This 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’s Randy Moss put on a show as no one had ever seen before.
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.
Moss wowed his teammates daily at practice, even though he wasn’t 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’s worth of additional jail time. Bowden informed Moss’ attorney that the wide receiver couldn’t come back to FSU.
Moss’ options after finishing his jail sentence that summer were limited. Playing for West Virginia meant he’d 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.
“I can’t do that,” 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.
“Let’s do it,” Moss told him.
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.
Scott Bennett, former Marshall strength coach: He’d just got to Marshall and we’re doing 40s. (Marshall coaches) Tim Nunez and Larry Kueck were timing him. Each said, “What’d you get?” One goes, “I got a 4.32.” The other one says, “I got 4.32.” “Hey, Randy run another one!” Same thing: 4.32.
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.
Bennett: Then I test him on the vertical. He jumps and swats one, looked like he gave a half-assed effort. I said, “Randy, that the best you got?” He goes, “You want some more, Hercules?”’ He called me Coach Hercules. I said, “Whatcha got in ya?” He reached up and touched a 40-inch vertical, then said, “I’m done.” That was my first impression of him.
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.
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’re higher off the ground. Watching Randy run through them at full speed and never touching a rope was amazing to see.
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—ing accelerated and put one hand up and caught it. Those guys all stood up and clapped.
Melvin Cunningham, former Marshall defensive back: One game where we weren’t playing well, he took the headset and said, “Just throw me the ball!” Two touchdowns later, the game was over.
Jason Starkey, former Marshall offensive lineman: Getting “Mossed” … I saw that at Marshall every day. One time I saw him catch the ball over our corner’s 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, “Where’s the ball?” Randy just flipped it to him.
Doug Chapman, former Marshall running back: He would hurdle people, make catches in triple coverage,and outrun angles like it was nothing.
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.
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.
Bennett: I heard a story from our track coach. Randy’s lying down on the infield with his headphones on. First call for the 55-meter dash. He didn’t budge. Second call. Didn’t budge. Last call. He takes his headphones off. Walks over. Shakes his legs two times. Gets in the blocks and qualifies for the nationals.
Tim Martin, former Marshall wide receiver and Moss’ 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.
Randy Moss (88) dazzled at Marshall. (USA Today Sports)
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’t attend the NFL Scouting Combine, something NFL teams are never happy about. That meant Moss’ pro day would have that much more significance.
John Garrett, former wide receivers coach, Cincinnati Bengals: Back then, there was a real stigma if you didn’t go to the combine, like: Oh my God, he’s not gonna run the 40?!
Bus Cook, Moss’ agent: Randy didn’t go because he had some dental problems. It was some wisdom teeth bothering him or something.
Gale: We held the pro day in March. It was the most miserable pro day I’ve been a part of, like 28 degrees. We had no indoor facility at that time, so we didn’t have a choice.
Garrett: There was an aura about Randy because of his story — Notre Dame, Florida State, Marshall. What really happened? You watched his tape and he’s playing these MAC schools and they’re doubling him. There’s a corner right in his face trying to jam the heck out of him, and there’s a safety over the top. There’re a lot of plays where he leaps over the guy and makes these Herculean catches. There’re 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’ve done even better. It was an insane evaluation.
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’t go to the combine.
Dave Wannstedt, former head coach, Chicago Bears: We wouldn’t have gone there if we didn’t really think he was worth being a first-round pick.
Gale: We ended up hiring security. It was much-needed because there were a few hundred people outside the stadium. We’d never done that before or since, and we’ve had a bunch of good players: Byron (Leftwich), Chad (Pennington), Troy (Brown).
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’d 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’s Randy’s pro day, and it seemed like the entire NFL came to see it.
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’s wearing a sweatsuit. They’d 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’d just walked out of his car. Then, he went to 47 inches.
Gale: I’m not sure he could’ve measured any higher because I don’t think our VertiMax could’ve been any higher.
Keith Morehouse, sports anchor, WSAZ, Huntington: We’d covered him in high school when he was playing basketball with Jason Williams, and that 47-inch vertical wasn’t even a surprise. I think he had 66 dunks his senior year of high school.
Pruett: Then they (the NFL scouts) said, “Let’s run the 40.” They wanted him to run the 40 into the wind. He really hadn’t loosened up, but he gets down there and runs 4.25. Into the wind. They said, “This can’t be right. Run that again.” He runs 4.25 again.
Garrett: It was like gliding. There was a lot of wind. Like, gale force wind. He was flying with the wind.
Gunter Brewer, former Marshall wide receivers coach: It was before all the laser stuff and electronics, so you’ve 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’m not sure I got this right. What’d you get? Well, what’d you get? They each look at each other — holy s—!
Chapman: He actually ran a 4.2 with swirling winds and no warm-up while wearing a full sweatsuit.
Gale: I spent six years at Oklahoma (with Barry Switzer in the 1980s), where we’d have one or two top players roll through there every year, but this was the most jaw-dropping thing I’d ever seen. There are no adjectives in my vocabulary to describe what he did.
Abrams: We start doing the short shuttle. You could tell that he hadn’t really been training. Some guys don’t touch the line, and he went through it once or twice and he didn’t touch the line. I remember saying, let’s 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.
Martin: Nah, Randy didn’t do any training for that workout.
Cook: When they went inside to do some drills, they didn’t have any cones so they got some tennis balls and put them on the ground. Ditka goes, “What in the hell is this?” We said, “Coach, they didn’t have any cones.” He goes, “I ain’t never seen no football player picking up tennis balls on a football field.”
Martin: It was the first time I’d 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.
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.
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’s remarkable if you really study it. Generational talent.
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’s a word.
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.
Bennett (had left Marshall a month before the pro day to become the strength coach at Wyoming): They called me. I said, “How’d Mossman do?” They said, “Coach, he finally showed it.” They said somebody got him at a 4.25 and a 47-inch vertical. I said, “That sounds about right.”
Tim DiPiero, Moss’ lawyer: I know his numbers were real good, but they would’ve been better on a normal day. Everybody there watching was in awe. But I kept thinking that you really didn’t know (anything) until you saw him against someone else. The thing that sticks out to me is that you almost can’t really appreciate Randy just doing it by himself.
Garrett: There’re a lot of talented players, but they don’t 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, “How’s Randy?” He goes, “He’s awesome. He helps me pick up all the tape and stuff that everybody just throws on the ground and puts it in the trash.” That proved to me, with all the distractions, that he has a good heart.
Pruett: We get through with his workout. I’m up in my office. Ditka and Wannstedt ask if they can talk to me about Randy. I said, “I don’t want to be a smartass, but if you have a chance to draft Randy, and you don’t, you’ll both get fired. No matter who you pick, they can’t make the difference in your team that he makes. However fast you think he is, he’s faster. However high you think he can jump, he can jump higher.
“The only time you’ll ever get any lip from him on a game day is if you’re behind and you’re not throwing him the ball.”
Moss slid down the 1998 NFL Draft board until the 21st pick, owned by the Minnesota Vikings. (Lou Capozzola / USA Today Network)
After visiting with Dallas leading up to the draft, Moss thought the Cowboys would take him with the eighth overall pick — 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’s Kevin Dyson.
Wannstedt: Who did we draft that year?
(Penn State running back) Curtis Enis at No. 5.
Wannstedt: Aw, f—. That was one of my biggest mistakes in my career.
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’s the elephant in the room. I remember going, “Are we gonna pass on him?” It was literally, “John, sit down. We’re taking the linebacker.” It was decided ahead of time. We already had a couple of good receivers in Darnay Scott and Carl Pickens. The need just wasn’t there. We took Brian Simmons, who was fantastic. Randy went to a place where he fit perfectly.
And then came the Minnesota Vikings with the 21st overall pick.
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.
We had him rated as a top-five player on our board, but we never thought he’d 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’s when we really got serious about it. We got on the phone with Cris and said, “If we draft Randy, will you help mentor him?” Cris said yes, absolutely.
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.
And Pruett was right: Ditka didn’t get fired the year he didn’t pick Moss. He was fired the year after.
Cunningham: The thing that put Marshall on the map was something that you wish wouldn’t have happened: The tragedy that happened before all of us got there. Then we had all the success that we had in the Jim Donnan years. But Randy took that pin that was already on the map and brought it to a new elevation.
