SI99 QB Miller Moss on Voting for the First Time, No Fall Football and More
Miller Moss is one of the top quarterback prospects in the 2021 class with various scholarship offers to his name before committing to USC on June 1. He has agreed to give Sports Illustrated exclusive access into his world by chronicling everything from his experiences leading up to a college commitment as a high profile recruit to his home life and preparation for college football.
What's going on, guys, it's Miller.
For those of you who started reading these blogs before, I know it's been a while but I'm really glad to be back. Just kinda want to give an update on my life and what's been going on, along with some things going on with USC, as well as the current landscape in the world.
I guess I'll start with the world.
I'm 18 now, so I had the opportunity to vote this year. I think for me, growing up in this environment has been so interesting because the first election that I'm voting in is probably the most polarizing -- and messed up for lack of a better term -- elections. You have the mail-in voting and, obviously, the political climate in our country is so intense right now, so polarized. I think we're in a really, really tough situation because we've lost the ability to have conversations with people that have different opinions.
I see this every day. Just going from the area I grew up in to where I train in Orange County, it's very, very different. I run into a plethora of different aspects and ideas, and I think the unwillingness of people to be able to hear other peoples' ideas is what got us into this situation. The idea that I have the ability to vote is very, very important to me, and also kind of surreal for me.
I'm 18. I got kinda lucky to turn 18 on an election year so I'm the youngest possible voter out there. But it was also a really empowering thing. Obviously, it's one vote out of however many millions in America, but the idea that you can make a difference and that your idea matters is really, really important to me. And something that was awesome.
I went with my mom, got the 'I voted' sticker, which was cool. Put it on your phone or whatever.
I understand everyone reading this has different opinions, and I absolutely respect that. But I do think that it's all of our obligation to go vote and to make our opinions heard. And feel that empowering feeling in that our voices matter. That is one of the fundamental concepts that made our country so great in years past. I think we've kind of gotten away from that and it's something we need to get back to.
Secondly I wanted to touch on this Boulevard Bound campaign that SC put out. I'm sure a lot of you have seen it but don't really understand what it is. So with NIL -- which stands for Name, Image and Likeness -- coming out it allows athletes to profit off of their name, image and likeness. So like I said, they can have brand deals, they can make money off of endorsement deals now. It wasn't allowed by the NCAA because of regulations so this is huge for athletes.
Being in a market like L.A., you're more prone to build your brand. I give a tremendous amount of credit to Coach Helton and the rest of the staff for putting this together. USC signed a deal with Boulevard Studios, specific to USC football, to give every single player a dedicated team to help grow their brand. To make them a more profitable brand as a human than they would be otherwise.
They dropped all these flashy videos that are really cool to look at, but I think in essence, this is a great thing for USC football and it will help us a ton in recruiting. I'm really excited and I think it opens up a ton of doors in that we were the first to do it. I think it was brilliant for Coach Helton. All of our commits put out the same Tweet to show unity among us and that we're all excited to be #BLVDBOUND.
To finish up, I wanted to go over what it's been like to not have a senior season. It's been difficult on a lot of levels but also provided me the opportunity to do things that I think will help me going forward, especially going to USC in January.
The first thing has been the odd circumstance of it. I've put on pads every single fall since I was in the fourth grade. The idea that I now wouldn't do this is such an abnormality in my biological clock, if you wanna put it that way. It's just been weird, it's just been hard. I miss it, more than anything. A lot of players can relate to this in just that, when you're playing ball, nothing else matters. That kind of euphoric feeling is why you fall in love with the game, it's why you love competing. It's why you love doing what you do.
To have that taken away for an extended period of time has been really, really hard. Another thing that has been hard is watching everyone else play. Just reading our Elite 11 group chat it's been tough. You see some of your closest friends around the country playing and playing so well. You wanna see the fruits of your labor in production because you work so hard in the offseason for a desired result. To not have the opportunity to see that has been difficult.
On the positive end, I get to go on to USC really, really healthy, which might not have been the case. Obviously you always hope and pray for a healthy season and do everything you can do to accomplish that but I'm going to go to USC healthy. I've been training like crazy since last December, I guess, so it's been a really, really extended offseason. I miss football more than anything but I'm really trying to see the positive end in it and do everything I can to bring my best self to USC in January.
Just to conclude, I want to thank you all for your support of me in reading this. I look forward to keeping you guys updated with all that's going on in my life. Stay safe and #FightOn!
Previous Blogs:
Life at New School, Preparing for Elite 11 Finals
Connecting with Troy Aikman, Decision Approaches
Mamba Mentality, Learning from NFL QBs
Moss on Pressure of Recruiting Process, Top 4
On Recruiting, Football Coming Full Circle
Twitter: @millermoss7
Instagram: @miller_moss