Moreno could soar into the NFL

This hurdle over a Central Michigan defender was one of many highlights in Knowshon Moreno's stellar season. Kelly Kline/Icon SMI

His first time? Georgia coach Mark Richt still recalls it in rich detail. Sitting in his spacious office in Athens, Ga., he leans back in his chair, closes his eyes and remembers the rush of sensations he felt on that special day. He travels back in time to the spring of 2007, to the afternoon he first saw Knowshon Moreno soar into the sky.

"Knowshon takes the ball and is running down the left sideline in an offense versus defense scrimmage," said Richt, smiling at the memory. "A defender comes up and is in the proper tackling position. But when the defender goes low, Knowshon just jumps over him. I mean he flies. The defenders grabs nothing but air, and Knowshon just keeps running down the field. It was unbelievable. Everyone on the team -- offense, defense, the coaches -- started screaming and going crazy. That's what Knowshon can do: He can single-handedly uplift our entire team."

Though Georgia was one of the most disappointing teams in the country this season -- the consensus preseason No. 1 team finished the regular season 9-3 and will play Michigan State in the Capital One Bowl -- it wasn't because of Moreno. He led the SEC in rushing with 1,395 yards (116.3 per game, which is 13th best in the country) and in the process joined Herschel Walker as the only player in Georgia history to run for more than 1,000 yards in back-to-back seasons. Moreno is a finalist for the Doak Walker Award -- given to the nation's top running back -- which will be awarded Thursday in Orlando. The hardware will likely go to either Moreno or Iowa's Shonn Green, who finished second in the nation in rushing yards per game (144.1) behind UConn's Donald Brown (153.7).

Now the question in Athens is this: Will Moreno, a reshirt sophomore, declare for the NFL draft after the Capital One Bowl? At 5-foot-11, 207 pounds, Moreno possess 4.4 40 speed, the power of a linebacker and is harder to bring down in the open field that any back in Georgia history (yes, including Walker). If he stays for his junior year, Moreno will finally be behind an experienced offensive line -- this season the Bulldogs didn't have a regular starter older than a sophomore -- and he'll be a preseason Heisman frontrunner. But the lure of the NFL will be strong. After all, according to several NFL scouts Moreno would likely be a top-15 pick if he turns pro.

"Decisions are decisions, and when it comes time to make them, we are going to do that," Moreno said after Georgia's last game of the regular season, a 45-42 loss to Georgia Tech. "Beside that, I'm moving forward to this next game."

*****

Moreno is hanging out in one of the film rooms at the Georgia football offices. Sitting behind a podium that has a microphone on it, he pretends he's Richt fielding questions from reporters. "Well, uh, the key to the game will be Knowshon," Moreno said, doing his best Richt impersonation. "Everyone knows that he can't be tackled."

Quarterback Matt Stafford, sitting in one of the chairs in the room, breaks out laughing. But there's some truth to Moreno's joke. When he was in eighth grade in Bayshore, N.J., Moreno was standing on a playground tossing a football to himself when he issued a challenge to 30 of his classmates: Try to tackle to me. The playground was only the size of two tennis courts, and a heartbeat later 30 kids were chasing Moreno as if he'd just stolen their lunch money. He dodged. He juked. He ran around poles. For 45 seconds, no one could touch little Moreno. "He made every kid miss," said Al Bigos, a teacher at Bayshore. "Nobody came close to getting him. It was like two-hand touch, and nobody got a hand on him."

"That was just all instinct," Moreno said. "That's my whole game: just doing what comes naturally. Like when I jump over guys; it's not something I plan to do, it just happens, almost like I'm not even controlling my body."

Soon after the mad dash around the playground, Bigos called Steve Antonucci, the coach at Middletown (N.J.) South high and told him about this kid who couldn't be caught. Five years later, after his final game for Middletown, Moreno had led his school to three straight state championships and rushed for 6,268 yards, the second most career rushing yards in New Jersey high school history. What's more, he set school track records in the 100 meters, the long jump and the triple jump.

After his sophomore season, Moreno's coach, Antonucci, encouraged Moreno to sign up for a SAT prep course. Moreno agreed, and during one study session he met Kade Weston, a defensive tackle at nearby Red Bank Regional High. The two became fast friends and after Weston signed with Georgia, he encouraged his buddy to take a visit to Athens. So one day in the spring of '06, Moreno rode a train south -- a train ride that would change the course of his life. "I loved everything about the school," Moreno said. "It was just so different from New Jersey. I knew right away it was the place for me."

Georgia fans have always had a thing for tailbacks. But not since Walker's '82 Heisman season have they been as wild for a player as they are about Moreno. Everywhere he goes in Athens -- to class, to one of his weekly games at a local bowling alley, to the football complex -- he's hounded for autographs, pictures, and handshakes. His No. 24 jersey is the top-seller at the campus book store. "He's a rock star around here, no question," said Georgia running backs coach Tony Ball. "People absolutely love the guy. I think it's because he plays the game so hard."

The love affair deepened early this season when, during a game against Central Michigan, he leaped over Chippewas safety Vince Agnew during a spectacular run. The play became a YouTube sensation -- the clip has gotten more than 380,000 hits -- and it was Moreno's signature run of the season. If Georgia hadn't suffered disappointing losses to Alabama, Florida and Georgia Tech, the giant leap could have served as his Heisman moment.

"He's as good of a running back as I've ever coached," Richt said, noting that he coached the likes of Sammy Smith and Warrick Dunn while at Florida State. "He doesn't have a weakness. He'll eventually have a decision to make, but if he comes back it'll be exciting to see what he could do behind a line that has more experience."

What could he do? That's one of the questions Moreno must weigh as he ponders his future, which right now looks as promising as any running back's in college football.