USC QB Commit Miller Moss on Elite 11 Finals, First Week at Mater Dei High
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 his senior season.
Hey guys! I hope you're all doing well.
I know it's been a couple of weeks, and I apologize, but I'm happy to be back. Happy to be sharing what's been going on with me the last couple of weeks.
As some of you may have heard, I recently left Alemany High School and transferred to Mater Dei in Santa Ana. That was somewhat unfortunately a very public thing, but I've finished my first week of summer camp with them and I really wanted to kind of provide insight on differences in what it's like to play for a program like that.
Even with this check in, before camp even starts, the level of professionalism and how they run everything -- is night and day compared to what I was used to. I think you see that in every aspect of the program. It's similar to when you go to Alabama, you know why Alabama is so good. When you are a part of Mater Dei, you are training with them, practicing with them, you know why they're so good. I think that applies to every aspect of the program, being professional from the top down.
I want to touch on Coach (Bruce) Rollinson for a little bit. And I really, really have a ton of respect for him. He kept the seniors afterwords and gave us kind of his view on the racial injustice and everything that's going on in the world to this day. That was when I gained a ton of respect for him.
To him, he's raising us as young men and developing us to go into the world. I don't think that's anything that any coach I've ever had would have done. That's something that he did that was really, really special. I gained a ton of respect for him, being able to do that and man-up, so to speak in having that conversation with his seniors.
In terms of the actual workouts, they were really strict in terms of social distancing guidelines and stuff like that. It has been very difficult, no doubt about it. It's nothing that I wouldn't expect. You go into a program like that, that has a such a history of excellence, and you expect it to be hard. It's been hot down there but I'm really enjoying it and I can't wait to go play with these guys because I think we're gonna do something special this year.
For the latter part of this, I wanted to touch on the upcoming Elite 11. I'm flying out to Nashville (Saturday) and I'll be there through Wednesday.
Obviously with COVID-19 and everything it was pretty up in the air. I was one of the few that was lucky enough to attend a regional before the tour got cancelled, and I ended up getting invited on the spot.
Because of that, there was a ton of anxiety I guess you could say, about whether or not the event would actually happen. I had already been invited, but there had never been an Elite 11 with three finalists, so I was really hoping they'd find a way to make it happen and obviously they did. I'm really, really looking forward to it.
It's funny, the process leading up to it, they require you to write an essay. You talk about adversity in your life as well as why you love the game of football. You also make a video about what it means to be yourself. So for me it's what it means to be Miller Moss, day-in, day-out, what that's like. Then there was a questionnaire for us, honestly on such a wide range of things from your dream pair of shoes to the one person you would switch lives with for a day. To, 'if you could bring three to dinner, who would it be?'
And even to the football specific stuff like, 'you failed as a quarterback, describe how you overcame that?' I think all of those things encompass what the Elite 11 is trying to get out of us. Obviously I've watched this since I was really, really young and an aspiring quarterback. These kind of specific, unique things, is what makes Elite 11 very special and why it's such a coveted event.
I'm really excited to go out there, compete and bring home that MVP!
Thank you guys so much for taking a look, I really appreciate all of your support and I look forward to checking back in after the Elite 11.
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Twitter: @millermoss7
Instagram: @miller_moss