Rivals’ top rated defensive tackle recruit, Jason Moore, named Penn State among his top five final schools in an interview with Andrew Friedman of Rivals. Penn State was named among Maryland, Michigan Notre Dame and Ohio State. Also stated in the interview, Moore has official visits scheduled to Michigan (June 17th-19th) Notre Dame (June 10-12), Ohio State (June 24-26). He scheduled his fourth official visit to Penn State for June 3-5 after the interview.
In the interview, Moore was asked to break down each of his top five schools and state why he put them in his top five. When asked about Penn State, Moore praised the family-like culture amongst the team.
“Really just the family out there,” said Moore when asked his thoughts on Penn State. “Also the development. Everytime I go out there, it feels just like a big family. I can just tell all the coaches, how close they are with their players. All the current players that’s at Penn State now, they just tell me how much it’s really like a big family and just like the whole community is all together. That’s definitely one of the bigger things that I looked at.”
Moore is listed as 6-foot-5, 260 pounds and comes from Hyattsville, Maryland. He’s a four-star recruit on rivals and their 44th ranked recruit for the class of 2023 and he is the 50th ranked recruit nationally by 247Sports. The latter also has him as their fifth rated defensive lineman, both outlets rank Moore as the top recruit in the state of Maryland.
He’d be a good recruit for new Penn State defensive coordinator Manny Diaz, who comes to Penn State after an inconsistent tenure and uncomfortable ending in Miami. Diaz had top-25 defenses at Miami as head coach in 2018 and 2019 however he struggled to replicate that success the past two years. The news broke that Miami was hiring former Oregon head coach Mario Cristobal while Diaz was still employed by the school. Diaz did have success as defensive coordinator at programs such as Louisiana Tech, Miami, Middle Tennessee, Mississippi State and Texas.
“We have a good relationship,” said Moore on Diaz. “We talk a lot. It’s kind of him seeing me, where I can fit in the defense wise and developing me over the three or four years, trying to get me to the next league and also make an impact in college football.
247Sports lists two experts who predict that Moore will end up at Notre Dame. Steve Wiltfrong, the director of football recruiting at 247Sports, and Tom Loy, a Notre Dame insider with Irish Illustrated, both predict Moore to go to Notre Dame. Wilftrong and Loy have both been incredibly successful with their predictions this year with the former being 101/103 on the year and the later being a perfect 15/15.
