clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Ten To Defend: Kestahn Moore

By mlmintampa

With eight days left until Western Kentucky gets in the way of Florida's celebration of the 2007 title, Alligator Army presents `Ten To Defend'. We all know it won't just be Urban, Percy, and Timmy The Rhino rebuilding this team. So, who's going to help them out? First it was Charlie Strong and Cornelius Ingram. Now it's Kestahn Moore.

One of the themes of the Urban offense in his first two seasons was the lack of a game breaking running back. The beauty of this offense is that everyone is a threat to score. Well, except for the RBs who have been called "pathetic" and "trash" in the last two seasons.

Insert Kestahn Moore into this role. The junior played behind DeShawn Wynn last season and now has the starting spot all to himself. Meyer says he's excited about Moore and is expecting success. Moore, responding to prior criticism, is saying all the right things.

"I feel I do have a lot to prove," Moore said. "Some people say I can't break a long one. I did that all my life. I've broken a lot. It's a process you've got to do. You've got to keep hitting them hard, keep breaking tackles and then as the game progresses you're going to break those long runs."

Last season, Moore had 66 touches (rushing + catches + returns) for 410 yards. Last season, Wynn had 149 touches. Can we expect Moore to double his work load? I would think so because Tebow should run less (after all, you need your QB throwing not running over people) and I can't imagine Harvin and Bubba Caldwell being used more as rushers than they were last season (41 and 21 rushes, respectively). Plus, Urban wants him out there.

"He's without question our starting tailback, and he's not a guy that's our starting tailback and by the way get him out there every time we can and get another receiver in there," Meyer said. "He's a guy that we're looking forward to letting him see what he can do with the football."

(Ok, that was a strange quote. But what Meyer is trying to say is that Moore is not just out there to be a back on pass plays. They actually want him to do something. Got it? Good.)

And Moore better step up. It looks like it won't just be Chris Rainey looking for the tailback job in 2008.