Late Tuesday night, Kansas University football commitment Josh Moore took to Twitter to announce that he no longer was headed to KU.
Moore, a 6-foot-5, 250-pound tight end who many believed could easily develop into a defensive end or offensive tackle, played for new KU on-campus recruiting coordinator Gene Wier at Olathe North and committed to the Jayhawks in late October.
The three-star prospect who had offers from a bunch of impressive schools, including Auburn, Florida State, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and TCU, among others, picked Kansas largely because of his fondness for then-interim head coach Clint Bowen.
Even though Bowen remained on staff when KU hired David Beaty, something inspired a change of heart for Moore, who initially was committed to Ohio State before picking Kansas. It’s possible that the change in leadership was enough to change his mind, but, according to a few people I’ve talked to about his recruitment, it’s more likely that Moore may not wind up qualifying academically and may have to go the junior-college route.
It’s still too early to know exactly what happened or even what will happen, but we’ll definitely know a lot more next Wednesday, when the members of KU’s Class of 2015 sign their national letters of intent. At this point, it looks unlikely that Moore will be one of them.
If Moore winds up elsewhere, he will have been the third significant prospect to fall off of KU’s recruiting list in the past few days, as three-star wide receiver Kevin Thomas de-committed from KU and chose SMU and three-star Dallas athlete Arico Evans backed out of his pledge to Kansas to commit to TCU.
Regardless of what happened here, you can bet the KU coaches are working around the clock and will continue to do so up until signing day. And it’s likely they already had a couple back-up plans in place to help offset these losses.
Here’s a quick look at the Twitter messages Moore fired off on Tuesday night. The strong words against Wier should be taken with a grain of salt given that we don’t yet know exactly what’s going on with Moore or where he will wind up. I should also point out that I’ve heard nothing but good things about Wier’s hiring and the job he’s done since joining the KU football program.
A lot of people don’t get it, and it’s not always fun, but this kind of thing is not all that uncommon in the recruiting world. And the whole thing only seems to be getting crazier and crazier by the class.
If you didn’t know already, I will not be going to Ku.
— Josh Moore (@JoshMoore_08) January 28, 2015
It was a deal where my high school coach tried to force me to go to his favorite school.
— Josh Moore (@JoshMoore_08) January 28, 2015
But I have nothing against Ku. It’s a great place love the staff, it’s just not meant for me! They’re going to do great things in the future
— Josh Moore (@JoshMoore_08) January 28, 2015
