Why Rondale Moore’s success is a bad look for Louisville Football

It’s no secret that Purdue’s Rondale Moore is one of the most electric players in the country. How can a kid from the 502 killing it on the national stage possibly be bad for his hometown Louisville football program?

The easy answer is the most obvious: he doesn’t play for the Cards. But besides that sad fact, there’s much more negativity surrounding the Louisville football program because they’re losing. A prospect who’s dream was to play for Louisville, ended up across the river, and now things seem as bad as they’ve ever been.

Guys we all wish would touch the ball more – Hassan Hall, TuTu Atwell, Dez Fitzpatrick – to name a few, are young studs that have ability to impact the game on every level just like Rondale Moore. We see how well that’s working out. Bobby (and/or coaching staff? who knows at this point honestly) has been inconsistent at best at getting them involved.

What makes this so frustrating isn’t just the losses. It’s the fact that we have play makers, but we flat out aren’t using them. Anyone else forget we even have TuTu Atwell on our roster except for maybe three plays a game? And they’re BIG plays too.

Even worse, apparently a kid as talented as Rondale Moore didn’t feel like he’d be put in a position to make an impact here either. Check out this tweet from Nick Burch from a few days ago:

Let’s look at Rondale Moore’s stats as of right now, about halfway through the season, shall we? 57 receptions, for 728 yards and 7 touchdowns. 11 rush attempts, 163 yards, and 1 touchdown. That makes for 891 total yards and 8 TD’s for the true freshman. And his impact is more than just the numbers on a stat sheet.

You’re telling me Louisville couldn’t give a guy like that the respect he clearly deserves? Especially at his dream school? Here is where the biggest problem lies: coaching staff. Now we can’t necessarily put all the blame on Petrino for the way a position coach treats a recruit, but bottom line is the head coach hired these guys. It should also be a mission of his to make sure that in state talent, especially of Moore’s caliber, stay at home.

How many of us die hard Cardinal fans have been pleading for more local recruiting, especially in recent years? Guys in our own backyard who have the talent, plus the heart and desire to play for Louisville – and the coach and his staff simply can’t land them. Honestly if you can’t land a kid who calls Louisville his “dream school’, what kind of recruiting can you do?

I already gave you 2,500 words on why it’s time for a reboot of the Louisville football program, and this situation with Moore only compounds them. The fact that we were all so excited about this season and the weapons we have on this team, yet going 3-9 is looking like best case scenario at this point? It shows an incompetence and a complacency that we just can not have if this program is going to move forward in a positive direction.

Rondale Moore is a game changer. Land a guy like that, and you make waves. Hypothetically, lets say Purdue doesn’t make a bowl game (I think they will) and they finish at 5-7. People will still be talking about how they creamed Ohio State. You know what else they’ll be talking about? Rondale Moore.

If I’m a recruit, looking at Moore and the opportunities given him at Purdue to make plays and to be a part of wins like he was this past weekend? I’ve got Purdue in my top schools, right to the end. Local kids especially want to make an impact somewhere close to home, so they can show out in front of family, friends, and the haters of course.

This year there are many 4-star local recruits, some in the city of Louisville, who aren’t near favored to come to U of L. My guy Jacob Lane wrote about a potential recruiting disaster for the program that you should read if you haven’t already. The fact that none of these guys are Louisville leans? I’d say it’s concerning, but it’s more than that honestly. Watching Rondale Moore not in a Louisville Cardinal uniform is a downright tragedy.

The bottom line is, us fans cheer for Rondale Moore, especially this year. Not only is he a local kid, but we’ve clearly seen halfway through the season that he would not be put to good use here. We love watching him do his thing, all while wishing he was doing it under the lights in Cardinal Stadium. But we understand why he isn’t.

And therein lies the problem. Rondale Moore is garnering national attention, and rightfully so. He’s an incredible talent who has the ability to put a program on the map and help them pick up huge wins. He’s the kind of guy anyone would be lucky to have on their team, I know I sure wish he was on mine. I can’t say that enough.

Good for you, Rondale. Watching a kid from the Ville ball out on national television, no matter what the team, is still fun. CardNation can only hope that you decide to follow your head coach back home next year…