LSU’s Moss wants more big plays
BATON ROUGE, La. — LSU tight end Thaddeus Moss would like everyone who saw his clutch, acrobatic, toe-touching catch last Saturday at Alabama to know one thing going forward.
There’s more where that came from.
“Everybody’s surprised or wowed by that catch. Yeah, it’s a good catch. I make catches like those,” said Moss, whose Pro Football Hall of Fame father, Randy Moss, also had a knack for making memorable grabs during his college and NFL days.
“I know I’m capable of doing a whole lot more. I’m capable of making a whole lot more crazy catches. So I’m hoping it’s a defining moment that just gets things rolling from here.”
That’s something the Ole Miss defense will have to keep in mind on Saturday night as the Rebels (4-6, 2-4 Southeastern Conference) host Moss and the rest of the top-ranked and unbeaten Tigers (9-0, 5-0).
“You’ve got to cover Thad,” LSU quarterback Joe Burrow said. “He makes catches like that in practice. So that was just another catch for him. Maybe runs in the family, I don’t know. I expected him to make the catch. That’s why I threw him the ball. That’s why if we get 1-on-1 (coverage) with Thad, we’re going to throw him the ball.”
Moss, a junior who transferred from North Carolina State in 2017 and missed last season with a foot injury, has 27 catches for 292 yards and a touchdown. His production has spiked during his past five games, when he has 24 catches for 216 yards.
The pivotal reception at Alabama, which set up a touchdown, was made at the Crimson Tide 1-yard line — and so close to the sideline that officials reviewed it on video before ultimately confirming their initial call that Moss had made the catch after briefly being pushed out of bounds and then re-establishing himself as in bounds. After he came back in, he leaped to make the outstretched grab and narrowly touched both toes in bounds as most of his body leaned over the sideline.
Moss then maintained control as he crashed to the ground.
While he downplayed how difficult that play was for him to pull off, he was gratified by when and where it happened, and who was there to see it. It was a highlight of LSU’s first victory over Alabama in nine meetings, and Moss said he’s been told his father, who was in the stands for most of the game in Tuscaloosa, said “Wow!”
The elder Moss, who had to catch a flight before the game ended to fulfill his commitment as an NFL television analyst, looked and sounded giddy Sunday during a replay of his son’s big catch.
“Everybody in the stadium got Mossed,” he yelled into the studio camera. “Way to go, baby!”
The younger Moss said he was told by relatives in the stands that his father “was jumping up and down and going crazy.”
“When I talked to him, he was ecstatic,” the younger Moss said. “And then, of course, when they put it on the TV show, that was real emotion. I could tell.
“For me personally, in the time, it felt good. Moving forward, I hope it puts more respect on my name within our offense and with other teams preparing for our offense. Hopefully it’ll make them prepare a little bit more, think a little bit more just about game planning, which will ultimately help our offense overall.”
While the 6-foot-3, 249pound Moss resembles his father in some ways and speaks very fondly of him, teammates said the LSU tight end shows no interest in living in his father’s shadow.
Some tight ends can be heavily oriented toward the passing game, but Moss prides himself on executing the more physical elements of his position, including blocking.