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94 Days Until Game Week for UGA

May 21, 2019
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ATHENS - In February 2017, a former Georgia Bulldog who grew up in Athens died suddenly in a house fire. Quentin Moses, who played basketball and football at Cedar Grove, went on to play at Georgia and for the Miami Dolphins. 

Although his death was sudden, Moses left behind a legacy with his play. He was featured on the cover of October 2006 Dawg Post the Magazine. The following is the story as was written in the magazine. 

“She just could not understand it,” said Quentin Moses of his mother. 

    He continued to shake his head. Georgia’s top defensive end was trying to convince his mother that he could return to school even if he got hurt in the NFL.

    “I tried to explain it to her,” the Athens native said. “I told her that if I were to get hurt that I could still come back to school – I only had 18 hours left to graduate.”

    It was not working. He may have been able to have his way on the football field, but changing his mother’s mind was approaching difficulty of biblical proportions. The original Moses had an easier time freeing his people than Quentin did changing his mother’s mind. 

    “Graduating from college is a big thing for my mother. She told me that she would rather see me stay and get my degree,” Moses said. “She did not understand why I would want to go pro – even when I talked with her about it. She would tell me: ‘I don’t care what you say, or how you break it down to me – I want you to get your degree. You never know what might happen.’”

    There it was: Moses, with strong input from his mother, decided it would be best to stay at Georgia one more season rather than have a go at the NFL. His mother’s words about staying in school meant a lot (he did say that in the end his mother encouraged him to make his own decision about leaving Georgia early), but what Moses was seeing with his own eyes helped in the decision to stay, too. 

    He watched his former teammates play every Sunday last fall, and there was one who was not making the impact he did while at Georgia, and that hit home for Moses. 

    “One of the greatest defensive ends I saw while I was in college finished his first year in the NFL with three sacks,” said Moses of former Georgia three-time All-American David Pollack. Pollack, the career sacks leader at Georgia with 36, was an enigma that could not be figured out in the SEC. But he was contained in the big leagues.  

    “Being a fan of his and a student of Pollack’s and seeing him go to the NFL and have three sacks last season – I knew I was not ready. I really did not feel like I was ready to make the jump to the NFL,” Moses admitted. 

    “It was the best recruiting news I got all year,” said defensive ends coach Jon Fabris of his reaction when hearing that Moses would return for his fifth year at Georgia. The Bulldogs had received similarly good news when Pollack decided to return for his final year in Athens. 

    And even though Moses did not leave, the security that comes with an NFL payday was tempting. He thought about how that paycheck could change his life – his family’s life. It was hard to turn down, but he kept remembering what his mother said, and he did not want to disappoint her. 

    “When an opportunity like going to the NFL presents itself – a situation where I would make more money than if I had a degree - it’s hard,” he admitted. “But making more money in the NFL was not as big a factor for me because it was critical for my mother to see me come back to school.” 

    “I was happy that he came back. I expected him to leave,” said Ray Gant, a fellow defensive lineman who came to Georgia with Moses when the two were freshmen. “Quentin’s return is going to take a lot of stress off me this fall.”

    “Quentin knows that the team is very important, and he also knows that he’s not a finished product,” said Georgia head coach Mark Richt. “He has some things he needs to improve on, and he’s willing to admit that and work toward that.”

    Fans might find it difficult to see what Moses must improve on. After all, his 38 quarterback pressures and 11.5 sacks led the Dawgs last season. He was a consensus preseason All-SEC and made many All-American lists. 

    “It’s one thing to go out and play well during games, but overall I didn’t feel like I was ready to make the jump to the next level, and I didn’t want to get drafted into the NFL and then take two or three years to come around,” Moses said of his ambition to make a big splash on the professional football scene. “I wanted to come back another year, work on my skills and basic stuff, and be even more ready when I get there so that I can fit in better.”

     “I was not surprised when he decided to come back, because I know that Quentin loves Georgia,” said senior quarterback Joe Tereshinski. “Also, I think Quentin is going to increase his NFL stock by coming back.”

    “He loves the guys that are here now – especially the senior class. He saw a chance for us to really do well this year, and I think it’s going to benefit him.”

    Tereshinski correctly points out that Moses could be more trouble for offenses this year - not only because of his work, but also because of his fellow defensive end Charles Johnson. 

    “Charles is going to take a lot of pressure off Quinton that he had last year,” said Tereshinski. “We have got a couple of great defensive ends, and you can’t just worry about Quinton – you also have Charles Johnson. They are both beasts.”

    Johnson, Moses and the rest of the defensive ends combined to give Georgia 34 sacks last season, third in the SEC. Last year, only Mississippi State’s Willie Evans had more sacks than Moses did. Considering Georgia returns their most productive defensive ends from last season, there is potential that the Dawgs could cause more damage coming off the edge in 2006. 

    “It means a lot to me knowing that a guy that had all that potential was willing to come back and compete and help the team out,” said Dale Dixson, a veteran defensive lineman. “He knows that looking at the NFL will come with time. It motivates me – being that he came in with me – it gives me an extra boost knowing that a guy like Quinton is going to be with me through my five years here.”

    There were times, however, when Moses had to motivate himself to stay focused on football. He was young and had double vision. Basketball was Moses’ first true love. He played both football and basketball at Athens’ Cedar Shoals High School. Most schools recruited him as a football player who would be allowed to try college basketball as well. 

    “We saw him play basketball in high school and thought he would transition beautifully to football,” said Richt. “He was a good football player in his own right – he wasn’t just a basketball player. If you are a good enough athlete to play Division I basketball, then you are a special talent.”

    Moses played one season of basketball at Georgia before the Jim Harrick scandal got ugly. He decided that was enough for him, but it was a difficult decision for him to make.

    “The reason that I decided not to continue playing basketball had a lot to do with what happened (under Harrick),” he admitted. It was just as well. Georgia’s basketball program is still trying to recover from the Harrick years.

    After his experiment with college basketball, Moses watched and learned from one of the finest defensive end stables in recent Georgia memory. Pollack, Will Thompson and Robert Geathers were the leaders of the group, and Moses was paying attention. He said Pollack and Geathers were “like coaches” to him and that “they let me know that I was good enough to play on this level.” 

    But it took time for Moses to prove he had ability, not only to himself, but also to the fans. Although he did not play the same defensive end position as Pollack, Moses was chosen to replace him in production in 2005. For the last few seasons Pollack had dominated the football landscape at Georgia and beyond. Now he was gone, and it appeared that Moses, thanks to his 2005 Outback Bowl start over Thompson, was poised to take the baton and run with it, but expectations of replacing a legend can be difficult to fulfill.  

    “I think it was tough,” said Gant of Moses taking over as the sack-master at Georgia. “But he met the challenge. He didn’t let anyone down.”

    Gant went on to say that that it was “a good thing” that Moses learned what he needed to while Pollack got the bulk of the attention. 

    “He was not getting that many snaps when Pollack was here,” recalled Mikey Henderson. “But I did not see him getting frustrated or mad about not getting playing time. Pollack is a great player; Moses is a great player, too, and I never saw him getting selfish.”

    Internally, however, Moses was hiding a lot of frustrations he had with football. He was struggling to learn how to play well. Roundball came much more naturally to him. After redshirting his first fall on campus and playing a limited role in his second, Moses questioned himself, his ability and his willingness to continue. 

    “I have been at a lot of crossroads with football,” Moses admitted. “In the first two years of my career I wondered if I wanted to quit – I just wanted to give it up.”

    And leaving basketball, a game he loved, was painful for Moses. The basketball scandal at Georgia complicated his predicament. He was growing tired of football not coming to him easily the way basketball seemingly did. 

    “Basketball was my first love, and I wanted to play it. Also, I was getting frustrated,” he said.

    The decision had to be made. Either Moses was going to continue with football, or not. 

    “Having people that cared about me, like my mother, mattered. We did a lot of praying about it,” he said. 

    The prayer led Moses back to the gridiron, which led him to where he is today – one of the top prospects for the 2007 NFL Draft. ESPN’s Mel Kiper, considered a draft expert, said in August that Moses could be a top two or three pick next spring. 

    “The goal last season was to go out and make enough plays to get drafted,” said Moses of his plan, but that did not work out. “I had a script that I would go by that I felt would get me to the places I want to be in the future. I think last year I followed the script as far as statistics, and stuff like that, but there was a lot of areas I think I can improve on – places where I did not accomplish my goals.”

    According to several NFL scouts and draft publications, Moses probably will be a first-round pick, and could be selected as high as the top ten of the 2007 Draft. 

    Moses said he studies himself and others to try to understand how he can get where he wants to go.

    “I try to figure out all of the time what’s made me the player that I am today,” he said. 

    “It’s kind of like his sack totals,” Fabris said of Moses’ improvement over the last few years. “If you look at the number of sacks from his first year, to his second year and then last year, that shows that Quentin has made steady progress during his career.”

    “Everyone looks at Quentin because he is a prototypical guy for his position, but he’s steadily become a better defensive end,” Fabris added. “There is so much more to playing defensive end than rushing the passer, and Quentin knows that. If you are not willing to do the dirty work on first down and on run downs to get the other team in the passing situation, then you are never going to be able to pin your ears back and have fun.”

    Moses has been working hard off the field, too. He was the recipient of Georgia’s 2005-06 Dick Copas Leadership Award, given annually to the Georgia male student-athlete who demonstrates outstanding commitment to his program. Moses has volunteered for Habitat for Humanity in the Athens area to help build homes. He has participated in St. Mary’s Hospital visitation programs and visited the elderly in assisted living centers. At several local elementary schools, Moses has participated in reading programs, presented certificates and given talks to many school organizations. Moses was involved with Georgia’s Hurricane Katrina Relief Project, which raised over $10,000 for hurricane victims. The senior was also a volunteer at the East Athens Community Center. Moses did all of that while being a member of the UGA Academic Roundtable and maintaining a grade point average impressive enough to be on the Dean’s List as well as the SEC Academic Honor Roll.

    Until the NFL Draft takes Moses away from Athens for the first time in his life, he will be a role model for his teammates to look up to. 

    “His work ethic sets the tone on and off the field,” young defensive tackle Kade Weston said of Moses. 

    “Quentin is the unquestioned leader on the team,” veteran cornerback Paul Oliver said. “It would be hard for anyone to question his production and the way he goes about doing his business. He’s real humble.”

    Oliver picked up one last thing about Moses this summer during the Bulldogs’ voluntary workout sessions.  

    “I noticed this summer that he would often work out in the morning, then come back in the afternoon and do it all again. Things like that and his production on the field set him apart from everyone else,” Oliver said. 

    Moses’ efforts over the last few years have set him apart from the crowd enough to make him a likely first round pick in the spring with degree in hand. And that’s enough to make his mother happy.

Other notable 94s in the history of the Bulldogs…

It was one of the greatest comebacks in bowl game history. 

No. 21 Georgia’s win over No. 19 Purdue in the 2000 Outback Bowl in Tampa on January 1, 2000 was many things - the first college football game of the new millennium, Georgia’s first ever bowl game with an overtime and the third game in a row where the Bulldogs were a five-point underdog (at Ole Miss and at Georgia Tech). 

But the Bulldogs’ comeback over the Boilermakers shouldn’t be glossed over. Purdue QB and future Super Bowl MVP Drew Brees guided his team to the big lead. But the Boilermakers’ offense got stuck in the mud after halftime. 

Meanwhile, Georgia scored 25 unanswered points - none more important than a 94-yard drive from Quincy Carter and his crew. The Bulldogs went on a 13-play, 94-yard TD drive in that culminated in an eight-yard TD pass from Carter who scrambled to his right and threw back against his body to find Randy McMichael in the end zone. 

Josh Mallard’s sack of Brees set up a lengthy FG miss from Purdue. Hap Hines then came on for the game-winning kick to send the Bulldogs to their first win of the new century.

Top UGA players to ever wear the No. 94

DL Wycliff Lovelace
DL Quentin Moses
 

 
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