Alemany quarterback Miller Moss benefits from transferring to pass-heavy offense

Miller Moss doesn’t quite have the look of an elite quarterback … until he drops back and the ball flicks off his fingertips in a perfect spiral nearly every time.

The mop of curly hair crowning the unassuming right-hander belies his status as a national recruit that has garnered five offers, including two from Southeastern Conference programs, before finishing his sophomore year of school.

Moss became the first freshman quarterback to start at Los Angeles Loyola but transferred soon after his freshman year. He jumped to the San Fernando Valley to join Mission Hills Bishop Alemany and new head coach Casey Clausen, who features a much more quarterback-driven offensive system. Moss went from throwing the ball 55 times in the eight games combined he played as a freshman to averaging nearly 30 pass attempts a game last year.

Those extra throws allowed colleges to get a better look at his skill set. Colorado, Auburn and Louisiana State subsequently each offered him a full scholarship this spring to go with offers to play from Yale and San Jose State he received before his sophomore season.

“It’s been great just to see something that you’ve been working toward be realized,” Moss said, adding, “It’s super humbling to see it come to fruition, but I’m not surprised because I have a certain amount of confidence in my game and what I can do.

“I just have to keep the mentality to keep working. I’m obviously grateful for every school that gives me the opportunity to go there and I’m just excited for what’s going on right now and then what’s continuing to happen.”

Moss has also recently been in contact with coaches from Oregon, UCLA, Oklahoma and Princeton, and attended camps at UCLA, Washington, Stanford, USC, Yale and Harvard last summer. This offseason, he’s hoping to take an unofficial visit to Colorado and put together a trip through the South where he can make multiple stops at schools to check out the campuses, chat with the coaching staffs and get a better feel for what they have to offer.

Bishop Alemany quarterback Miller Moss throws a pass during the Opening Los Angeles regional at Veterans Stadium in Long Beach on Feb. 10.

(Shotgun Spratling / For the Times)

“I’m definitely going to try to get out to Auburn, either in the spring or the summer,” Moss said. “I’m thinking about going to Duke, North Carolina and then maybe like Tennessee, Alabama, that kind of thing. Then obviously the local things, I’m going to try to get to USC and UCLA.”

Moss grew up a USC fan and said the Trojans will “always remain high on my list because that’s my childhood team.” They are supposed to come out to see him throw during the spring, but UCLA has been the local school recruiting him harder at this stage.

“I feel like I have a great foundation to build relationships with both Coach [Chip] Kelly, and [quarterbacks coach Dana] Bible,” Moss said. “I also feel that although they struggled last year, that program is definitely headed in the right direction, and as a recruit, that’s intriguing.”

Young talent

Moss knew when he transferred that he and Alemany were going to go through some growing pains. The Warriors went 7-5 last season, starting 6-1 before finishing with losses in four of their final five games. Moss threw 13 touchdowns and five interceptions in the first seven games but six touchdowns with nine interceptions the rest of the way. Alemany averaged 33.7 points per game in its wins and only 16.6 in the five losses.

But the Warriors have a bevy of budding talent that will only continue to get better the next two seasons. Moss has young targets like star freshman Kevin Green Jr., who led the team with 854 yards receiving, and sophomore Alonzo Fontenette, who averaged 20 yards per catch. Freshman running back Floyd Chalk ran for 6.1 yards per carry. All three are already drawing the attention of national programs and have received Power Five scholarship offers.

Alemany’s freshman group of defenders could be even better. Niuafe Tuihalamaka leads a trio of 6-foot-3 freshmen that are already making an impact on the field and drawing significant recruiting attention off it. Tuihalamaka has already received offers by Florida, LSU, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Oregon State and both Arizona schools. Ephesians Prysock and Malachi Hooper also have multiple offers. Penn State offered all three defenders along with Chalk and freshman offensive linemen Mausa Palu in an Alemany offer spree on Feb. 6.