SALT LAKE CITY — Utah running back Zack Moss is moving on up. After gaining 187 yards in Thursday’s 30-12 season-opening win at BYU, the senior has moved up to third on the team’s all-time rushing list. At 2,838 yards, he trails only Eddie Johnson (3,218) and Tony Lindsay (2,995).
The latter is within striking distance (158 yards to surpass) entering Saturday’s home game against Northern Illinois.
“He has been doing good things for us since his freshman year. He is very steady, very consistent and it should be just a matter of time — barring anything unforeseen — before he takes over the No. 1 spot,” said Utah coach Kyle Whittingham. “That is a really good accomplishment when you look at the backs that we have had come through here and the production they’ve had.
“One of the reasons Zack came back was just that. He has a chance to do some things that no backs have done here before,” Whittingham added. “So he is off to a good start. But it is a long season with a lot of football left, but so far so good.”
Moss, as senior from Hallandale Gardens, Florida, ran for 382 as a freshman, 1,173 yards as a sophomore, and 1,096 yards as a junior. He was fourth on Utah’s all-time rushing list going into last week’s game in Provo.
Moss has proven to be hard to bring down on initial contact.
“First of all, he is as strong as a bull. He is built incredibly powerful. He is 5-foot-10 and 220 pounds with very good weight room strength. He is put together as well as any back we’ve ever had come through here,” Whittingham said. “He’s got good balance; he is hard to knock off his feet. He has low center of gravity. He has great vision and can sense tacklers or potential tacklers and can come at angles to not give them much of a shot to get a good lick on him.”
Moss has averaged nearly 6 yards per carry during his collegiate career and has scored 24 rushing touchdowns over 33 games with the Utes.
“He took a chance on coming to Utah and now he’s about to be the leading rusher,” said starting quarterback Tyler Huntley, who was also teammates with Moss in high school. “He’s great. He’s a great back.”
Huntley noted that Moss “runs straight downhill.”
As far as climbing career yardage charts, Moss insists that isn’t his primary motivation.
“It’s pretty cool to just know that is there throughout the course of the year, but that’s not the No. 1 goal for myself or this team,” Moss said.
The NFL draft prospect, who opted to put such plans on hold to come back to Utah, is determined to just play football.
“Whatever we do at the end of the year, wherever we’re sitting at, and wherever I’m sitting at, then I’ll sit back and I’ll relish on it,” Moss said. “But as we go through the weeks it’s not on my mind.”
Moss, who is seeking to become the first three-time 1,000-yard rusher in Utah team history, is coming back from an injury that limited him to just nine games in 2018. The BYU game was his first action since gaining 128 yards in a loss at Arizona State on Nov. 3.
“It felt good to get back out there again, honestly just to get the blood flowing and the adrenaline running through you again — and just to get hit and give some hits out,” Moss said. “The game I had as well made it a little bit more special for me, missing out on the last 10 months of football. So that was really cool.”
Zack Moss career rushing statistics
| Year | Games Played | Att. | Yards | TD | Long | Avg./Att. | Avg./Game |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 10 | 84 | 382 | 2 | 51 | 4.5 | 38.2 |
| 2017 | 13 | 214 | 1,173 | 10 | 58 | 5.5 | 90.2 |
| 2018 | 9 | 179 | 1,096 | 11 | 86 | 6.1 | 121.8 |
| 2019 | 1 | 29 | 187 | 1 | 28 | 6.4 | 187 |
| Totals | 33 | 506 | 2,838 | 24 | 86 | 5.6 | 86 |
| [object Object]