There Could Be Another Great Moss in the Making

The trouble with track and field in this country can be seen every time Santana Moss leaps for a pass, settles under a punt or outsprints another opposing defense from one end of the field to the other.

That should have been Moss spraying sand at the Sydney Olympics three months ago, long jumping for the red, white and blue, reminding the world that America still had a future in the event, instead of as it stands now: A glorious past that shut down operations the minute Carl Lewis retired.

Because before Moss took his first steps toward the all-time pass-receiving and punt-return yardage records at the University of Miami, before he positioned the Hurricanes within one Sugar Bowl victory of a possible national co-championship, he was a track man. At Carol City High in Florida, he won two state championships in the triple jump and another in the long jump. Track gave him the scholarship to a big-time athletic program that football initially couldn’t.

But track couldn’t hold on to him, because track, at least in this country, couldn’t show Moss the money. Moss became a father last May. Moss expects to become a first-round NFL draft choice in April. Moss is a smart young man.

So when USA Track and Field came calling with an invitation to the U.S. Olympic trials, Moss declined. If football is going to pay the mortgage down the road, Moss figured, football was going to get his undivided attention . . . and weren’t the Hurricanes set to play Rutgers the week of the men’s long-jump competition in Sydney?

Oh, and about that long-ago promise of Olympic glory Moss made to his mother once upon a time?

Sorry, Mom.

“I said growing up, ‘Mom, I’m going to go to the 2000 Olympics. I’m going to go, Ma,’ ” Moss said. “And then when I got that chance, it was shocking. I had a chance to go to the trials, but I didn’t go because of football.

“I said to myself, just [qualifying for] the trials was a blessing for me, because I really told my mom a long time ago that I was going to be there. But I knew I had to take care of first things first and that was football. That’s why I didn’t go to the trials . . . I had to decide: What do I want to do for the next 10 years of my life? I made sure I stayed focused on the football team.”

So Moss didn’t go, didn’t jump, didn’t even follow the Sydney Olympics, although he professes that development had nothing to do with NBC.

“I really didn’t have the time,” he said. “My son was born early in May. I made sure that during the early stages of his life . . . I was going to do my thing as far as football was concerned, then come home and be a father. So I really didn’t pay attention to the Olympics.”

And when all the American long jumpers wound up jumping short, Moss insists he felt no wistful pangs of what could have been.

“Not at all,” said Moss, the 2000 Big East Conference long jump and triple jump champion. “Those guys who were there really worked hard year-out for that and they all deserved what they got. I feel that by me coming out and jumping and doing the things that I did, it was a blessing, but I didn’t work at it, so I didn’t want to go out and take away somebody else’s place, somebody’s opportunity to be there.

“I wanted to focus on what I want to do in life, and that’s football.”

Track was the vehicle that got Moss where he wanted to be: Major college football. Football alone wasn’t going to get it done, because in high school, Moss was a wide receiver in a wing-T offense. In other words, a very fast decoy.

“I wanted to go to [a major football program], but knowing the offense I played in during high school, I knew there wasn’t a chance,” Moss said. “Leaving high school, all I had was, like, 25 catches for 600 yards, stuff like that. I averaged three catches a game in high school. My senior year alone. My sophomore and junior years, when I started on varsity, I probably had five catches both seasons. Because we had an option offense, the wing-T. Some games, the wide receivers were told to just block.

“I was good at blocking and running people down the field. So when it came to those schools like Florida and Florida State and Miami, I thought I’d never be there. I got chances to go up north, to Western Michigan, Pittsburgh, Utah State, stuff like that. These great teams like Florida and Ohio State, they never entered my mind.”

Miami, however, came through with an offer Moss couldn’t refuse: A track scholarship with a chance to walk-on with the Hurricane football team. Miami football Coach Butch Davis later sweetened the deal: If Moss impressed the Hurricane coaching staff, his scholarship would be converted from track to football.

Three games into his freshman season, Moss had his football scholarship.

In the years that have followed, the mystery has only thickened: What was this man, so fast (4.3 in the 40), so small (generously listed at 5 feet 10 inches and 180 pounds), so elusive in the open field, doing run-blocking in high school?

With one game, Tuesday’s Sugar Bowl against Florida, left in his college career, Moss is already Miami’s career record holder in receiving yards, punt return yards and all-purpose yards. He broke Michael Irvin’s record for receiving yardage in early November and now has 2,546. His 1,196 punt-return yards eclipsed a 62-year-old school record, set by Eddie Dunn in 1938. And his 4,394 all-purpose yards surpass Ottis Anderson’s old school mark by more than 1,000 yards.

Davis calls Moss “electrifying” and says “Santana is as exceptional with the run after the catch as any kid that I’ve ever been around. He has a great change of direction, great speed, great vision. Ideally, every game, if it’s possible, you’d like to get the ball in his hands offensively at least eight to 10 times--five or six catches, three or four reverses, then another half a dozen or so punt returns.”

That adds up to 12 to 16 touches a game, which explains why Davis coaches football instead of teaching math. But point taken: Miami functions best with more than a little Moss on the football.

In the Hurricanes’ only loss of 2000, a 34-29 defeat to Washington on Sept. 9, Moss, limited by a sprained right ankle, handled the ball only five times. One reception for seven yards, three punt returns for 40 yards . . . and one fumbled punt, recovered by Washington and converted into a Husky touchdown.

Moss injured the ankle the week before, in the Hurricanes’ season opener against Division I-AA McNeese State. In more ways than one, that McNeese State game helped punched Miami’s ticket to New Orleans and the Sugar Bowl instead of keeping the Hurricanes at home for the Orange Bowl and a shot at an undisputed national title.

The most valuable ankle on the Miami campus has benefited from five mangle-free weeks and a month of low-impact workouts. The Gators can imagine what that means, and their defenders are bracing for the challenge.

“On film, you see him accelerating away from guys, he’s so fast, it’s unbelievable,” Florida safety Todd Johnson said. “He’s got so much speed and he uses it on almost every play.”