A childhood spent in the spotlight has taught Dylan Moses several lessons. One of the first things the former five-star recruit learned was to ignore social media.
Since Moses received his first college offer from LSU heading into the summer of his eighth-grade year, he and his family have made it a rule not to read too much into outside commentary. The policy was especially beneficial when the Alexandria, La. native flipped his commitment from LSU to Alabama during his senior year of high school. It continued to pay off throughout the linebacker’s time with the Crimson Tide, whether by keeping him grounded or shielding him from the inevitable vitriol spewed by keyboard warriors.
Moses is seldom on social media anyway. Outside of the occasional retweet, he hardly uses his Twitter account. Meanwhile, he’s posted just four times on Instagram since the beginning of the season.
So, if you send the star linebacker a message, don’t be offended if he doesn’t get back to you. He probably didn’t read it.
However, temptation gets the best of us at times, and Moses is no different. Last month, the redshirt junior set aside his rule, skimming through direct messages before Alabama’s game at Arkansas. That decision almost carried drastic consequences.
Tomeka Murray remembers being a bit surprised by the words on the other end of the phone.
“Mom," Moses told her, "I just don't think I can do it anymore."
In the hours leading up to Alabama’s Dec. 12 matchup against Arkansas, the Tide’s defensive leader was seriously contemplating hanging up his cleats.
Heading into his 10th game of the season, Moses was still playing through the residual pain of an ACL tear which kept him out the entirety of the previous year. The former Butkus Award finalist was in the midst of a frustratingly inconsistent campaign that saw his draft stock fall from a possible first-rounder to a probable mid-round selection. The week before, he struggled during Alabama’s road win at LSU, earning a season-worst 32.0 tackling grade from Pro Football Focus during his return to his home state.
Distraught and in pain, he turned to his phone for a distraction only to receive another blow.
The confounded message was delivered by a disgruntled Alabama fan, making it harder to take. It read like this: “I waited all season for you to show us that you can actually be a football player and not a bust.”
At the moment, those words nearly served as the final straw in the linebacker’s trying season.
“I tell you, that hurt Dylan so much,” Murray said. “Because you can't say publicly how much pain you're in. You can't say publicly how much mental anguish you're in, because you want to be able to succeed and you want to be able to help your team with 110 percent. Dylan really struggled with that.”
Moses claims he felt back to his old self by Alabama’s season opener at Missouri on Sept. 26. Although, as the year progressed, so did his lingering pain.
Murray remembers bringing Moses’ daughter to Tuscaloosa, Ala. to visit him during the middle of the season. Meeting her son back at his apartment following the game, the pain became much more apparent.
“He opens the door and he walked in like Frankenstein,” she recalled. “I mean, you could see the pain and anguish on his face. … It was so bad that his daughter ran up to him for him to pick her up, and he braced himself before he grabbed her. She's running all over the place, trying to jump on him, and he's constantly trying to make sure she doesn't jump on his leg.
“So I knew at that moment, even though he said he was OK, he wasn't OK.”
Partly due to the expectations placed on him heading into the season, Moses was shy to fully divulge his pain to coaches and teammates. Instead, the perfectionist picked apart his game, tearing himself down following early-season mistakes.
Murray remembers a conversation she had with her son following the game against Tennessee, an especially painful outing for Moses. During that time she reminded him that his role on the team was more than what the box score revealed.
“I had to help him understand that being a leader doesn't mean that you're the one that's making all the stats, that you're the one that's getting all the accolades, that you're the one that's front and center,” she said. “Being a leader is being able to go out there and work every single day regardless of how you feel, and making sure that everyone around you is built up to their highest potential. That's being a leader."
Moses eventually became more comfortable opening up to teammates and coaches who served as a vital support system through his struggles. Tight end Miller Forristall, who suffered a season-ending ACL injury in 2017, said he spoke with Moses on multiple occasions, providing advice and encouragement.
“I struggled coming back from my ACL a little bit,” Forristall said. “Took me a while. Honestly, it took me two good years to feel like myself again. Dylan and I have talked on and off a lot about encouragement. Sometimes you don't always feel like you used to, but you can still play better and you can still be better than the player you were.”
Unfortunately, Moses’ physical pain wasn’t the only struggle he endured this year.
Days before Alabama’s trip to LSU in early December, Murray’s mother, Darlyne Murray, was hospitalized due to complications from diabetes. Moses knew his grandmother was sick, but Darlyne wanted to shield the severity of her condition from him in order to prevent a distraction leading up to one of his most anticipated games of the season. However, upon meeting up with his mother and two younger brothers outside the team hotel in Baton Rouge, La., the night before the game, the linebacker knew something was wrong. He later learned from his uncle about the extent of his grandmother’s health problems.
Darlyne, or as Moses and his brothers call her, “Gammie,” was always a strong woman. She developed juvenile diabetes and later had a kidney and pancreas transplant three months before Moses’ birth. Moses grew up with his Gammie battling different illnesses but never heard her complain once.
In 2018, she even tore her ACL and MCL but opted not to undergo surgery due to her diabetes complications. Even during her final days, she made sure to pass that toughness on to her grandson.
“Before that Arkansas game, she told him, ‘Dylan, if anybody knows what it's like to be in pain and have to push through, you know I understand," Tomeka recalled. “She just told him to continue to push through. She told him that he was strong and that he was a fighter, and that anything that he put his mind to, he could do it.”
Moses did just that, setting aside the internet criticism to record three tackles during Alabama’s 52-3 victory at Arkansas. Later that night, the redshirt junior returned to Tuscaloosa where he received his bachelor’s degree in criminal justice. Gammie proudly watched the ceremony virtually from the hospital.
Two days later, Darlyne contracted COVID-19 while in the hospital. She passed away on Dec. 18, one day after her 63rd birthday and a day before Alabama’s matchup against Florida in the SEC Championship Game.
Moses was notified of his Gammie’s passing leading into game. Playing with a heavy heart, the linebacker recorded his best performance of the season the following day, tallying six tackles, a forced fumble and a pass deflection during Alabama’s 52-46 victory. He followed that up with six more stops during the Tide’s 31-14 Rose Bowl win over Notre Dame earlier this month.
“Dylan has done an outstanding job and shown a lot of perseverance, leadership on our team, and I'm pleased with the way that he's played,” head coach Nick Saban said Thursday during his virtual press conference. “I'm pleased with the way he's handled his circumstance, and certainly he's made a positive contribution to our team.”
Through 12 games, Moses leads Alabama with 74 tackles, including 6.5 stops for a loss and 1.5 sacks. The redshirt junior was named first-team All-SEC by league coaches and was tabbed as a third-team All-American by The Associated Press. Perhaps more importantly, he’s served as a steadying force to an Alabama defense that has made significant strides since the beginning of the season.
“I don't think there's any question about the fact that when Dylan Moses plays for us, he makes everybody around him play better,” Saban said. “He makes all the calls on defense. I think the players have confidence in him and his understanding of the system and the scheme.
“So I think he does enhance the confidence of the rest of the group because of his leadership, his knowledge, and his command of what we're doing on the field when he's in there.”
Following Alabama’s Rose Bowl win, Moses made a rare venture back to social media, opening up on the struggles he overcame this season through a post on Instagram. Thursday, he explained the decision, stating he hoped the message served as a source of inspiration for younger athletes down the road.
“It was really for those people out there going through the same thing that I was going through and thinking about giving up and just showing that we're human,” Moses said. “Like everyone who plays football or a professional sport or collegiate sport, we're all human. We go through the same things.
“So me putting that out there, that was for other kids or other athletes that are going through what I'm going through and showing that they can make it through.”
Tomeka believes her son is in a much better mental state currently as he enters what could possibly be his final collegiate game. Alabama will play Ohio State in the College Football National Championship Game on Monday in Miami Gardens, Fla.
“I'm extremely proud of him,” Murray said. “Dylan is one of the strongest people that I know. What I love the most is that if he tells you he's going to do something, he's going to do it. Even if it almost kills him, he's going to do it. He's going to stand on his word.
“I love the fact that adversity didn't get the best of him. I love the fact that he knows what it's like to be at his lowest. He knows what it's like to be on top. Between the two, I think that being at his lowest made him who he is right now because it allows him to understand that he can do anything if he works hard for it. It may take a little while longer, but he can do it.”
