A healthy Rondale Moore leads a largesse of talent at receiver for Purdue

MORE: Precocious wideouts Carr, Yaseen have impressed quickly

There’s Rondale Moore, David Bell, Milton Wright and Amad Anderson, Jr. And don’t forget about TJ Sheffield, Mershawn Rice and Jackson Anthrop. On top of that, there's Maliq Carr and Abdur-Rahmaan Yaseen. On and on it goes for what's a deep well of talent at receiver for Purdue.

"It is a competitive group," said receivers coach JaMarcus Shephard. "I like that."

But the affable Boilermaker wideout coach has one big request.

"They better catch the football," said Shephard. "That’s all I care about. We have a lot of guys out there who are competing."

No doubt, Shephard coaches the most talent-laden position on the roster. Four-star prospects abound. The potential is off the charts. And the largesse of talent is led by Moore.

"He’s been learning some different techniques, getting thinner, decreasing the surface area so that he can turn his shoulders faster out of breaks and things of that nature to make himself more efficient as a route runner," said Shephard. "When we talked after his freshman year about being a leader, he has definitely become that within the room."

Moore is coming off a hamstring injury that limited him to four games last season. He has recovered and is taking part in spring drills. Moore will be looking to regain the All-American form he displayed in 2018 when he made 114 receptions for 1,258 yards and 12 touchdowns. Last year, he finished with just 29 catches for 387 yards and two scores.

"I'm 100 percent," said Moore. "I'm feeling good."

There was talk that Moore would run track this spring, but he says those plans have been scrubbed.

"I've just been working out with the team," said Moore. "It was an option. I was gonna run indoor. But I decided not to."

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With Rondale Moore out most of 2019, Purdue turned to David Bell. And he delivered a Big Ten Freshman of the Year effort in leading the conference with 86 catches for 1,035 yards and seven scores.

Bell is out this spring as he recovers from shoulder surgery. He was initially hurt in the third game of 2019 vs. TCU but fought through it.

"It popped out of place and then it popped back into place," said Bell of his shoulder vs. TCU. "That's what caused me to tear my labrum.

Bell played all season with the injury. How difficult was that?

"The first game after Minnesota, it was a little bit difficult," said Bell. "But as the season progressed, it got a lot better. I couldn't lift weights, so that's why I decided to get surgery. ... When I'm out there playing, I'm not really thinking of it. It's just the times I fell on it awkwardly. That's when the pain tended to come. But throughout the course of the season, it didn't hurt that bad."

Bell says he didn't even know his shoulder was hurt that badly until a postseason MRI was taken. He had surgery on December 16.

"It was tough to sleep at night," said Bell. "That was the main thing."

On the field, the most important thing to Bell is getting faster out of his breaks and coming out of his stance faster. And adding overall speed, too. But for now, he watches, waits and heals.

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While Purdue has proven options in Rondale Moore and David Bell, among others, the squad has some intriguing young options at wideout looking to make their mark. Among them are redshirt freshmen TJ Sheffield and Mershawn Rice, who were hurt in 2019.

"TJ is doing great," said receivers coach JaMarcus Shephard." Actually, going into the Penn State game (last year), he probably was going to be the starter and that's when he really got hurt. He is doing a great job this spring. Very proud of him. I wasn’t sure he was going to be 100 percent when we started spring ball.

"He’s gonna be a good player here."

What about Rice?

"Healthy right now," said Shephard. "Battling to execute everything. Now, he's healthy and making some plays out there. He just has to get more consistent in catching the football."

Milton Wright got on the field last season as a true freshman and showed promise, making 18 grabs for 288 yards and a score. But he needs more consistency with his hands.

"It has been good to kinda flip him around a little bit," said Shephard. "We are kind of putting him all over the field to see where we can make him better. He was a little bit disappointed in his performance as a true freshman this past year. He expected more out of himself this past year. The great part of that young man is he comes to work every single day. … He has yet to miss a practice."

Early enrollee wideouts Maliq Carr and Abdur-Rahmaan Yaseen are turning heads. Yaseen was a late add to the 2020 recruiting class, as he was flipped from Northwestern.

"At a point, we were pretty much done recruiting the receiver position," said Shephard. "Then, all of a sudden, we started to hear rumbles … the important thing about it is I had maintained a relationship with his father. … He is very knowledgeable about football."

How determined was Yaseen to impress this spring?

"When he came here to visit us and I told him what he needed to do, he did that and more," said Shephard.

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