Miami (Fl) University has been a feeder team for the NFL in the past, especially for receivers. Miami has produced (recently introduced into the Hall of Fame) Michael Irvin, the Superbowl Champion Colt's Reggie Wayne, and Pro Bowl, Houston Texan receiver Andre Johnson, just to name a few.
Enter another talented receiver, Ryan Moore, 6' 3" 220 lbs, Miami (Fl).
But the Miami Hurricanes have come on hard times of late, they were involved in one of the ugliest on-the-field fights in College Football history and have been labeled "thug u" by numerous media outlets. So what does that have to do with Ryan Moore, well he has been no stranger to off the field incidents himself. Moore was suspended for the last regular-season game of 2005, for the 2006 Peach Bowl and for the first two games of this season for violating team policy. The Coral Gables police reported an incident where Moore kicked in a car door, grabbed a woman by the neck and pushed her onto the ground, the report continued, Moore threatened the victim's friend to step back ``or I'll do to you what I did to her.''
So Moore does have some character concerns, but if he can get his personal life in order, and commit to football and living a clean life, he could be the steal of the 2007-nfl-draft.
I remember watching Moore as a freshman (2003), he looked like a future top ten NFL Draft pick, he was one of the nation's top recruits (high school) in the 2002 recruiting class and was the first freshman to lead the team (Miami) in receiving yards since Reggie Wayne did in 1997. Moore was named a first-team Freshman All-American by Rivals.com and a second-team Freshman All-America by The Sporting News. He was second on the team with 44 catches for a team-high 637 yards and averaged a team-best 49.0 yards per game and caught a team-high three touchdown passes. He also averaged 14.5 yards per catch and led the team in third down receptions with 22 catches for 238 yards and one touchdown.
In 2004 (sophomore), he was expected to be the team's top receiver but played in only six games because of a foot injury suffered in the season's third game. For the year he caught only nine passes for 85 yards and two touchdowns.
His junior (2005) season he really had a drop off, he played in 11 games, started only 9 and was ranked third on the team with 28 receptions for 464 yards, (16.6-yard average) and scored four touchdowns.
Now the good news, after serving his suspension that I mentioned, it seems Moore has woken up and started playing good football again. In Miami's Bowl game, the MPC Computer Bowl against Nevada, Moore looked spectacular with 2 catches for 96 yards and 1 TD. He was instrumental in Miami's 21 20 victory. Recently in the Texas vs Nation All-Star game, Moore was the shining star, he caught two touchdown passes to help The Nation, a team of college seniors from beyond Texas, beat college players from the Lone Star State (Texas) 24-20.
Moore has nice size at 6' 3" 220 pounds, and nice speed, reportedly running the 40 yard dash in the 4.45 range. He has been invited to the 2007 NFL Combine, and if he has some good interviews with NFL scouts and coaches, he could be drafted a lot higher than some people think. Regardless, I think anywhere after the 4th round Moore would be one of the steals of the 2007-nfl-draft.
2 comments:
Glad to hear some talent is still coming out of the U. Gosh last season was not pretty to watch.
Yea they had QB and O-line problems, and Miami was poorly coached. TE Greg Olson is another impressive prospect, he (Olson) will be a better Pro that a collegian I think.
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