Purdue WR Rondale Moore Announces He's Opting Back into 2020 CFB Season

Rondale Moore announced Thursday on ESPN2's College Football Live he's opting back into the 2020 college football season and will return to Purdue.

Boilermakers head coach Jeff Brohm provided a statement about Moore's decision:

A hamstring injury limited the receiver to four games in 2019. Before that, he was one of the Big Ten's most explosive players. He caught 114 passes for 1,258 yards and 12 touchdowns while running for 213 yards and two touchdowns as a freshman 2018.

Moore announced in August he was planning to leave Purdue to focus on the 2021 NFL draft after the Big Ten postponed fall sports amid the COVID-19 pandemic. However, ESPN's Adam Rittenberg noted the junior pass-catcher didn't hire an agent and remained enrolled at Purdue.

That allows him to make an easy transition back to the team after the Big Ten changed course and laid out plans to begin a football season on Oct. 23. The adoption of tighter COVID-19 health and safety protocols and daily testing played into the conference's reversal.

"The Big Ten figured it out, Purdue was doing a great job of keeping us safe, and I felt safe coming back," Moore told ESPN. "For me, it was a no-brainer to come back to school and go prove what I think I'm worth."

Purdue will now have one of its best players when it opens the year Oct. 24 against Iowa.

Moore, meanwhile, can stabilize or perhaps improve his draft stock following his underwhelming campaign a season ago. In his most recent mock draft, Bleacher Report's Matt Miller projected the 5'9" wideout to go 13th to the Atlanta Falcons.