Moon 'loves all the things that go along with playing football'
Purdue has a good start to its Class of 2022 recruits, adding a recent verbal commitment from in-state linebacker Domanick Moon. He joins QB Brady Allen as the Boilermakers' 2022 commitments.
The 6-2, 225-pound Moon, who hails from the same high school as Purdue great Rod Woodson, had offers from the likes of Ball State, Syracuse, Toledo, Howard and Cincinnati. He's rated a three-star prospect by Rivals.
GoldandBlack.com caught up with the head coach at Fort Wayne Snider High, Kurt Tippmann, to get the skinny on Moon.
GoldandBlack.com: What type of a player is Purdue getting?
Tippmann: He's a football player. He loves football. He loves all the things that go along with playing football, the training, the studying the film, the preparing for different opponents. He just loves every part of it.
GoldandBlack.com: What are his strengths?
Tippmann: Just size, No. 1. I mean, he's a big dude. He’s 6-3, 229 pounds right now. He's still going to grow, still gonna fill out a little bit. He's powerful, strong. He’s gonna be a 'Mike' linebacker, an in-the-box kind of linebacker that still has the quickness to be able to play out on the perimeter. He’s a big, solid guy that can take on those zone blocks from those guards coming up to the second level and fill the gap that they need him to fill.
GoldandBlack.com: What does he need to get better at?
Tippmann: He’s got to get better at playing in space. The way that football is right now, all offenses are going to get your players matched up out in space. And, he's got to get better at being comfortable out there in space against smaller, quicker receivers and running backs. That's probably his biggest challenge right now.
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GoldandBlack.com: Are you surprised he committed already?
Tippmann: No. He stated a long time ago that Purdue was his dream school. As he has been getting these offers, he told me that if Purdue offers, that's probably where I'm going to go. So, through the course of the season, I don't remember when exactly they offered. But, he was focusing on his high school season at the time. But now that the season's over, I think that was probably one of his priorities.
GoldandBlack.com: Did he play any offense?
Tippmann: No, just because we don't need to. We’re a big, big program that is pretty exclusively two-platoon. As a senior, he probably will. He plays some running back down on the goal line. So, we used him a little bit there, and probably will do more of that during his senior year.
GoldandBlack.com: What other sports does he play?
Tippmann: He's a baseball player, a first baseman. Good power hitter.
GoldandBlack.com: Does he come from a Purdue family?
Tippmmann: Not really. He's got an older brother that played football in the MAC at Eastern Michigan who is now is a strength and conditioning coach out west.
GoldandBlack.com: Do you think this commitment will last a year?
Tippmann: My direction to him was, once you commit, you commit. That's our philosophy. And I tell him and as parents all the time that: You commit, and people call, I tell him he's committed to this school.
GoldandBlack.com: What other schools looked at him hard?
Tippmann: Well, right now, Cincinnati, was the other really big one. There will be more Big Ten schools that come. He's had interest from all of them. And I don't know which ones have offered at this point. It’s kind of been a flurry here in the last three weeks, but there'll be more that come.
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