First it was Stanford. Then it was USC. But for Atlanta (Ga.) Marist athlete Joshua Moore, the third time is the charm in 2020, and he is now a UCLA Bruin.
After flipping from Stanford to USC on October 9, Moore decommitted from the Trojans December 2.
A few days later, he and UCLA started their communication, and on December 10, the Bruins extended an offer. Things took off from there, the interest was high and Morris has signed with UCLA.
"I had an idea right after they offered that I could end up there, but I wanted to take time, hear out the other schools, and I just made my final decision a few days ago," said Moore. "It came down to Northwest, Stanford, Michigan State and UCLA."
Moore named many reasons why he chose the school in Westwood.
"I have always looked at high academic schools, and UCLA is that. They are the no. 1 public academic school in the country. That was very important to me. There is a lot of people like me there that value academics, so I know I will fit in.
"In football, I think the team is about to turn the corner. They are playing good this season, they have won some games and and they are on the up as a football program.
"Then I love the area. I like the city of Los Angeles, I will be in a great market after school and I love Westwood, where the school is even at more. It is beautiful, I love the vibe and I think it is a great place for me."
Moore was committed to Stanford to play defense, then to USC to play offense, and now under Chip Kelly, it looks like he will end up back on the defensive side of the ball at safety.
He took a few visits in January, his offer list was growing rapidly early in 2020, then things shutdown in March. COVID-19 made it very difficult on the 2021 class and Moore is one of many committing to a school he never visited.
He took the virtual tour, he saw videos, and he feels good about UCLA, but he may feel even better about having the process completely behind him.
"It has been a long journey for sure," said Moore. "If someone would have told me back in January that it would end up being like this to end 2020, I wouldn't have believed them.
"I kept an open mind, it has been weird, but weird kind of turned into normal now. It was all about zoom, zoom, zoom and more zoom calls for a long time. It wasn't easy, and it was long to get here, but I am very happy ending up at a school like UCLA."
Moore plans to major in business or economics.
