Wayne Moses, long-time college football assistant, dies at 69 years old

The USC Trojans lost an important figure in their football family on Thursday. Wayne Moses, a former assistant coach on Pete Carroll’s staff with the Trojans, passed away in California. He was 69 years old. No cause of death was given.

More recently, Moses spent the past seven years at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, a Division III program that is 30 miles east of Los Angeles, California. That area is not very far from where he grew up.

The news was passed along on X (formerly Twitter) by Claremont-Mudd-Scripps head coach Kyle Sweeney. Moses was one of the first hires for Pete Carroll in 2001, when he was hired as the head coach of USC.

He spent 44 years coaching football and spent time at an extensive number of other colleges over the years: Cal State Fullerton, NC State, Bowling Green, Rutgers, San Diego State, New Mexico, Pittsburgh, Idaho, Army, and Hawaii.

In 2006-2007, he even spent time in the National Football League with the St. Louis Rams.

During his time with the UCLA Bruins, he coached star tailback Karim Abdul-Jabbar. In 1995, Abdul-Jabbar had 1,571 rushing yards and 12 touchdowns, setting single season program rushing records and earning first team All-American honors in the process. The gifted tailback finished his career with 3,030 total rushing yards, which ranks sixth all-time in UCLA football history.

He also spent time working with legendary Bruin tailback Johnathan Franklin, who would go on to become the school’s all-time leading rusher with 4,403 yards (2009-2012). Moses also guided another Bruins’ tailback to a 1,000-yard campaign in his career: Kevin Williams in 1991.

One of his most successful running backs he coached in college was Paul Hewitt of the San Diego State Aztecs. From 1987-1988, Hewitt ran for 2,056 yards and 28 touchdowns.

The coaching veteran spent several years working with Rick Neuheisel, when both of them were assistants for the UCLA Bruins (1990-1993). He also worked for Neuheisel when he was the head coach at Washington (1999-2000). In their final year together with the Huskies, UW won the Pac-10 title, went to the Rose Bowl, and finished No. 3 in the final polls. Then Moses also had another stint with Neuheisel when he was the head coach of UCLA (2008-2011).

Before Moses began his career in football coaching, he actually trained as an FBI agent in Quantico, Virginia.

The California native played his college football for the Washington Huskies, where he was a defensive back. He was a part of the Huskies 1978 Rose Bowl Championship team, although he didn’t get to play in the Rose Bowl because he broke his ankle in the ninth game of the season in a 50-31 win over California. Moses started in both the 1976 and 1977 seasons for the Washington secondary.

During his high school playing days at San Dimas High School (San Dimas, California) he played both football and basketball.

Moses leaves behind his wife, Rosalind, and his two daughters, Valerie and Kimberly.