve. May Zach Charbonnet’s fifth star haunt all your darts people.

In fairness to Aquaman, he had no control over Allen Trieu, who wrote the 24/7 profile seeming to know he was addressing a skeptical room:

Build wise, Moore is right at the average for safeties height wise. He has some length, but needs to add weight in college. He is a true playmaker who has very good ball skills and the anticipation to put himself in position to use those ball skills. He will also get involved as a tackler. He takes good angles in pursuit and does a good job of not getting too high as a tackler. As he gets stronger, he will develop a little more pop in that department, but he is willing to be physical. He gets around the field fluidly and easily. His track times are solid, 22.17 in the 200m, 7.12 in the 60m dash. We still see room to get a little more explosive and he does need to get stronger. In college, he will likely be a true free safety but does show some ability to come down and play man to man. Projects as a high-end Power Five starter.

Moore was the rare non-top-247 guy to get an NFL comp, which was Tashaun Gipson. That is both a deep pull and Can You Be More Chicago, Allen? Anyway, Gipson is a slightly undersized, heady strong safety who doesn’t miss tackles and has spent a lot of his career playing over slots in base Cover 1s.

Tim Prister, who covers Notre Dame for 24/7, talked about Moore in an In the Film Room($) column, calling the safety ”decisive in attacking the line of scrimmage with superb pad level” but came down on the 3-star side of the ledger:

Moore – an appropriately-listed three-star and the No. 378 composite prospect on 247Sports’ list -- is a punishing tackler with excellent football awareness. His diagnostic abilities versus the run/pass are top-notch. He’s a dynamic open-field tackler, which makes him a prospect at safety, boundary cornerback and nickel, the latter of which is a position Broering says he’s ready to play on the next level.

Broering, Moore’s high school coach, describes an all-around athlete whose “hands are ginormous.”

Touch the Banner called Moore a “step in the right direction” in context of being pretty critical of their secondary recruiting in 2018-‘19:

Moore has cornerback size and a safety mentality. He has good coverage ability with fluid hips and good change-of-direction skills. When the ball is in the air, he tracks it nicely, takes good angles, and finds a way to get his hands on the ball, high-pointing it when necessary. He played part of last season with an injured arm, so he wasn’t even at 100% and still did some really good things. Moore is a willing tackler despite being a little undersized.

That size can be a limiting factor, and it will probably push Moore to the back end of Michigan’s defense unless he can man the nickel position. He will need to be more disciplined in coverage at the next level, because he occasionally finds himself getting beaten deep but has the instincts and speed to make up for it in high school.

Moore summarized his own game thusly:

“Speed for sure. (Also) coverage, I don't think anyone can catch a ball on me," Moore said. "I come down to hit hard. I'm not scared to tackle nobody when it comes to hitting. I know I have like a good IQ. So, I read a lot, read well.”

He means football IQ and reading play progressions, in case that wasn’t clear, but I might as well mention academics were a key component of his recruitment; he plans to go into Pre-Med on either a Physical Therapy or a Physician’s Assistant track. He also shared his assessment of his progression in football since his commitment with 24/7’s Josh Newkirk:

“I feel like Improved on not necessarily speed, but footwork (and) diagnosing plays,” Moore said. “I played more confident than what I played in the past two years because I finally figured out what I can do and how I play. And how good I can play when I play relaxed.”

Finally, Steve Lorenz thought Moore “a very sure thing” and the perfect addition for this class given the Paige/Moten/Morant class that Chris Partridge put together a year before.

Rivals thinks he’s too tiny. He moved up from not ranked to their #15 prospect in Ohio and #32 safety right before Covid hit, then dropped to their #26 Ohioan after the senior tape came in. Josh Helmholdt said his first chance to see Moore in person was that October 2020. This is transcribed from the video:

Number one when you first see him Moore’s not a big safety. He doesn’t jump off the field at you like his teammate Markus Allen does. Little bit undersized for the safety position but his versatility really showed through…Didn’t really have a chance to do much in the passing game; balls weren’t thrown in his direction, but he was able to come up and show he was an asset in run support. And even though he’s not a big guy, he had no problem sticking his nose in there, dropping ballcarriers.

Quick check of their top safeties and their 5’11” guys ranked above Moore are 5-star LSU commit Sage Ryan, two guys going to Northwestern and Minnesota, and a pair of Floridians committed to SEC schools. Their 2022 safety rankings are bereft of 5’11” people until #40. In general they have tended to value size more but that can't account for this much separation.

EJ Holland got down to see Northmont play this fall but caught them against a triple-option team, which meant he got to see 15 tackles but no coverage. He at least acknowledged that people grow:

Moore is one of the more underrated recruits in the Midwest. If he adds weight, he could be a multi-year starter for Michigan and a force in the secondary.

Moore knows bulking up is a must, and he’s excited to get in the Michigan strength and conditioning program.

“Coach (Ben) Herbert talked about the way they view their players when they come in,” Moore said. “They measure our body mass and see how flexible we are. They try to get us more flexible and understand how our body works. I’ve never seen that from other schools. Michigan takes it to the extreme.”

Rivals also talked to ND’s DBs coach Mike Mickens, who was the first FBS coach to offer Moore when the former was still at Cincy:

Rivals lists Moore as a safety and many schools see him playing that position at the next level. Some college programs like Moore’s talents as a cornerback/safety hybrid, while Notre Dame’s Mike Mickens has communicated to Moore that he sees him as a corner.

“Sees him as a corner” and “nickel hybrid” is Crootinese for “too short.” And in fairness, 24/7 agreed that Moore was understood to be a projection:

He needs to add some weight, but there are enough clips of him being physical in run support that that became less of a concern for us the more we looked at him.

For the record, I am guessing he Moore is closer to actual five-foot-eleven than “5’11”” based solely on Moore’s description of actually 5’9” Jim Leonhard:

He's only 5'9", but he has the heart to play.

You don’t call a guy “only” if he’s the same height as you.

One last note: There are no records of Moore attending any of the recruiting sites’ camps. That would explain why Helmholdt only got to see him the one time. Unless an Ohio QB is throwing at him—and why would they—there isn’t a lot of coverage to scout.

Speed doesn’t seem to be an issue. Moore's high school coach, who also coaches the track team, said “what’s catching everybody’s notice the most is his length and speed.” The The Irish were also most interested in his length and speed. Trieu believes he “brings fantastic speed and playmaking to the secondary.” His coach claims Moore ran a 4.38 forty at a Pitt camp. They listed a 4.41 on his Hudl, and he qualified for states in the 60m and 200m so he’s got some jets.

Michigan seemed to definitively side with 24/7. Via Sam when we talked about it on WTKA, there were four Tier 1 safety targets on Michigan’s board this cycle. Donovan McMillan blew up and went to Texas A&M. Late riser Daymon David was close to coming here but Oregon flew in at the last minute. Ryan Barnes was a CB/S tweener who committed to Notre Dame. At different points Moore was their #1 or #2 most coveted safety prospect, always ahead of Barnes but they really liked McMillan and later David. It will be interesting to see how they all fare in college, even though Brown and his safety coach are now gone.

Like a lot of his teammates, Moore committed without visiting, and that meant a lengthy collar-pulling period when nobody knew which Michigan coaches would be on the chopping block. He told Allen Trieu he wasn’t coming for Bob Shoop:

“I see that as an early opportunity,” Moore said in an November interview with TMI. “A lot of people are seeing it at my position and defensive back is struggling. And I know if I go there and just work I could have an early opportunity to play,” Moore said. “And then another thing, I’m hearing a lot of coaches rumors about coaches not being there. That has me thinking. But it’s not really getting to me like they think it should.”

That said, Sam called out Moore by name in late November when imploring Warde Manuel to sign Harbaugh to an extension if that was his intention. That was around the same time Moore joined a bunch of other commits and targets to visit Ann Arbor and watch the Wisconsin game together.

Other schools didn’t necessarily agree. Kevin Sinclair of ND’s 24/7 site said Moore “has fine qualities” but wasn’t a priority for them, although that was after his Michigan commitment.

Someone you may know was able to infiltrate a Buckeye VIP chat to get 24/7 Ohio State guy Bill Kurelic to explain something it sounds like he is already tired of explaining to locals who watch a lot of high school ball:

jamiemac85: Piggybacking off of Euclid’s question, what’s your opinion on Rob Moore? Is he a tOSU-caliber player?

BK: Rod Moore is a good player. And I think he could develop at the next level into someone that could contribute at Ohio State. But I do not see him as as good a player as any of the six DB's the Buckeyes have committed already or as good as Derrick Davis Jr. or Jaylin Davies who they are still recruiting. And if someone doesn't believe me, look at what the OSU staff has done. Nobody knows the Ohio talent better than the Ohio State staff and they do a great job of evaluating. They have evaluated Moore and did not offer him while they not only offered all of the others I mentioned, but have made those offers committable and accepted those commitments.

It’s fun to recruit Ohio again.

Etc.: Played WR (because of injury) and safety last year for Clayton Northmont (Gabe Newburg, Caleb Ringer), which is a major power in southwest Ohio. Also returned kicks and punts. The team looked en route to a state championship before a guy got Covid and the season abruptly ended.

Moore is also part of the Cincinnati-Dayton group of players who all train together. Former Ohio State DT Robert Landers and 2022 OLB commit CJ Hicks, are also part of that group, as is 2021 WR decommit Markus Allen and 2022 DT target Derrick Shepard, a Cincy commit (before Marcus Freeman went to ND) whom the staff recently picked it back up with.

Why Brandon Harrison but tall or Tyree Kinnel but fast? We haven’t had that many shorter safeties. Or we have but I’m not pulling out Dick Sygar or else Greg Dooley will be the only one reading these.

Even Brandon Harrison’s memory fades but he was a safety in a 5’9” cornerback’s body who came out of high school with blazing speed—he put up a ludicrous 40 at that Ohio State camp that’s always the FAKE-est. He was forced into duty in the year that inspired the original Angry [Blank] Hating God for Michigan safeties, excelled as a full-time nickel on the 2006 defense, and had to play safety again when 2008 came around, by which point he was fine but not a playmaker. He was also 5’9”, which is another category of small.

So we try fellow Ohioan Kinnel, who was heady, and cornerback-ish, and a technically sound open field tackler who took a few too many gambles with it. Kinnel was fast enough—he ran a 4.50 at the Ohio State Lies camp but put up a 4.48 on his pro day. His length disadvantage was maximally punished by a suite of fades SMU receivers and the like would catch on their fingertips. Kinnel was a solid starter, rocked up to about 207, and was more technical and savvy in coverage than instinctual.

Guru Reliability: Low. He’s a top prospect in Ohio who led one of the state’s top programs to an undefeated record, but he seems to have avoided camps. Major disagreements between the sites. One thinks he’s underrated then put him at very much rated, the other sees a low three-star.

Variance: High. Everyone agrees Moore needs to get in the weight room for a couple of years. After that he could be the kind of speedy savant the Big Ten West always seems to come up with, or he could be moved over to cornerback and forgotten about like other 5’11” athletes who didn’t make it at safety, or he could ease in at nickel and then start at safety later in his career.

Ceiling: High-minus. If he keeps that speed with a college safety’s body he probably won’t be a superstar, but he could definitely be a college star.

General Excitement Level: Moderate-plus. There are three more college-ready prospects who got a free redshirt year on campus who technically start with the same eligibility he does, which is going to be a running theme for this class. The plus is because 24/7 and Michigan think they’ve unearthed a gem who would have been at Ohio State if he was an inch taller.

Projection: A year to pack on weight and then he’s thrown into the mix at nickel and safety, which by that point will have freshman Kody Jones and whichever safeties they add to the class joining Moten/Morant/Paige in a battle of underclassmen for what is functionally three starting safety positions. It will be hard to dislodge the winners in 2023 if he isn't one, but Moore seems a good bet—I mean he stuck with Michigan through the last year already so he must really want to be here—to stick around at least until his degree. By then it’s likely some of the other guys have cleared out and Moore is a very viable veteran we are very glad to have for a couple of years.

Upshot if we get to that point is an upperclassman starter who makes a high number of interceptions—he’s already a dangerous receiver on fades—gets a lot of love from the fanbase, and goes in the 5th to 7th round when his eligibility is exhausted.