Baltimore (MD) St. Frances defensive end Derrick Moore committed to Michigan on National Signing Day. A former Oklahoma commit, he also had offers from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, LSU, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Penn State, and a bunch of others.
Moore is listed at 6'4" and 250 lbs. He's an Under Armour All-American and was named the Maryland Player of the Year by Maxpreps in 2021.
RANKINGS
ESPN: 4-star, 87 grade, #3 DE, #23 overall
On3: 4-star, 93 grade, #21 DL, #167 overall
Rivals: 4-star, 5.9 grade, #10 SDE, #121 overall
247 Sports: 4-star, 94 grade, #16 DL, #107 overall
Hit the jump for Moore.
Moore got an early offer from Michigan considering the Wolverines' ties at St. Frances. Current staffer Biff Poggi (who is in his second stint in Ann Arbor) funds a large portion of St. Frances's tuition for football players, and Michigan has landed a couple St. Frances prospects, including running back Blake Corum and linebacker Osman Savage. (Savage has since transferred to Alabama A&M.) Since Michigan hired Poggi for an off-the-field position, I did not think Michigan could recruit St. Frances players for two years, but somehow Michigan got permission to sign Moore. Somewhere in there Oklahoma earned a pledge for a little while, but once Lincoln Riley departed for USC, Moore was back on the market.
It's difficult to get a great bead on Moore as a player. He has a decent sophomore film, nothing from his junior year, and then one or two clips per game from his senior season. How much should we read into the fact that he had just one or two highlight-worthy plays per game from his senior year? Or did he just not put much time into putting together highlights? He certainly shows flashes of burst, speed, playing low, and getting to the quarterback. But for a guy who's a consensus top-200 player, there isn't a whole lot of good film out there.
I've been keeping an eye on Moore since he was offered in 2019, and while he looked like a true defensive end at that point, his body has morphed into one of those OLB/DE tweeners. He might end up being a little like current player Mike Morris, a guy who plays defensive end but also bumps down to the tackle position, though I think Moore is more athletic than Morris. It will be interesting to see how he develops, but I don't have a great bead on him at the moment.
Moore is perhaps Michigan's only defensive end in the class, with edge guy Kevonte Henry not signing anywhere until February.
TTB Rating: 78
Here's his sophomore film:
With only one End in the class, we should be grateful that a highly touted player was snagged at the last minute
ReplyDeleteLet's now hope MacDonald & Nua can do something with him
My guess is he ends up inside eventually. I don't see him as a pure edge like Uche, Ojabo, or Winovich as he's much bigger than those guys were as a recruit and see something closer to Jeter or Welshof or Kemp being the path ahead. But maybe he sees the field quickly and stays on as a bigger edge guys like Hutchinson, Paye, Gary.
ReplyDeleteGood get late in the cycle.
Poggi didn't coach him due to COVID so supposedly that is enough window to allow it, is what they said on WTKA I think.
ReplyDeleteSeems like an antiquated rule with NIL anyway.