Sting Factor: Denzel Moore's decommitment from Indiana
When a major program loses a key recruit, Rivals.com takes a look at how big of a blow it is to the respective school, analyzing it from a local and national level. To quantify the “sting” of each decommitment, we assign a score from 1-10, with one being no big deal and 10 being a catastrophic hit.
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THE STORYLINE
When Denzel Moore committed to Indiana in late March, it was a massive recruiting victory for coach Tom Allen and his staff.
Moore plays with a lot of talented players at Suwanee (Ga.) Collins Hill. He’s a talented 2023 linebacker. And Moore has more than 20 offers already heading into the summer.
His pledge was definitely a big deal for the Hoosiers as they look to build on last season’s momentum and look to continue becoming a tough-out for other Big Ten teams.
But only after a month of being committed, Moore backed off his pledge in recent days and one reason he gave for his decision is that so many new programs have entered the picture in his recruitment.
On Wednesday, the 2023 linebacker released his visit schedule for June which includes stops at Georgia Tech, Auburn, Indiana, Florida State, Purdue, Coastal Carolina and Mississippi State. Tennessee, Notre Dame, Alabama and others have been in touch recently as well.
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LOCAL REACTION
“Seeing Moore decommit is a surprise as he seemed like a sure lock for Indiana and spoke very highly of Tom Allen and the staff when he committed. He had previously stated that he was looking forward to being a Hoosier and that he loved the Indiana family. Not sure what happened, and as he goes into this season, odds are good Moore will continue to get looks.” - Paul Gable, TheHoosier.com
Sting factor: 4
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NATIONAL REACTION
“Indiana had some great recruiting news recently when four-star linebacker Dasan McCullough flipped from Ohio State but Moore’s decommitment does hurt at least a little bit. He’s a talented kid from the Southeast and the Hoosiers aren’t stacked enough yet to lose pledges from anyone in any class, even though it would still be a while before he got to Bloomington. Moore is visiting Indiana this summer so the Hoosiers cannot be counted out yet and he loves the coaches there but I think he wants to see more schools and see which Southeast programs get more involved before finalizing his decision. Early commitments from out-of-state prospects oftentimes don’t last long and Moore joins that group. But Indiana is still involved and will have to fight to get him back in the class.” - Adam Gorney, National Recruiting Director
Sting factor: 5