Ex-Tigers QB Moore goes to Garden City
Getting on a Greyhound bus led to Whitehaven’s Hamilton being a Buckeye Community college next step for grateful player
CorMontae Hamilton has recounted the Greyhound bus story so many times by now, he could likely tell it in his sleep.
The 4 a.m. wakeup call in the middle of summer. The 24-plus hours the 17-year-old spent going from Memphis to Columbus, Ohio, and back — alone. The countless number of Lil Baby, Young Dolph
Two days after leaving the Memphis football team, former Tigers quarterback David Moore announced Thursday he was transferring to Garden City Community College in Kansas.Moore posted a statement on his Twitter profile saying goodbye to the Tigers program.
"I want to give a special thank you to Coach Norvell, Coach Dillingham and and YoungBoy Never Broke Again tracks that pumped through his Beats by Dre to keep him company. The Uber driver who kindly stopped at a Columbus Chick-fil-A before dropping him off at a Comfort Inn for the night. The gloves and cleats he threw into a backpack and wore the next day at Ohio State’s Friday Night Lights football camp.
Hamilton, a three-star tight end and one of Whitehaven’s senior captains, so coveted a scholarship offer Coach Storms for their role in my development as a man first and a player as well," Moore wrote. "Memphis taught me many lessons I will use for the rest of my life and will be always be a second home for me."
Moore, who would've been a redshirt sophomore this year after serving as Riley Ferguson's back-up last season, also said that he planned to sign with a Division I college in December.
Garden City Community College is in the same conference as Coffeyville Community College, where Riley Ferguson played before transferring to Memphis. It is also the same conference as Independence Community College from the Netflix from the Buckeyes that he was willing to do whatever it took to put himself in the right place at the right time to get it.
“My team growing up was the Florida Gators,” said Hamilton, whose family moved to Memphis from Decatur, Illinois, almost a decade ago. “And Urban Meyer was the head coach there at the time. So I had been feeling Ohio State for a series "Last Chance U."
Moore did not show up at practice Tuesday and told the Commercial Appeal in a message that he was leaving the team to transfer. The decision paved the way for Brady White to be named the team's starting quarterback.
Tigers coach Mike Norvell hinted that Moore's decision was likely affected by outside influences. Moore mentioned the rumors but did not specifically address the process behind his decision.
"There has been a lot of speculation on why I left and I can just say that this was the hardest thing I've ever had to do and it was not taken lightly," Moore wrote. "Everything isn't always just black and white.
long while.”
Why trip to Columbus, Ohio, was on a Greyhound
But Hamilton’s plans hit a snag shortly before he was set to head north on June 21. The 6-foot-1, 246-pounder’s mother, Nikki Gilmore, couldn’t get off work in time to make the drive. So she nervously agreed to let him board a Greyhound at the Airways Boulevard station.
“I think it was worse for me,” said Gilmore, who dropped her son off early the morning before the one-day camp. “Between me, my mom and my sister, we worried the whole time. They were like, ‘Did you talk to him? Have you heard from him?’ So I called him, like, every other second. And when I wasn’t calling, I was texting. I was telling him to watch the people around him. ‘Watch your surroundings. Make sure you carry your backpack with you at all times. Don’t be texting and tweeting while you’re walking.’ “He was like, ‘Mom, I’m fine.’” Despite battling an injured shoulder, Hamilton earned the scholarship offer he was after and committed to the Buckeyes on July 27.
Hamilton admitted his trek, which made stops in Nashville, Bowling Green, Louisville and Cincinnati before reaching Columbus, wasn’t the most glamorous. Besides the backpack, folder full of bus tickets and headphones, he carried a pillow and a jar of juice (consisting of apple cider vinegar, ginger and green tea) his mother concocted.
Gilmore has been preparing the allnatural homemade beverages since her youngest son, MarQuavius Jones, died in 2015 at 4 years old from a rare form of cancer (alveolar soft-part sarcoma). Only 80 cases are diagnosed per year, according to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
“They gave him chemo and radiation and he beat it the first time,” Hamilton said of his half-brother’s battle with the disease.
“But it somehow came back and my mom decided to try some natural ways to make him better. And it really helped him. But it came back worse.”
“We wanted to eat like (MarQuavius), so he didn’t have to eat that way alone,” Gilmore said. “So ‘Tae’ has kept it going.”
What CorMontae Hamilton said about Urban Meyer
Meyer was suspended Wednesday night for the first three games of the season for how he handled what an Ohio State investigation called "a pattern of troubling behavior" by former assistant coach Zach Smith.
Hamilton said the controversy has done nothing to shake his commitment.
"Not at all," he said, noting offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson has served as his primary recruiter. "Like I tell everyone else, it doesn't bother me. When I heard about it a few weeks ago, I texted (Meyer) and said, 'Wish you well. Hope everything will be all right.'"