Notre Dame-Marshall and how an NFL legend nearly attended Notre Dame
When Notre Dame and Marshall meet this weekend the history between the two programs won’t be the deepest. The two have never met on the football field and aside from Cain Madden who transferred to Notre Dame from Marshall for the 2021 season, there isn’t exactly a large overlap there.
Except for perhaps the most talented wide receiver the game of football has ever seen.
Randy Moss was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2018, two decades after his topsy-turvey college football career came to an end. It was a career that saw him sign a letter of intent to Notre Dame, but never saw him actually enter school as a student.
What is the story between Moss and Notre Dame, how it ended up not happening, and what could have been? Here’s a look back at perhaps the biggest recruit Notre Dame ever didn’t ultimately end up with.
Randy Moss the High School Legend
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Perhaps Los Angeles Lakers great Jerry West is the only potential competition for Randy Moss in the debate for West Virginia’s greatest high school athlete ever. According to 18 Stripes, Moss was flat-out ridiculous in any sport he played, not just football. At Du Pont High School, Moss won the 100 and 200-meter dash state championships as a sophomore before giving up track, scored 30.2 points and 13.7 rebounds per game on the hardwood, and on the football field scored 44 touchdowns while playing as a receiver, safety, kicker, punter, and returner.
"The best football player I've ever seen" - Lou Holtz
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We could sit and read Randy Moss’s stats back for days on end and they help tell the story but what about a few college football coaches who were trying to win his talents to their respective programs. Here is what Bobby Bowden and Lou Holtz both had to say about watching Moss as a recruit.
Bowden: “As good as Deion Sanders. Deion is my measuring stick for athletic ability and this kid is just better.”
Holtz: “The best football player I’ve seen in my life”
Moss loved Notre Dame
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Recruiting coverage wasn’t the same in 1995 when Moss was seen as one of the nation’s top players but it was big enough to draw national attention. From the LA Times in 1997:
Moss had one recurring football dream: playing for Notre Dame. He and his brother used to fight over who loved the Irish more.
“Usually we’d start naming players, All-Americans, Heismans, numbers, ‘Back in this day who wore number so and so,’ ” Moss says, explaining the competition. “It was like a trivia game, really. Who likes them the most.”
Moss was in heaven the day Notre Dame sent him a questionnaire. There would be no recruiting war. Moss was going to South Bend.
Moss part of Notre Dame's top-ranked recruiting class
USA TODAY NETWORK – KORY MINOR IN 1998
Fresh off a disappointing 1994 campaign that saw the usual national championship contending Irish go just 6-5-1, Lou Holtz and Notre Dame landed the nation’s top recruiting class the following winter. Moss was included in that group as he signed his letter of intent to play at Notre Dame. He was set to join a class that included the nation’s top linebacker in Kory Minor, star fullback Jamie Spencer, standout offensive tackle Matt Rosenthal and plenty of others.
Moss never enrolls at Notre Dame
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Not too long after committing to Notre Dame, Moss was involved in a fight at school that resulted in him spending 30 days in jail. Nearly three decades later it’s very important to note that the fight started due to a classmate carving the n-word into a desk. That classmate wound up with a lacerated spleen and spent time in the hospital. As a result of the fight combined with an incomplete application, Moss was not admitted to Notre Dame and was let go from his letter of intent.
Short Florida State Stay
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After Notre Dame revoked Moss’s scholarship he missed the 1995 season due to transferring but eventually enrolled at Florida State. However, a positive marijuana test came back and forced his exit from Tallahassee so entering 1996, Moss was again on the move, this time to then I-AA powerhouse Marshall.
Moss Breaks Out at Marshall
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Moss was finally able to step onto a college football field starting in the fall of 1996 at Marshall and took no time to dominate. He was essentially like when you create a player in a video game, make them all 99 ratings on everything, and proceed to dominate poor competition with them. He was a man amongst boys who recorded 54 touchdown receptions in two seasons, averaged 20.3 yards per catch, and hauled in 3,467 receiving yards in two years. Moss was also a Heisman Trophy finalist along with Charles Woodson of Michigan, Peyton Manning of Tennessee, and Ryan Leaf of Washington State.
Draft fall, Moss dominated NFL
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Everyone knew heading into the 1998 NFL draft that Manning and Leaf would go with the top-two picks and most figured Moss would follow rather soon behind. That didn’t happen however as he fell all the way to the Minnesota Vikings who had the 21st overall pick.
All Moss proceeded to do was record 69 receptions for 1,317 yards, and 17 touchdowns as a rookie.
Moss an all-time great
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It’s impossible to do but if you were to take off all the off-the-field issues, which receiver all-time would you rather have: Jerry Rice or Randy Moss? The man turned into one of the absolute best to ever play the position in the NFL, if not the very best.
The 2018 Pro Football Hall of Famer’s Career Stats:
15,292 receiving yards – 4th most all-time
156 receiving touchdowns – 2nd all-time
982 receptions – 9th all-time
Four-time first-team All-Pro
Six-time Pro Bowler
What if?
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So the million dollar what-if is what happens to Notre Dame and Moss if ultimately he would have gone to Notre Dame? Obviously with his track record at the time he wasn’t being let in and he even was forced out of Florida State in the mid-90s, but let’s say things were more in place for him off the field at that point. A few things that likely happen:
Notre Dame ditches the option and goes with a more aggressive offense sooner
Perhaps Moss saves the day against Northwestern in the 1995 opener as the unstoppable freshman prevents the massive upset from ever happening and that season ends with a Notre Dame having legit championship aspirations entering bowl season
1996 Notre Dame, who went 8-3 with close losses to both USC and Air Force, as well as a 13-point home loss to Ohio State, very likely goes 10-1 at worst in the regular season, if not better.
Lou Holtz sticks around a few years longer than through 1996
Bob Davie takes a head coach job elsewhere instead of becoming Notre Dame’s head coach in 1997
Perhaps the echoes being muted from 1997 through roughly 2011 don’t happen that way and the Willingham and Weis debacles don’t happen?
Leave your comments below as to what you think happens if Moss actually would have wound up at Notre Dame way back in 1995.
