Georgia has added a walk-on with an intriguging backstory, and he could be around the team awhile.
Nick Moore, who played minor league baseball from 2011 until his release in April, has joined the Bulldogs as a walk-on. He has four years of eligibility, per his high school coach. Moore is likely to begin at inside linebacker, but has the ability to play fullback, tight end or even his old high school position of safety.
Moore played on both sides of the ball at Brookwood High School, as a safety at about 6-3 and 210 pounds, and as a receiver. Moore also punted and long-snapped.
“He was such a good player because he really understood what everybody was supposed to be doing,” said Mark Crews, who was Brookwood’s head coach until his retirement last year. “And lots of good leadership qualities.”
Moore had several football scholarship offers, most notably Air Force, but his baseball prospects were better. So he went through the draft, was picked in the 30th round by the Red Sox, and signed. As part of the deal the Red Sox agreed to pay for Moore’s college tuition, which is fairly standard.
Moore, a corner infielder and outfielder, reached Class A in 2012, staying at that level. His high-water mark was last year, when he hit .264 with 4 homers and 21 RBI for Lowell of the New York-Penn League. But the Red Sox released him after the season.
At first Moore wanted to latch on with another organization. But in the meantime his former Brookwood football coaches were contacting colleges, and Moore told the Gwinnett Daily Post that when he heard from so many, he “forgot baseball easily.”
As Crews put it: “I think it was always in his mind if things didn’t necessarily pan out there that he wanted to come back and try football.”
In fact, he purposely didn’t take any classes so he would have eligibility left. So he has four years of eligibility, and could conceivably be a 26-year-old senior for Georgia.
Moore’s time away from the game means that any immediate impact is a longshot. But he’s actually grown a couple inches since high school, and according to Crews is now a little over 6-4 and 245 pounds. He’s also stayed in shape, as evidenced by his 10 stolen bases last season.
“Anytime you’ve been off the radar for four years he’ll have to work the rust out a little bit, and get back to football-playing speed,” Crews said. “But just his savvy and all of the things that made him such a good player. And he’s been working out like a crazy man the last three or four years. I think it’ll come back to him real quickly.”
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