https://lsu.rivals.com/news/a-rolling-moss-hoping-to-gather-touchdown-passes-rather-than-injuries
November 19, 2016.
A sunny, 71-degree sun-splashed football Saturday on Senior Day at North Carolina State’s Carter-Finley Stadium as the 5-5 Wolfpack were trying to become bowl eligible against Miami.
Just more than seven minutes left in the second quarter with Miami ahead 3-0, Wolfpack true freshman tight end Thaddeus Moss caught a 3-yard pass from quarterback Ryan Finley.
It is the last pass reception Moss has in a game.
“It feels like a decade since I actually played in a football game,” Moss said.
A transfer, a redshirt year in accordance with the NCAA transfer rules and a freak injury later, there may not be a more eager LSU player ready to run through the Tiger Stadium dressing room chute for the Aug. 31 season opener vs. Georgia Southern than Thaddeus Moss.
Now a fourth-year junior hoping the NCAA gives him a medical redshirt sixth year after missing all of last season, the 6-3, 249-pound Moss admitted he daydreams sometimes about what it will be like to play in a game for the first time in three seasons.
“But I honestly try to take it one day at a time, one practice at a time, one rep a time,” Moss said. “I kind of learned that last year. You never know when something is going to be taken away from you.”
No doubt that Moss’ first LSU catch has been a long time coming.
In 2015 for Charlotte Mallard Creek (N.C.) High where he helped lead his team to three straight Class 4 AA state championships, he was rated by Rivals as the nation's sixth best tight end. He had 54 catches for 831 yards and 13 TDs as a senior.
Moss, son of Pro Football Hall of Fame wide receiver Randy Moss, had 23 scholarship offers from such schools as Alabama, Nebraska, Florida, Georgia, USC, UCLA, Michigan and Texas A&M. He chose to stay home and signed with North Carolina State.
Starting three games as freshman in 2016, he caught six passes for 49 yards and a TD.
But after spring practice in 2017, Moss decided to transfer. The first coach who contacted him was then-new LSU offensive coordinator Matt Canada, a former N.C. State assistant who had recruited Moss as high school star.
Ironically, by the time Moss had finished serving the NCAA mandated redshirt season for transferring within the FBS (Division 1-A), Canada had already been fired by LSU coach Ed Orgeron after one season.
Still, Moss seemed on track for playing time as a Tiger until early last June. During an involuntary workout with teammates, he was running a dig route in a one-on-one passing drill against outside linebacker Ray Thornton.
“I’ve ran that route thousands of times before,” Moss said. “I just planted my foot and it popped. It was nothing I did. I didn’t step on his foot.
“I struggled to walk the rest of the day. I let the trainers know my foot didn’t feel good. As the month went on, it really didn’t feel any better.”
Then in the first week of July when he was running conditioning sprints, Moss said he felt like his foot was on fire.
Realizing he couldn’t even jog, he went to the training room. “When they examined it, I almost jumped off the table it hurt so bad,” Moss said. “That’s when got an X-ray.”
The diagnosis was a fractured fifth metatarsal and he underwent immediate surgery.
“I was told I wasn’t going to miss the season opener against Miami,” Moss said. “That didn’t happen.”
And didn’t happen all season, though every couple of weeks Moss thought his foot might heal enough for him to play.
The problem was the first surgery in July didn’t fix the fracture.
“Doctors said they’d never before seen the type of fracture I had,” Moss said. “The fracture was still there after the first surgery. It was still there all season.”
For someone who had never missed a game his entire career from the time he started playing in the pee wee leagues, Moss said the 2018 season was “like a fog.”
“Last year was probably one of the hardest years of my life,” Moss said. “I never dreamed of playing for LSU, I never expected to play for LSU. So, when I got here, I was excited and looking forward to playing for and being part of LSU.
“Football really means a lot to me. Having something taken away from me that I worked very hard for last off-season because of a freak injury was tough. I didn’t know what to do with myself. I didn’t know how to react.”
Moss underwent a second surgery a few days before last Thanksgiving and it appears to be a success because of his relentless rehab effort.
He worked out on days he was supposed to take off. He stayed in Baton Rouge on spring break where his beach was the weight room.
“I worked really hard this off season to be able to have my body where it is right now,” Moss said. “It feels really good to be able to get through full practices, through every single rep in every single drill, be able to do that in back to back to back days and feel perfectly fine.
“I’m just very confident right now how I feel at practice mentally as well as physically.”
Moss said he kept telling himself last season that “everything happens for a reason.” If the NCAA grants Moss a medical redshirt for missing last year, he would have two more years of playing eligibility after this year.
It would mean he would get three seasons in new passing game coordinator Joe Brady’s offense, which would valid Moss’ “everything happens for a reason” mantra.
“I love this offense, I love this system. I love Joe Brady,” Moss said. “We know how many playmakers we have. We have four or five running backs we can play, we have multiple receivers and tight ends we can play.
“(Quarterback) Joe (Burrow) worked all summer to have chemistry with everyone. He doesn’t want one dominant receiver. He wants everybody to eat, everybody to score touchdowns. It keeps the defense honest.”
November 19, 2016.
A sunny, 71-degree sun-splashed football Saturday on Senior Day at North Carolina State’s Carter-Finley Stadium as the 5-5 Wolfpack were trying to become bowl eligible against Miami.
Just more than seven minutes left in the second quarter with Miami ahead 3-0, Wolfpack true freshman tight end Thaddeus Moss caught a 3-yard pass from quarterback Ryan Finley.
It is the last pass reception Moss has in a game.
“It feels like a decade since I actually played in a football game,” Moss said.
A transfer, a redshirt year in accordance with the NCAA transfer rules and a freak injury later, there may not be a more eager LSU player ready to run through the Tiger Stadium dressing room chute for the Aug. 31 season opener vs. Georgia Southern than Thaddeus Moss.
Now a fourth-year junior hoping the NCAA gives him a medical redshirt sixth year after missing all of last season, the 6-3, 249-pound Moss admitted he daydreams sometimes about what it will be like to play in a game for the first time in three seasons.
“But I honestly try to take it one day at a time, one practice at a time, one rep a time,” Moss said. “I kind of learned that last year. You never know when something is going to be taken away from you.”
No doubt that Moss’ first LSU catch has been a long time coming.
In 2015 for Charlotte Mallard Creek (N.C.) High where he helped lead his team to three straight Class 4 AA state championships, he was rated by Rivals as the nation's sixth best tight end. He had 54 catches for 831 yards and 13 TDs as a senior.
Moss, son of Pro Football Hall of Fame wide receiver Randy Moss, had 23 scholarship offers from such schools as Alabama, Nebraska, Florida, Georgia, USC, UCLA, Michigan and Texas A&M. He chose to stay home and signed with North Carolina State.
Starting three games as freshman in 2016, he caught six passes for 49 yards and a TD.
But after spring practice in 2017, Moss decided to transfer. The first coach who contacted him was then-new LSU offensive coordinator Matt Canada, a former N.C. State assistant who had recruited Moss as high school star.
Ironically, by the time Moss had finished serving the NCAA mandated redshirt season for transferring within the FBS (Division 1-A), Canada had already been fired by LSU coach Ed Orgeron after one season.
Still, Moss seemed on track for playing time as a Tiger until early last June. During an involuntary workout with teammates, he was running a dig route in a one-on-one passing drill against outside linebacker Ray Thornton.
“I’ve ran that route thousands of times before,” Moss said. “I just planted my foot and it popped. It was nothing I did. I didn’t step on his foot.
“I struggled to walk the rest of the day. I let the trainers know my foot didn’t feel good. As the month went on, it really didn’t feel any better.”
Then in the first week of July when he was running conditioning sprints, Moss said he felt like his foot was on fire.
Realizing he couldn’t even jog, he went to the training room. “When they examined it, I almost jumped off the table it hurt so bad,” Moss said. “That’s when got an X-ray.”
The diagnosis was a fractured fifth metatarsal and he underwent immediate surgery.
“I was told I wasn’t going to miss the season opener against Miami,” Moss said. “That didn’t happen.”
And didn’t happen all season, though every couple of weeks Moss thought his foot might heal enough for him to play.
The problem was the first surgery in July didn’t fix the fracture.
“Doctors said they’d never before seen the type of fracture I had,” Moss said. “The fracture was still there after the first surgery. It was still there all season.”
For someone who had never missed a game his entire career from the time he started playing in the pee wee leagues, Moss said the 2018 season was “like a fog.”
“Last year was probably one of the hardest years of my life,” Moss said. “I never dreamed of playing for LSU, I never expected to play for LSU. So, when I got here, I was excited and looking forward to playing for and being part of LSU.
“Football really means a lot to me. Having something taken away from me that I worked very hard for last off-season because of a freak injury was tough. I didn’t know what to do with myself. I didn’t know how to react.”
Moss underwent a second surgery a few days before last Thanksgiving and it appears to be a success because of his relentless rehab effort.
He worked out on days he was supposed to take off. He stayed in Baton Rouge on spring break where his beach was the weight room.
“I worked really hard this off season to be able to have my body where it is right now,” Moss said. “It feels really good to be able to get through full practices, through every single rep in every single drill, be able to do that in back to back to back days and feel perfectly fine.
“I’m just very confident right now how I feel at practice mentally as well as physically.”
Moss said he kept telling himself last season that “everything happens for a reason.” If the NCAA grants Moss a medical redshirt for missing last year, he would have two more years of playing eligibility after this year.
It would mean he would get three seasons in new passing game coordinator Joe Brady’s offense, which would valid Moss’ “everything happens for a reason” mantra.
“I love this offense, I love this system. I love Joe Brady,” Moss said. “We know how many playmakers we have. We have four or five running backs we can play, we have multiple receivers and tight ends we can play.
“(Quarterback) Joe (Burrow) worked all summer to have chemistry with everyone. He doesn’t want one dominant receiver. He wants everybody to eat, everybody to score touchdowns. It keeps the defense honest.”
