O'Fallon's Flood says he will play at Purdue

O'Fallon High School senior tight end De'Ron Flood has made a verbal commitment to play football at Purdue University.

His decision continues a recent trend of O'Fallon helping to stock the rosters of Big Ten teams.

Duane Bennett is the starting running back at Minnesota, Troy Wagner is a starting tight end at Indiana and Daniel Moore is a starting defensive lineman at Wisconsin. All three are O'Fallon graduates.

"Three Division I starters in the Big Ten next year, we don't see that very often," said O'Fallon football coach Brandon Joggerst.

Flood (6-foot-3 230 pounds) caught 21 passes for 377 yards and one touchdown as a junior last season.

He also had offers from Indiana, Kansas, Colorado State, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Illinois State, Northern Iowa and Bowling Green.

He had interest from Illinois and Missouri and was at Illinois as recently as last week. But instead of waiting for something better, Flood found what he wanted with the Boilermakers.

"I chose Purdue because out of all the schools I went to, it was where I felt the most comfortable at," Flood said. "I'm pretty happy about my decision. I've been to a lot of different places and looked around a lot. At the end of the day, Purdue's where I wanted to be."

Joggerst said Moore is one of the best receivers O'Fallon has had in years.

"As far as hands and route-running, he's probably the best we've had come through," Joggerst said. "He runs great routes and is very physical for his size."

Flood said one of the main reasons he picked Purdue is the way they feature their tight ends in the offensive scheme. Flood spoke about former Purdue star tight end Dustin Keller, who was picked 30th overall by the New York Jets in the 2008 NFL Draft.

Keller had 48 catches for 535 yards and three touchdowns as a Jets rookie last season.

"Purdue utilizes their tight end a lot and flanks them out, so that really caught his interest," Joggerst said. "They do a lot of things with their tight ends there, instead of just having them putting their hand down and blocking."

Joggerst said Flood will start at tight end and linebacker for O'Fallon this season.