Wayne Moses

Wayne Moses played varsity football and basketball at San Dimas High School and was the star running back for the Saints in the first “Smudge Pot Bowl” in 1972. Before the game, Moses was quoted in the local paper saying, “It’s exciting. It’s the start of a tradition. I know it’s going to be a big rivalry.” In the second quarter of that game, Moses returned a punt for a 63 yard touchdown. In the second half, he would score a second touchdown on a 28 yard run. The Saints would defeat Bonita 33-0.

On September 23, 1971 San Dimas defeated Schurr 28-0 in their first varsity football game. Moses scored at 4:57 of the second quarter on an 85 yard run. He would also break out a 38 yard gain to the 2 yard line. Moses carried the ball in for his second touchdown two plays later. In a game against Web School his junior year Moses rushed for 212 yards on 28 carries. Head Coach Bob Baiz remarked that  he intended to use Moses as much as possible in the game. He added with a smile after the game, “It’s nice when it works out”.  By the end of his junior year, Moses had rushed for over 1000 yards and had established himself as the premier running back in the Small School League. The local paper commented that Moses was, ” a dedicated athlete and gentlemen, he will go far”.

San Dimas teammate Bob Rollins shared, “Wayne Moses was one of the greatest running backs in high school history, Wayne was tough, fast, quick on his feet, he was a  intelligent, smart, and a disciplined runner,  at full speed he had the ability to instantly read the defense and make adjustments, he was able to cut left or right on a dime and hand you 9 cents change as he blew by you, he was fun and exciting to to watch and a pleasure to play with and block for”. Saint’s 1972 Quarterback, Steve Barnard on Wayne Moses, “Wayne gained 1,000 plus yards all three years and in my humble opinion is the best SD back ever (and I’ve seen almost all of them).  Damien even printed shirts that said “Stop Moses” for their defense to wear all summer before our opener in 72  (It didn’t work out for them). ”

Moses was a four-year (1973-74, 1976-77) letterman at Washington, where he started at cornerback his last two seasons. He was also a member of the Huskies’ 1978 Rose Bowl championship team. He received his bachelor’s degree in political science in 1977. Prior to his football coaching career he briefly trained as an agent with the FBI at Quantico, Virginia.  He was a coaching intern with the NFL’s Los Angeles Raiders, Seattle Seahawks and Denver Broncos during the summers of 1990, 1993 and 1999, respectively. For almost 40 years, he has worked as a Football coach at the college and professional level.

Moses began his coaching career in 1978 at Cal State Fullerton as a graduate assistant working with the defensive backs. He then was the running backs coach at Chaffey Junior College in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., in 1979. He went to North Carolina State in 1980, working with the defensive backs.

He then was the running backs coach at Bowling Green for three years (1981-83), Rutgers for two seasons (1984-85) and San Diego State for three years (1986-88). Paul Hewitt of the Aztecs led the nation in scoring in 1987. Bowling Green played in the 1982 California Bowl and San Diego State was in the 1986 Holiday Bowl. Next, he was the wide receivers coach at New Mexico in 1989 before moving to UCLA. His receiver at New Mexico, Terance Mathis, set NCAA career records for receptions and receiving yardage.

Moses was the running backs coach at UCLA under Terry Donahue for six seasons (1990-95) and worked with Neuheisel for the first four. Abdul-Jabbar and Williams led the Pac-10 in rushing under Moses’ tutelage while Hicks went on to earn All-America honors later in his career. In 1995, Abdul-Jabbar set UCLA’s single-season rushing records and was named first-team All-America with Moses as his coach. The Bruins played in the 1991 Sun Bowl, 1994 Rose Bowl and 1995 Aloha Bowl while Moses was on staff. Five Bruin backs coached by Moses were selected in the NFL draft (Maury Toy, Kevin Smith, Williams, Abdul-Jabbar and Hicks).

He spent the 1996 season handling the running backs at California, helping the Golden Bears to their first bowl appearance in six years. Under head coach Steve Mariucci, the Bears finished the regular season 6-5 and played Navy in the Aloha Bowl. Moses was the running backs coach at his alma mater, Washington, for four years (1997-2000) before joining the Trojan staff. Washington led the Pac-10 in rushing in 2000 (16th nationally). The Huskies played in a bowl game each year (1997 Aloha Bowl, 1998 Oahu Bowl, 1999 Holiday Bowl and 2001 Rose Bowl).

In 2004, Moses was part of a Pitt team that won the Big East Championship and advanced to a BCS Bowl for the first time in school history. The Panthers won six of their final seven regular season games to earn a Fiesta Bowl berth versus Utah. Moses spent the 2001 season working at USC. He helped the Trojans finish 5-3 in the Pac-10 (6-6 overall) and advance to their first post-season bowl game after a two-year absence.

Moses spent the 2006 and 2007 seasons in the NFL as running backs coach for the St. Louis Rams. In 2007, running back Stephen Jackson rushed for 1,002 yards. In 2006, Jackson earned his first Pro Bowl berth after rushing for a career-high 1,528 yards (third in the NFC, fifth in the NFL). Jackson also caught 90 passes, a total that led NFL running backs and was fourth in the NFC (tied for seventh in the NFL). Jackson’s 2,334 yards from scrimmage led the NFL and his 105 first downs led the NFC, second in the NFL. Jackson’s 96 points tied for the NFC lead, tied for third in the NFL, in scoring for non-kickers.

In 2010, the Bruins rushing game improved by over 60 yards per game from the previous season and featured UCLA’s first 1,000-yard back since 2006 under Moses leadership.

For the last 5 years, Moses has been an assistant coach at Claremont-Mudd Scripps for the Claremont Colleges football program. He primarily works with the team’s running backs.  In 2018, Moses worked with running back Garrett Cheadle, who was named the SCIAC Offensive Player of the Year after recording the second-highest single-season rushing total in CMS history (1305).