LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- It’s been almost a year since Rondale Moore suited up for a football game, but if you ask him, not much has changed.
“I still think I’m the same Rondale from when everyone saw and even better,” Moore said.
In his first year at Purdue, Moore became the first true freshman consensus All-American in Big Ten history while setting new program records in all-purpose yards. The New Albany native and Trinity High School graduate was poised for another big year when he suffered a hamstring injury in the Boilermakers' 2019 conference opener.
“I think it’s just a freak thing,” Moore said. “I think it’s a testament to my strength and the people who’ve been around me to help me build my body. I mean, it could’ve been a lot worse, and it looked a lot worse than it actually was.”
Now at what he’s calling “1,000%,” Moore shocked the college football world when he announced he was forgoing his remaining eligibility to prepare for the 2021 NFL Draft.
“I did go talk to my teammates, talk to my coaches, let everyone know before I announced it,” Moore said. “We all kind of made a decision together, my family and myself.”
Moore said the uncertainty of COVID-19 and its complications was too much of a health risk for both his family and him. Now, he’s back in the Louisville area with plans to finish his selling and sales management degree by December.
“I talked to my academic advisors. I spoke with my head coach. I emailed my professors,” Moore said. “We met over Zoom and figured out a way to get it done virtually, so I was able to come home, be here and get training done, make some decisions.”
Those decisions include which agent he’ll sign with and where he’ll eventually go to train for the combine. Early mock drafts consider Moore a first-round pick despite his short but accomplished college career.
“I knew if I put my head down and worked, when I looked up, everything would be in my face," Moore said. "So, for me, I'm not a big goal-setter. I just go out there and work and do what I do. That's pretty much, on my end, how I handle business."
Moore has a habit of creating long lists of achievements, and his next could very well be in the NFL.
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