Notre Dame S Target Devin Moore "Off The Charts" On, Off Field
It must have been a damn exciting half of football, but that was all the Naples High School freshman coach was going to get out of Devin Moore.
“I think he had a Pick-6, a TFL and a punt return for a touchdown in like five minutes,” co-defensive coordinator Cliff Greer recalls.
“We went and tapped the freshman coach and said, 'Yeah, he'll be with us next week.'”
One of the very best programs in the state, Naples has made defense its calling card over the last couple decades.
“We've sent guys to Tennessee, Miami, Georgia, all over,” says Greer. “He has a chance to be one of the best, if not the best to ever come out of our program.
“He was one of the first defensive backs and first defensive players period to ever start for us as a freshman.”
Naples defensive backs coach Marvin Gray Jr., says “one thing you can't coach is height and length.”
At 6-3, Moore has that and then some.
“He's a physical guy, doesn't mind sticking his nose in there and being a great tackler in run support,” Gray continues. “His technique and footspeed is off the charts.
“His football IQ is unbelievably high. When Devin comes to practice every day, he comes to practice as if he knows nothing and everything that I'm teaching and coaching is new, he's soaking it all in as if it's his first time hearing it over and over again. His attention to detail is unbelievable.”
These are just some of the reasons why the 2022 Florida safety is one of the most highly-coveted prospects at his position in the country.
Moore began the month of June with unofficials to Florida and Alabama. He’ll take an official visit to Notre Dame this weekend followed by an official to Stanford next week.
But, it’s the other stuff that makes Moore even more of a can’t-miss person than can’t-miss prospect.
“He's a coach's dream,” Gray says. “He does things in a very mature manner. You look at him, and he doesn't really seem like you're a typical 11th-grader. He's off the charts the way he takes care of things as far as schoolwork, how he is on the football field and also in the community.
“Everybody looks up to him. They know who he is. Guys see the accolades and how he carries himself. A lot of guys want to try to imitate and do what Devin does. It really helps out our team that our main leader is high character.”
Greer says kids like Moore are rare these days.
“You kind of forget that he's there because you don't have to worry about him,” says Greer. “He's going to do everything that you ask him to do and more. He's going to make sure that the guys around him are doing the right thing, make sure the guys who are younger than him are learning. He just does a great job in everything you ask him to do.”
Dante Moore agrees, but his memory goes back further than most.
“You're asking his older brother who has known him since he was a little boy crying because he couldn't beat me in a video game or basketball,” Dante laughs.
Still, Dante acknowledges the lengths his younger brother has come over the years.
“I'd probably say he's the most mature 17-year-old I've ever met or seen in the way he carries himself, the way he balances himself between his academics and the time he puts into multiple sports,” he says.
Dante played college basketball at Maryville College in Tennessee, following in the footsteps of his parents, who played football and volleyball at Illinois State.
“I think it's just the standard in our family to get there and perform and always exceed those expectations,” says Dante.
Dante certainly assumed Devin was paying attention as he went through his own career as a standout in high school and college.
“He would see me do the whole student-athlete life, doing well on the court while also getting good grades in the classroom and then moving on from there and getting a job at the Department of Health while also pursuing my MBA,” Dante says.
“I've always just tried to get as much out of the situation I'm in as I can. I think he's been able to see that over the years and been like, 'OK, if that's the standard and that's what we're supposed to do, then I need to shoot for that as well.' Hence why he's been such a good student-athlete over the years.”
That premium on academics explains the inclusions of Notre Dame and Stanford on Moore’s short list.
That makes Dante proud, but even that isn’t what stands out the most.
“It's one thing to be able to put yourself in the situation he's in, but it's another thing to be able to carry yourself with just gratitude and not get the big head in these situations,” Dante says. “It's very easy to do that when you're going to Alabama one weekend and Notre Dame the next. Just monitoring how he's carried himself through this process has probably been the most surprising thing to me.
“It speaks volumes to who he is as a person. I think he's definitely the type of person that you would want in any organization, whether that's a team, whether that's a future job organization. No matter what you're talking about, having like-minded people like that, no matter what the situation is, whether they're having ultimate success or whether they're down a little bit, just to remain calm and have a cool, collected head.
“A price can't be put on people like that.”