St. Louis Post Dispatch - Top 30 Prospects - John Moten

[T_Levine]

The St. Louis Post Dispatch released its top 30 prospects and John Moten came in #2. Pretty impressive considering the #1 player on the list is #2 in the ESPN top 300.

They describe him as having "sprinter" speed.

John Moten #2

 

[Smokejumper]

Congrats to John - excited to see him in purple.

Any back that can run for 2017 yards in a state semifinal game clearly has gamebreaking ability. If my math is correct, that is nearly 63 yards per carry. holy cow. :O

 

[DonatelloCat]

Originally posted by Smokejumper:
Congrats to John - excited to see him in purple.

Any back that can run for 2017 yards in a state semifinal game clearly has gamebreaking ability. If my math is correct, that is nearly 63 yards per carry. holy cow. :O

actually, i find it to be a little alarming . . . that means he only ran for 572 yards the rest of the season!

 

[JoeWildcat]

But he did that with only six carries.

 

[Hungry Jack]

No knock on Moten, but it's a pretty lean year for recruiting in Missouri, much like in Illinois.

 

[corbi296]

Not surprising. This guy is a stud and just adds to a very nice group of running backs that we are accumulating. There is a reason that Notre Dame offered this kid and spent quite some time trying to get him to flip.

 

[Turk]

i wonder who won the sprints?

Between him and elliott?
Elliutt was recruited alot stronger but i dont know why. Moten seems underrated. Gocatsgo, what does he lack that only made him a mid 3 star rating?

 

[gocatsgo2003]

Re: i wonder who won the sprints?

Originally posted by Turk:
Between him and elliott?
Elliutt was recruited alot stronger but i dont know why. Moten seems underrated. Gocatsgo, what does he lack that only made him a mid 3 star rating?

With the caveats that his track times speak for themselves (even if the better track times are wind-aided) and I still think star ratings are a crock of $#!*, I would guess the "gurus" thought he wasn't worthy of a fourth star because he's relatively skinny for a BCS running back. He's pretty long and angular.

Still... whatever. He's a very legitimate prospect.





This post was edited on 1/22 10:46 AM by gocatsgo2003

 

[RazzmaChas]

Re: i wonder who won the sprints?

Moten is a lot faster.

In the 2014 state 100M, Moten ran 10.68 in the prelims and 10.58 in the final. The 10.58 would have been a class 3 MO state record, but it was slightly over the wind limit (+2.1). For reference, the MO record for all classes is 10.42.

Zeke won the 100M in 2013. He ran 11.11 in the prelims and 11.03 in the final.

The best news of all is that John's track coach thinks that he may be able to shave a little more time off his 100M this year.

 

[EvanstonCat]

This is also not a list for the state of Missouri, it's only for the St. Louis Metro Area.

 

[Turk]

Re: i wonder who won the sprints?

I gotta think that him or anderson make some plays this year. Hopefully anderson is healthy.

 

[Hungry Jack]

I know. But in general the pool coming out of The Lou is much deeper in most years.

 

[JoeWildcat]

Re: i wonder who won the sprints?

Razz, I may be wrong on this, but I don't think Zeke won the State 100m. He won the 110 hurdles and either won or finished second in the 300m hurdles. He ran the 100m and made the finals, but I don't think he won. In HS (and now) Zeke had really explosive speed and quickness, and he carried his weight well - his football speed was very good. Although Zeke was a bit bigger than Moten in HS, Moten really is a pretty strong running back for HS, and has great straight ahead speed. Moten reminds me of RGIII in college. At first it doesn't look like he is that fast, and then you realize how long his strides are and how much ground he is covering, and it's stunning. Burroughs seemed to use Moten a bit differently than Zeke. Zeke ran a lot of plays up the middle and did both kick and punt returns. Because of Moten's speed Burroughs had him run a lot of outside read and sweep plays. He would just coast outside and when he saw a gap he would explode through it, and be gone. Because of this it was hard for me to determine whether he had the same shiftiness and inside hole-reading ability of Zeke. But the bottom line for me is that Moten is a top-caliber player; we have a good one there.

 

[gocatsgo2003]

Re: i wonder who won the sprints?

Originally posted by JoeWildcat:
Razz, I may be wrong on this, but I don't think Zeke won the State 100m. He won the 110 hurdles and either won or finished second in the 300m hurdles. He ran the 100m and made the finals, but I don't think he won. In HS (and now) Zeke had really explosive speed and quickness, and he carried his weight well - his football speed was very good. Although Zeke was a bit bigger than Moten in HS, Moten really is a pretty strong running back for HS, and has great straight ahead speed. Moten reminds me of RGIII in college. At first it doesn't look like he is that fast, and then you realize how long his strides are and how much ground he is covering, and it's stunning. Burroughs seemed to use Moten a bit differently than Zeke. Zeke ran a lot of plays up the middle and did both kick and punt returns. Because of Moten's speed Burroughs had him run a lot of outside read and sweep plays. He would just coast outside and when he saw a gap he would explode through it, and be gone. Because of this it was hard for me to determine whether he had the same shiftiness and inside hole-reading ability of Zeke. But the bottom line for me is that Moten is a top-caliber player; we have a good one there.

According to this link, Elliott won the 100-meter with an 11.03 his senior year. He also won the 200-meter at 22.25. AND the 110-HH at 13.87. AND the 300-H at 39.01. That was a busy day for that young man.

 

[DonatelloCat]

Re: i wonder who won the sprints?

Originally posted by RazzmaChas:
Moten is a lot faster.

In the 2014 state 100M, Moten ran 10.68 in the prelims and 10.58 in the final. The 10.58 would have been a class 3 MO state record, but it was slightly over the wind limit (+2.1). For reference, the MO record for all classes is 10.42.

Zeke won the 100M in 2013. He ran 11.11 in the prelims and 11.03 in the final.

The best news of all is that John's track coach thinks that he may be able to shave a little more time off his 100M this year.

at risk of being way off topic here . . . why are there individual records for things like track & field by class? for team sports, it makes sense to me . . . bigger schools = bigger talent pool = higher competition, so it's not fair to compare statistics across classes. and i also understand why there are classes for track & field in general, since the same bigger talent pool argument can make a team overall better.

for an individual sprinter . . . what does it matter? the level of competition doesn't affect how fast you can run.

 

[Katatonic]

Originally posted by corbi296:
Not surprising. This guy is a stud and just adds to a very nice group of running backs that we are accumulating. There is a reason that Notre Dame offered this kid and spent quite some time trying to get him to flip.

Granted, JJ is the only proven player at RB (assuming Vault gets moved back to slot WR), but AA and Moten seem to have the qualities for the 'Cats to go 3-deep (which they'll need).

Long has shown some stuff in limited time, so he'll be in the mix as well.

After a dry period at the RB position from Sutton to Mark, this is a nice change.

Now, the coaching staff has to improve/shore up the O-line and the receiving corps (and add depth at DT and LBer).

 

[Hungry Jack]

Trae Williams is a intriguing player. He looks like a legit RB prospect.

 

[corbi296]

He was recruited to play CB.

 

[No Chores]

Katatonic,

We also need to find a dual threat quarterback.

 

[Hungry Jack]

Wish I had seen more of that on his tape. Wasn't sure where they envisioned him. He's got good size for a CB and looks pretty fluid.

 

[Katatonic]

Originally posted by No Chores:
Katatonic,

We also need to find a dual threat quarterback.

Thought about including the QB position (should have a QB in every class), but too early to come to any conclusion about the QBs on the roster and Yates.

 

[hit24/7]

Hate to say it folks John Moten is not going to be following in the footsteps of ezekiel elliot whom he followed at JB. He would be better suited on the defense side of the ball. The kid is a great catch though, as would be anyone with his type of speed.













This post was edited on 1/27 7:57 AM by hit24/7

 

[Hungry Jack]

Who is John Molten?