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Moats guts his way
through big game
Louisiana Tech's Ryan Moats added his name to a long list of running backs throughout the years who have left Hawaii's defense befuddled.
Like Marshall Faulk, Ron Dayne and LaDainian Tomlinson before him, Moats displayed swift moves and sheer power and speed to leave many bodies in his wake on the Aloha Stadium turf.
There's more than a good chance Moats will follow the aforementioned players' lead and land with an NFL team. The 5-foot-9, 201-pound junior came into the game ranked sixth in NCAA Division I rushing.
The trouble with Moats' performance, however, is that it came in a 34-23 loss to the Warriors and it included a fumble that Hawaii's Abraham Elimimian turned into what turned out to be an important 21-yard TD return for a Warriors 13-7 first-quarter lead.
"It was humid and hot out there and I was sweating more than normal," Moats said. "I didn't have a towel to wipe it off. That's not an excuse, because I should have just hung on to the ball."
The Hawaii defense knew what was coming because Moats ran for 267 yards in last year's loss to the Warriors, but UH still couldn't get a handle on him. At times, Hawaii contained him and gang-tackled him, but the Bulldog runner consistently rebounded from those setbacks to find new holes and squirt through them.
Moats had 91 yards after the first quarter and 143 at the half and finished with a robust 228 on 38 carries. Looking at the final math, it was well short of Dayne's 339 for Wisconsin in 1996, Faulk's 300 for San Diego State in 1992 and Tomlinson's 294 for Texas Christian in 2000.
But the numbers are still impressive, especially when you consider that Moats has been bothered by hip, eye and ankle injuries this season.
As a matter of fact, he aggravated his mid-ankle sprain and hopped on one foot off the field after a hit by Hawaii's Darrell Tautofi resulting in a 3-yard loss on the last play of the third quarter.
Moats was highly impressive on that drive, running seven times for 35 yards to set up Danny Horwedel's 22-yard field goal to cut LaTech's deficit to 27-23.
One play in particular on that march showed Moats' toughness. On a fourth-and-8 situation in Hawaii territory, he hauled in scrambling quarterback Matt Kubik's short pass and, with eight defenders in front of him in the middle of the field, outraced everybody to the right sideline, taking the perfect diagonal to get 10 yards and an important first down.
"He's got a great NFL future," LaTech coach Jack Bicknell said. "He can run. It's a matter of when he decides to go, and that's something we'll address at the end of the year. If he's being looked at as a high first-round draft pick, then I can see it might be a good possibility for next year."
Moats said he'll wait to see what happens.
"I consider myself a senior at Louisiana Tech for next year," he said. "But I'll sit down and talk with my family and decide what's best."
Moats also had a field day on the Bulldogs' first possession of the game, plowing his way all 61 yards of the drive and topping it off with a 2-yard TD run for a 7-0 lead. He also scored on a 15-yard run in the second quarter to trim Hawaii's advantage to 19-13.
With the big night, Moats shattered Jason Davis' previous school record of 1,351 single-season rushing yards. Moats boosted his season totals to 1,441 rushing yards on 220 carries.
