WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — “Never,” Rondale Moore says. “You will never hear me say a word.”
Purdue’s do-it-all freshman is asked about trash talk because, naturally, he hears a lot of chirping. That comes with the territory for any receiver, but especially for a freshman receiver who still wears braces, is generously listed at 5-feet-9 and is the second-highest-rated recruit to join the Boilermakers in the past 11 years.
Advertisem*nt
Defenders size up the 175-pound Moore, tell him he’s overrated and say some other things he cannot publicly repeat. And then, after they have been burned by one of the most versatile players in college football, they hand him some not-so-gentle love taps after the whistle.
Moore does not blame them for any of this. He would do the same if he were wired that way. Except it quickly becomes clear that he vibrates to a different frequency.
“Ever,” he emphasizes about his lack of clapping back.
It has always been this way. And based on his demeanor after averaging 179.9 all-purpose yards through seven college games, after helping the Boilers engineer a turnaround from a 0-3 start, after gashing No. 2 Ohio State for 12 catches and 170 yards in his team’s fourth consecutive win, it will probably always be this way.
“I don’t waste my breath,” Moore says. “I’m good on that. I just play football. So do my teammates. You’ll never see me get into extra shoving. You can have it, man. I’m not here for that. I’m here to play a game.”
Fitting words for a player who committed to a head coach and a program that subscribe to the motto Let’s Play Football, even if historical norms suggested that someone with his talent would play ball somewhere else.
But this is a player who changed his cellphone number after drawing too much attention when de-committing from Texas; who abhors compliments; who dismisses the 4.33 40-yard dash he once ran because what good is that kind of speed if one does not know how to properly use it on the field?
“The kid has a one-track mind,” Purdue receivers coach JaMarcus Shephard says. “If they come talking to him, he goes even harder. If they start talking trash, he takes it as there is a slight bit of doubt in the mind of the guy.”
Moore totaled 313 all-purpose yards in his college debut against Northwestern. (Thomas J. Russo / USA Today)
Moore has no doubt about anything, really. This is born of confidence, not co*ckiness.
Moore is charismatic, and the selling and sales management major may boast the firmest handshake of any 18-year-old in the country. The baby-faced assassin enters Purdue’s football complex wearing a hoodie and flip-flops, and when he takes the hoodie off and is told a piece of its fabric is stuck to his hair, he says not to worry about it, choosing to let it be. When he is asked if he is actually 5-9 — as officially listed by Purdue — he flashes a camera-ready smile and replies: “You could say that.”
Advertisem*nt
He is officially a slot receiver, which in some ways sells him short, considering he has rushed for 163 yards and a touchdown and has amassed 368 punt- and kick-return yards, on top of his 728 receiving yards and seven touchdown catches.
Still, there is a finesse label that comes with these “slash” types, and that stereotype crystallizes even further when one sees Moore off the field.
Then he goes out on a fourth-quarter third-and-7 play against the Buckeyes, catches a toss in the flat, outraces linebacker Pete Werner to the edge for the first down, trucks cornerback Sevyn Banks and is off to the races for his second touchdown of the night.
This 🚂 can't be stopped.
Unbelievable play by an unbelievable athlete on an unbelievable night: pic.twitter.com/LiNUIqinmU
— Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) October 21, 2018
“Score,” he says of his in-the-moment mentality. “Make a play. That’s how I feel every time I touch the ball, just trying to do something for the team to get us amped up.”
“He’s been doing this since he got here,” corner Antonio Blackmon says. “So a lot of the plays that he makes really doesn’t surprise me.”
This past Saturday was not his favorite game. That came in a Week 4 win against Boston College, Purdue’s first victory of the year. It was not his favorite play, either. That honor falls to his first career touchdown, Week 1 against Northwestern.
It is all about the big picture for Moore and Purdue, which is one of four Big Ten West teams that have one league loss. Moore gives the Boilermakers a realistic shot of sending their first Heisman Trophy finalist to New York since Drew Brees in 1999 and 2000.
Moore and Jeff Brohm, he of the swashbuckling offensive swagger, appeared to be a match made in heaven from the get-go, and not just because Moore hails from Brohm’s alma mater, Trinity High in Louisville, Ky. But even the second-year Purdue head coach had to rein himself in after Moore’s collegiate debut in a Thursday loss to Northwestern: 79 rushing yards, 109 receiving yards, 125 kick return yards, two total touchdowns.
Advertisem*nt
“I had utmost confidence we could do plenty of things with him,” Brohm says. “It’s just I didn’t wanna overload him too fast, too much. So we said: ‘Hey, we’re gonna give you a bunch, throw it at you in fall camp, see how you handle it, and then we’ll taper back for the game.’ And he handled it pretty daggone good. He was outstanding in camp, didn’t miss any reps, made big plays.
“But even then you’re like: OK, it’s great here, is it gonna translate to the field? Sometimes that takes a little time as a true freshman. First game he was lights-out, so then it’s like OK, we’re gonna be able to utilize him maybe a little bit more than we thought.”
Moore ranks second in the Big Ten in yards from scrimmage on offense and adds value on returns. (Thomas J. Russo / USA Today)
“Here’s when you knew you had a special kid,” Trinity coach Bob Beatty begins, relaying the story of how Moore transferred from New Albany (Ind.) High to Trinity before his junior year, when the Kentucky High School Athletic Association ruled him ineligible, which meant he could not so much as practice with his new school before a reversal made him eligible for the second game of the state playoffs.
“He kept himself in shape, he worked out, kept himself in school, kept great grades,” Beatty says. “And then when they finally turned him loose, he lit it up. And not too many young men can do that.”
Moore recounts winning the state championship that year as his best high school memory, especially because he caught 20 balls over his only four games for 464 yards and nine touchdowns. Those numbers do not happen, he realizes, without all of the work he put in with personal trainer Chris Vaughn while forced to watch his new teammates start the season 11-0 without him.
He has been hitting the weights since his freshman year of high school, playing prep ball around 171 pounds, getting up to about 186 at Purdue and now evening out around 180. He never drank soda, has had to cut out Pop-Tarts since arriving on campus and thinks he max bench-pressed 325 pounds, but he is not really sure since that last happened this past summer.
There is no hiding from his lower-body strength, though, thanks to a video he tweeted in July of himself squatting 600 pounds.
Advertisem*nt
https://twitter.com/Rondale_Moore03/status/1020312140568301569
He says his dad traveled as a boxer when he was younger and his mom ran track in high school, so maybe that is how he has concocted this blend of speed and power.
“Just not being the tallest, you’ve got to have other things to bring to the table,” Moore says. “So strength has to be one, and quickness, speed, eye coordination, all those things. So you have to work on the little things to give yourself an edge. Obviously, height isn’t something I control, but how hard I work in the weight room is something I can, so I pride myself on just trying to do my best in there every day.”
Brohm was in on Moore back in his days at Western Kentucky, thanks to those connections to Trinity, where Brohm’s dad is still a volunteer coach. Moore surprised Brohm’s staff when he initially committed to Texas, but the pull of home and a feeling of knowing what he was getting himself into led him back to Brohm at Purdue.
As Brohm recalled his blunt pitch to Moore: “Hey, this is what we can do for you. We have no doubt that you can be the focal point of this team and this offense. We can help you reach all your goals. You’re gonna get more touches than you even wanna ask for, and you’re gonna be the guy. And let’s just say for some reason you get injured, something happens, when you come back we’re not gonna have guys like you, so for that reason you’re gonna be the guy.
“But coming from somebody who knows your people and wants to make sure we take care of our own, I’ll make sure you have success. We’ll go above and beyond. If you’ve got better opportunities and you feel good about it, go on. I won’t fault you. I’m not gonna say anything negative to you.”
The Biletnikoff Award added Moore to its watch list in September, and his cousin, Gino Rowen, texted Shephard, his position coach, asking if he saw this coming. Of course Shephard did, just maybe not this soon. Then Moore’s name was added to numerous websites’ Heisman watch lists this week, and Rowen texted Shephard with the same question. This time, Shephard threw up his hands, laughing at how quickly everything has come to fruition.
Advertisem*nt
When Shephard was recruiting Moore early on, he called him with a set of questions. Aware of teens’ ability to inflate themselves before recruiters, the receivers coach expected some predictable answers. Then he asked the diminutive game-wrecker just how tall he really was.
“How tall is fast?” Moore said.
(Top photo: Michael Hickey / Getty Images)
