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<\/p>\nThis spring, dozens of pro days will take place on campuses. College prospects, from projected first-rounders to undrafted free agents, will run, jump and perform position-specific drills in hopes of boosting their stock. But there will likely never be a pro day quite like the one that took place in Huntington, W.Va., in 1998, the day Marshall\u2019s Randy Moss put on a show as no one had ever seen before.<\/p>\n
A former two-time West Virginia state basketball player of the year and Parade All-American wide receiver, Moss had committed to Notre Dame but never made it to South Bend. In 1995, during his senior year at DuPont High School in DuPont City, W.Va., Moss was involved in a fight sparked by a racial slur. He later pleaded guilty to misdemeanor battery charges related to the incident and had to serve 30 days of jail time. Florida State coach Bobby Bowden offered to take Moss, but the school would only do so under the condition that the gifted wideout would redshirt the 1995 season.<\/p>\n
Moss wowed his teammates daily at practice, even though he wasn\u2019t able to play. After the season, while still on probation and back at home in West Virginia, Moss tested positive for marijuana and had to serve about a month\u2019s worth of additional jail time. Bowden informed Moss\u2019 attorney that the wide receiver couldn\u2019t come back to FSU.<\/p>\n
Moss\u2019 options after finishing his jail sentence that summer were limited. Playing for West Virginia meant he\u2019d have to sit out another year because NCAA transfer rules at the time stated athletes transferring from one Division I-A program to another could not receive immediate eligibility.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t do that,\u201d Moss told his attorney, Tim DiPiero, who then pointed out that the best I-AA program in the country was 50 miles down the road at Marshall.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s do it,\u201d Moss told him.<\/p>\n
The Thundering Herd had lost the I-AA title game a year earlier by two points. They had a new head coach, Bob Pruett, a West Virginia native who had recruited Moss when he was the Florida defensive coordinator. Moss began dazzling folks at Marshall the moment he walked on campus.<\/p>\n
Scott Bennett, former Marshall strength coach: He\u2019d just got to Marshall and we\u2019re doing 40s. (Marshall coaches) Tim Nunez and Larry Kueck were timing him. Each said, \u201cWhat\u2019d you get?\u201d One goes, \u201cI got a 4.32.\u201d The other one says, \u201cI got 4.32.\u201d \u201cHey, Randy run another one!\u201d Same thing: 4.32.<\/p>\n
Mark Gale, former Marshall assistant: (Head coach) Bob (Pruett) loved the 40. At that time, we did that when our players reported. Randy ran in the upper 4.2s and he was disappointed.<\/p>\n
Bennett: Then I test him on the vertical. He jumps and swats one, looked like he gave a half-assed effort. I said, \u201cRandy, that the best you got?\u201d He goes, \u201cYou want some more, Hercules?\u201d\u2019 He called me Coach Hercules. I said, \u201cWhatcha got in ya?\u201d He reached up and touched a 40-inch vertical, then said, \u201cI\u2019m done.\u201d That was my first impression of him.<\/p>\n
The Herd tore up I-AA football in 1996, going 15-0. Moss had 78 catches for 1,709 yards and 28 touchdowns. The next season, Marshall moved up to I-A (the equivalent of what is now FBS). Moss caught 90 passes for 1,802 yards and 26 touchdowns, a I-A record, for a 10-3 team. Moss finished fourth in Heisman Trophy voting and was also a star in track and field.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Aaron Ferguson, former Marshall offensive lineman: You know how people do ladder drills (for footwork)? Back then, we did rope drills with these raised ropes, like running through tires, except they\u2019re higher off the ground. Watching Randy run through them at full speed and never touching a rope was amazing to see.<\/p>\n
Tony Petersen, former Marshall QB coach: Well, we would have 25-year-old men who used to sit in the stands every day at practice, and they never said boo. I played there for two years and coached there for 11 years, and I never heard them talk. Randy saw the ball in the air and all of a sudden, he just f\u2014ing accelerated and put one hand up and caught it. Those guys all stood up and clapped.<\/p>\n
Melvin Cunningham, former Marshall defensive back: One game where we weren\u2019t playing well, he took the headset and said, \u201cJust throw me the ball!\u201d Two touchdowns later, the game was over.<\/p>\n
Jason Starkey, former Marshall offensive lineman: Getting \u201cMossed\u201d \u2026 I saw that at Marshall every day. One time I saw him catch the ball over our corner\u2019s head. It was in the end zone near the pylon, so staying in bounds was part of it also. He grabbed this ball over the DB with one hand so quickly and hid it behind his back and just stood there looking at our DB, who was looking around like, \u201cWhere\u2019s the ball?\u201d Randy just flipped it to him.<\/p>\n
Doug Chapman, former Marshall running back: He would hurdle people, make catches in triple coverage,and outrun angles like it was nothing.<\/p>\n
Eric Kresser, former Marshall quarterback: I threw a pass to him in the national championship game. He read a linebacker blitz and broke off his route. I read the same thing and threw a hot route to him, a slant. He caught the ball on the left side of the field and ended up outrunning the whole defense onto the right side of the field. His mindset was that he was just better than everybody else on the field. And he was always right about that.<\/p>\n
Gale: Randy ran in the Southern Conference track championships. The first time he came out of the blocks since high school was at the conference meet. Our track coach at the time said Randy could be a 200- or 400-meter Olympic sprinter.<\/p>\n
Bennett: I heard a story from our track coach. Randy\u2019s lying down on the infield with his headphones on. First call for the 55-meter dash. He didn\u2019t budge. Second call. Didn\u2019t budge. Last call. He takes his headphones off. Walks over. Shakes his legs two times. Gets in the blocks and qualifies for the nationals.<\/p>\n
Tim Martin, former Marshall wide receiver and Moss\u2019 trainer in the NFL: I ran indoor track myself. He did not train for that meet and I think he ran the second-fastest 200 time in the nation.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n Randy Moss (88) dazzled at Marshall. (USA Today Sports)<\/p>\n
The 1998 NFL Draft was loaded. There was much debate over Peyton Manning or Ryan Leaf as the better QB prospect. There was lockdown cornerback Charles Woodson, the first defensive back to win the Heisman Trophy. Moss seemed to be the biggest wild card. He didn\u2019t attend the NFL Scouting Combine, something NFL teams are never happy about. That meant Moss\u2019 pro day would have that much more significance.<\/p>\n
John Garrett, former wide receivers coach, Cincinnati Bengals: Back then, there was a real stigma if you didn\u2019t go to the combine, like: Oh my God, he\u2019s not gonna run the 40?!<\/p>\n
Bus Cook, Moss\u2019 agent: Randy didn\u2019t go because he had some dental problems. It was some wisdom teeth bothering him or something.<\/p>\n
Gale: We held the pro day in March. It was the most miserable pro day I\u2019ve been a part of, like 28 degrees. We had no indoor facility at that time, so we didn\u2019t have a choice.<\/p>\n
Garrett: There was an aura about Randy because of his story \u2014 Notre Dame, Florida State, Marshall. What really happened? You watched his tape and he\u2019s playing these MAC schools and they\u2019re doubling him. There\u2019s a corner right in his face trying to jam the heck out of him, and there\u2019s a safety over the top. There\u2019re a lot of plays where he leaps over the guy and makes these Herculean catches. There\u2019re a lot of plays that he takes off. Then, you look at his stats and he caught 12 passes for 205 yards and four touchdowns, and you think, eh, he could\u2019ve done even better. It was an insane evaluation.<\/p>\n
Jim Abrams, former 49ers scout: It was a surreal situation. You had (then Saints head coach) Mike Ditka out there in Huntington for this little pro day. There was this complete unknown. Everybody wanted to see Randy because he didn\u2019t go to the combine.<\/p>\n
Dave Wannstedt, former head coach, Chicago Bears: We wouldn\u2019t have gone there if we didn\u2019t really think he was worth being a first-round pick.<\/p>\n
Gale: We ended up hiring security. It was much-needed because there were a few hundred people outside the stadium. We\u2019d never done that before or since, and we\u2019ve had a bunch of good players: Byron (Leftwich), Chad (Pennington), Troy (Brown).<\/p>\n
Starkey: It was freezing, your typical, crappy West Virginia winter day. But it was a moment in time where I felt like Marshall was finally on the map. Yeah, we\u2019d just won a national championship and went 15-0, but that was I-AA, so you had your naysayers. Then, we went Division I, went 10-3, lost a close one to West Virginia, lost a close one to Ole Miss. There were still some doubters, but then, it\u2019s Randy\u2019s pro day, and it seemed like the entire NFL came to see it.<\/p>\n
Bob Pruett, former Marshall head coach: I remember Randy had a little problem with his car and came running in a bit after it started. He\u2019s wearing a sweatsuit. They\u2019d already started the vertical jump testing. He takes off the sweatpants. He stretches to the right. Stretches to the left. Stretched his back. Then, vertical jumps 44 inches. He\u2019d just walked out of his car. Then, he went to 47 inches.<\/p>\n
Gale: I\u2019m not sure he could\u2019ve measured any higher because I don\u2019t think our VertiMax could\u2019ve been any higher.<\/p>\n
Keith Morehouse, sports anchor, WSAZ, Huntington: We\u2019d covered him in high school when he was playing basketball with Jason Williams, and that 47-inch vertical wasn\u2019t even a surprise. I think he had 66 dunks his senior year of high school.<\/p>\n
Pruett: Then they (the NFL scouts) said, \u201cLet\u2019s run the 40.\u201d They wanted him to run the 40 into the wind. He really hadn\u2019t loosened up, but he gets down there and runs 4.25. Into the wind. They said, \u201cThis can\u2019t be right. Run that again.\u201d He runs 4.25 again.<\/p>\n
Garrett: It was like gliding. There was a lot of wind. Like, gale force wind. He was flying with the wind.<\/p>\n
Gunter Brewer, former Marshall wide receivers coach: It was before all the laser stuff and electronics, so you\u2019ve got this group of grown-ass men all lined up strategically where the 40 ends, and he comes rolling through there. Everybody clicks. They all look at their watch. The Cowboys guy looks at the Eagles guy, like, I\u2019m not sure I got this right. What\u2019d you get? Well, what\u2019d you get? They each look at each other \u2014 holy s\u2014!<\/p>\n
Chapman: He actually ran a 4.2 with swirling winds and no warm-up while wearing a full sweatsuit.<\/p>\n
Gale: I spent six years at Oklahoma (with Barry Switzer in the 1980s), where we\u2019d have one or two top players roll through there every year, but this was the most jaw-dropping thing I\u2019d ever seen. There are no adjectives in my vocabulary to describe what he did.<\/p>\n
Abrams: We start doing the short shuttle. You could tell that he hadn\u2019t really been training. Some guys don\u2019t touch the line, and he went through it once or twice and he didn\u2019t touch the line. I remember saying, let\u2019s put down tennis balls so you have to focus on actually reaching down and picking them up. He was effortlessly picking them up. Gosh, he was such a smooth athlete and so coordinated and had such body control, even though he was so tall.<\/p>\n
Martin: Nah, Randy didn\u2019t do any training for that workout.<\/p>\n
Cook: When they went inside to do some drills, they didn\u2019t have any cones so they got some tennis balls and put them on the ground. Ditka goes, \u201cWhat in the hell is this?\u201d We said, \u201cCoach, they didn\u2019t have any cones.\u201d He goes, \u201cI ain\u2019t never seen no football player picking up tennis balls on a football field.\u201d<\/p>\n
Martin: It was the first time I\u2019d ever seen NFL scouts on the 20-yard shuttle put tennis balls on each line to make him pick them up. I thought they were trying to do it to get under his skin.<\/p>\n
Kresser: I was right down the street playing for the Bengals. Our receiver coach, John Garrett, asked me to come throw to Randy. What I remember about that day, I had to really shorten my drop and throw it as far and hard as I could to make sure I kept it out in front of him. My strength was always my arm, but when I first got to Marshall, man, I had trouble leading him, especially on the deep balls.<\/p>\n
Garrett: The other thing Randy could really do, and you can see this on highlights when he played, he could take his eyes off the ball, like Willie Mays, where he would see the ball, turn and run to the spot. Randy could run a go route and put his head down, take off and really book and knew exactly where it was gonna be to go get it. It\u2019s remarkable if you really study it. Generational talent.<\/p>\n
Morehouse: I called games when he was at Marshall, so we were used to it. I think for those people from the NFL, he was just flabbergasting, if that\u2019s a word.<\/p>\n
Martin: What I actually remember the most about that day: Randy was doing a 20-yard shuttle or something, and he went into the weight room and threw up in a garbage can. Then he went back and finished the workout.<\/p>\n
Bennett (had left Marshall a month before the pro day to become the strength coach at Wyoming): They called me. I said, \u201cHow\u2019d Mossman do?\u201d They said, \u201cCoach, he finally showed it.\u201d They said somebody got him at a 4.25 and a 47-inch vertical. I said, \u201cThat sounds about right.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tim DiPiero, Moss\u2019 lawyer: I know his numbers were real good, but they would\u2019ve been better on a normal day. Everybody there watching was in awe. But I kept thinking that you really didn\u2019t know (anything) until you saw him against someone else. The thing that sticks out to me is that you almost can\u2019t really appreciate Randy just doing it by himself.<\/p>\n
Garrett: There\u2019re a lot of talented players, but they don\u2019t have the right makeup. (People) get seduced by talent. So after we did the measurements and were setting up the 40, I hung back. I know the coaches are gonna tell me all good things, but I wanted to talk to the people who serve around there. I talked to the equipment guy or the maintenance guy. I asked, \u201cHow\u2019s Randy?\u201d He goes, \u201cHe\u2019s awesome. He helps me pick up all the tape and stuff that everybody just throws on the ground and puts it in the trash.\u201d That proved to me, with all the distractions, that he has a good heart.<\/p>\n
Pruett: We get through with his workout. I\u2019m up in my office. Ditka and Wannstedt ask if they can talk to me about Randy. I said, \u201cI don\u2019t want to be a smartass, but if you have a chance to draft Randy, and you don\u2019t, you\u2019ll both get fired. No matter who you pick, they can\u2019t make the difference in your team that he makes. However fast you think he is, he\u2019s faster. However high you think he can jump, he can jump higher.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only time you\u2019ll ever get any lip from him on a game day is if you\u2019re behind and you\u2019re not throwing him the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
\n Moss slid down the 1998 NFL Draft board until the 21st pick, owned by the Minnesota Vikings. (Lou Capozzola \/ USA Today Network)<\/p>\n
After visiting with Dallas leading up to the draft, Moss thought the Cowboys would take him with the eighth overall pick \u2014 if he were still available. He was, but Dallas drafted defensive end Greg Ellis. Tennessee, at No. 16, needed a receiver but opted for Utah\u2019s Kevin Dyson.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Wannstedt: Who did we draft that year?<\/p>\n
(Penn State running back) Curtis Enis at No. 5.<\/p>\n
Wannstedt: Aw, f\u2014. That was one of my biggest mistakes in my career.<\/p>\n
Garrett: We had two first-round picks, 13 and 17. We were gonna go defense and there were some good players. (We drafted linebacker) Takeo Spikes. Then, we get to pick 15, 16. It\u2019s the elephant in the room. I remember going, \u201cAre we gonna pass on him?\u201d It was literally, \u201cJohn, sit down. We\u2019re taking the linebacker.\u201d It was decided ahead of time. We already had a couple of good receivers in Darnay Scott and Carl Pickens. The need just wasn\u2019t there. We took Brian Simmons, who was fantastic. Randy went to a place where he fit perfectly.<\/p>\n
And then came the Minnesota Vikings with the 21st overall pick.<\/p>\n
Jeff Diamond, former GM, Minnesota Vikings: A lot of scouts are very careful how they recommend guys. Conrad Cardano knew the Marshall coaches very well. He coached with them at one point. He had good inside information there. He really stood up for Randy.<\/p>\n
We had him rated as a top-five player on our board, but we never thought he\u2019d get to us at No. 21. We thought the Cowboys would take him at No. 8. He started to slide. We were really thinking defense at that point. We had Cris Carter and Jake Reed, but Randy was such a great talent. When we got closer to our pick, that\u2019s when we really got serious about it. We got on the phone with Cris and said, \u201cIf we draft Randy, will you help mentor him?\u201d Cris said yes, absolutely.<\/p>\n
In his rookie season, Moss got revenge on teams that passed on him. Against the Cowboys on Thanksgiving Day, he had three catches for 163 yards and three touchdowns. He averaged 19 yards per catch and put up 1,313 receiving yards and 17 touchdowns in 1998, smashing the NFL rookie record of 13. He would lead the league in TD catches five times, including in 2007, when he set another record with 23 touchdown catches as a member of the Patriots. At the time of his retirement in 2012, Moss ranked second all-time in receiving touchdowns and third in receiving yards. In 2018, he was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. <\/p>\n
And Pruett was right: Ditka didn\u2019t get fired the year he didn\u2019t pick Moss. He was fired the year after.<\/p>\n