Chris Vaughn couldn’t believe what he was seeing the day he took Rondale Moore to a boxing gym to develop his hands.
“I wanted him to work on using his hands better when it came to getting a release off the line against press coverage,” said Vaughn.
Not only did Moore show his hands were quick on this day. He also showed they were deadly.
“He knocked out two professional boxers,” fessed Vaughn. “Twitch, speed, power, elusiveness. He easily could be a pro boxer.”
No doubt, it would be intriguing to see Moore in the ring–light heavyweight champ of the world, perhaps?–but his future is football. And that’s why he works with Vaughn, the founder/CEO of Aspirations Fitness Institution in Louisville, Ky.
Vaughn bills his business as “Kentucky’s ELITE training center and breeding ground for athletes.” And this is the place where Moore has been hunkering down and training since Purdue closed it facilities in the wake of the pandemic.
The roll call of athletes who have matriculated through Aspirations is impressive. According to Vaughn, there have been over 100 Division I athletes train under his watch. One is Nebraska’s Wan’Dale Robinson, a Kentucky native and one-time Purdue target who is similar to Moore in stature and skill-set. But it’s difficult to think many–if any–other Aspirations clients could be more impressive than Moore.
The 5-9, 180-pound Moore exploded onto the college football scene in 2018, when he became the first true freshman in Big Ten history to earn consensus All-American honors. The New Albany, Ind., native shouted his introduction to the world in his debut vs. Northwestern, when he broke the school single-game record for most all-purpose yards (313). By the end of the season, Moore had made 114 catches for 1,258 yards and 12 touchdowns. A star was born.
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