Q&A With Santana Moss

Sept. 19, 2000

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by Chris Bello

Q: How has the program changed since you arrived in 1997 and was the opportunity to revitalize the Canes partially what brought you to Coral Gables?

A: I can’t say that’s what brought me here, but the program has changed a lot. We’ve had our ups and downs but we still strive hard each game. I was always told that adversity breaks some people and it causes others to break records. I feel like our team has been through a lot of adversity and we’re still fighting and still breaking records. There’s gonna be days you lose and days you win, but you go through that and keep fighting.

Q: What is your most memorable on the field moment over the past four years at UM?

A: The most memorable is playing UCLA. Everyone thought UCLA was gonna come down here and smash us – just blow through us. Everybody was talking about how they were undefeated and how we had just lost a big game to our rival, Syracuse. But we just put all of that behind us. It was that adversity we went through the week before – we turned it back around and showed them that we forgot about it. We went out there and played the game of our lives. We went out and played one of the best home games ever played in the Orange Bowl.

Q: How difficult is that Morgantown crowd? The past two contests against West Virginia were expecting – what can we expect in 2000?

A: I can’t say Morgantown is that difficult. All I know is that crowd up there has good school spirit – and that’s how it should be everywhere. You gotta root for your team like they’re the best in the nation. I feel they have one of the best crowds out there. They’re all West Virginia – diehard blue and gold. All we have to do is go up there and take care of our business and we’ll handle the crowd by playing good Hurricane football.

Q: How do you maintain your focus and stay within your game plan with all that crowd noise and on hostile territory?

A: It’s all about preparation. The whole week we’re out there getting ready, preparing in that hot sun, worrying about how hard the game is going to be. You worry about all that in practice and by the time you get to the game you just have that feeling that you worked so hard that week to be where you are today, like “let me just go out and show the fans what I’ve done this week in practice and it’ll be alright.”

Q: What has the team learned from the Washington game that will help this squad down the road – and can you really put a game like that behind you?

A: Being a player, you’re going to lose those kinds of games. But you have to look back and say, we fought for sixty minutes and had a chance to come back. We realize that when you go into someone’s home, you have to get in their heads and finish them early so that all those other things won’t be a factor. I think we all learned you have to get out there and execute your assignments right away because you never know when the opportunity is going to come again.

There is a difference with this team this year. In the past when we’d get down like that, we’d have a rough time coming back. Last year we really showed something against Boston College when we came back (down 28-7 in the third quarter.) But I feel that this team knows the talent we have and what we can do. When Washington attacked, they attacked heavily. We had to fight back, find out what we could do as a team and we went out there and did it in the second half.

Q: Who would you want to play Santana Moss if a movie of your life was made?

A: I’d want my younger brother Sinorice to play me.

Q: Who are the most vocal team leaders in the locker room on game day?

A: One of the most vocal is (safety) Al Blades. He takes up for anyone. You’ll hear Al before the game, after the game – even in his sleep. I think Al talks in his sleep. He is always heard.

Q: Explain the feeling of running back a punt in a sweltering Orange Bowl with 80,000+ screaming fans and loud music pumping through the house speakers…

A: To me it feels like a day at work. I’m out there for business. Whenever I step on the field I have a job to do and I go out there and I do it.

When I get there in that end zone, I just make sure I greet the Man up above who blessed me to get there, go out there and try to do it again.