Former Blanche Ely, Hurricane star Moss dies
Running back remembered as one of South Florida’s greatest ever
CORAL GABLES — Tyrone Moss, one of the great high school football players in South Florida history and a former Miami Hurricane, has died at 33, according to Steve Davis, his former coach at Pompano Beach’s Blanche Ely High School.
The cause of death for Moss — who graduated from Blanche Ely in 2003 after carrying the Tigers to a state title in the fall of 2002 and went on to play at Miami between 2003-06 — was undisclosed, though Davis, two assistant coaches and Tony Sands, who trained and mentored him, indicated Moss had been dealing with a heart-related illness or medical condition.
Before arriving at Miami as one of the nation’s top high school prospects, Moss was a record-breaking state champion at Blanche Ely who was known as much for his oversized personality as his talent on the football field.
“He was always jovial, just a happy kid,” said Davis, who now leads Plantation. “I can never remember a time when Tyrone was mad, even when we coached him hard. And we coached him hard because we knew how talented he was. He was always still smiling and laughing.”
Others who coached Moss saw the same in him.
“He was more than a football player. He was one of them kids, when you see him,
“Whenever we needed a play, he always made it.”
Roderick Branch
always smiling, laughing, kee-keeing,” said Roderick Branch, wide receivers coach on that Tigers team who still is with Davis at Plantation. “You see kids that have the fame and the glory. You’d think that they’re not humble, but he was always humble. You would never know that he was a five-star recruit.”
“I can’t even remember ever seeing Tyrone mad,” said Anthony Wiggins, defensive backs coach at Ely who remains in Pompano Beach and close to Moss’ family. “If he was upset, he didn’t really show it.”
Branch recalls those instances when coaches would be hard on Moss. He would just laugh it off and go for a 20-yard run the following play.
“Whenever we needed a play, he always made it,” Branch said. “Tyrone had God-given talent. He had a great background. His uncle was a great player, Rod Baker [a 1985 Ely grad who played running back for Missouri], and he took that trait.”
That hard-nosed coaching, combined with Moss’ skill set, helped the running back become a Broward County legend who rushed for 7,105 yards during his high school career, a Broward record. He’d be honored as a Parade All-American before arriving at Miami and was, in 2007, named one of the FHSAA’s “100 Greatest Players of the First 100 Years” during the state’s celebration of 100 years of Florida high school football.
“I remember his toughness. I remember him wanting to be great,” said Sands, a local legend in his own right whose rushing record was broken by Moss and played at Kansas. “He always would ask me, ‘Coach, what does it take to be great?’
“He’s like a son to me more than a trainer and a client [relationship]. We would talk about anything. When I say anything – anything.”
The impact of Moss’ loss is felt not just by those directly related to his football career, but the Pompano community at large.
“This is a blow to our community, believe it or not,” Wiggins said. “We love all our kids, but this kid was a special kid. He had a good legacy, so he’s going to be missed in the community.”
“It’s a total shock,” said Davis. “He was, by far, the best player I’ve ever coached at the high school level. You had defenses and everybody that we played, all 11 guys knew he was going to get the ball. He’d still have 250 yards. You just couldn’t figure it out. My greatest moment was watching him in that state championship. He had over 200 yards. He was just incredible. He was a great football player, but he was a greater human.”
After wrapping up a dazzling career at Blanche Ely that also included him rushing for a then-record breaking 2,011 yards in 2000, Moss signed with the Hurricanes where he went on to become a first-team All-ACC selection in 2005 after rushing for a team-high 701 yards, despite missing the final four games of the season with a knee injury.
His name still appears throughout the Hurricanes’ record book, his 1,942 career rushing yards ranking 14th on Miami’s all-time list. His 412 carries are 10th in program history and his 26 career touchdowns rank him fifth all-time among Hurricanes running backs.
Moss posted seven 100-yard games at Miami, a number that ranks 10th on the Hurricanes’ all-time list, and his ACC-leading 12 touchdowns in 2005 rank seventh on Miami’s singleseason list.
He suffered an ACL injury in 2005 and never made it to the NFL.
“Everybody thought he was going to the NFL, and he thought so too. He got that injury, man, that year and never really bounced back from that injury, and it kind of bothered him a little bit,” Wiggins said. “This is what I’ve heard people say when they talked to him. They would say he was a little down, and they figured that was the reason.
“Every time I did see him, ‘Hey, Coach.’ He was always smiling. He was always all right.”
Although the injury didn’t allow him to fulfill his full potential in football, he remains remembered for much more.
“I know he got injured at Miami toward the end of his career, but I knew he was going to be a great talent,” Davis said. “He was just a super kid. Really liked that guy and not just for his football prowess, but just the type of person he was.”
Plantation, where Davis, Branch and two other assistants that used to coach Moss at Ely currently coach, will play at Blanche Ely on Aug. 31.