Miami Hurricanes History of Consecutive 1st Round Picks ’95-’01
Santana Moss WR selected 16 in 2001 by New York Jets
Moss teamed with Wayne to form one of the greatest receiving tandems in Miami Hurricanes history if not college football history. He amazingly joined the Hurricanes as a walk-on. He would earn a scholarship by his third game his freshman season.
Moss broke out as a Sophomore with eight touchdown receptions. He became one college football’s elite players as a Junior. Moss caught 54 passes for 899 yards and six touchdowns, plus he averaged 14.2 yards on punt returns and brought back two for touchdowns.
As a Senior, Moss was the Big East Offensive Player of the Year. He finished the season with 45 catches for 748 yards and five touchdowns, had 201 rushing yards and two touchdowns on six carries and averaged 18.2 yards on punt returns with four touchdowns.
He finished his Miami career as the receiving yardage leader and fourth all-time in receptions. He left Miami with 2,546 yards and 143 receptions. He finished 36 yards ahead of Wayne who is second in school history. They still top the school record charts 16 years later.
Moss didn’t make an impact as a rookie and wasn’t a full-time starter until his third year in the league. He burst out in his third season with 74 receptions for 1,105 yards and ten touchdowns. He would remain one of the NFL’s elite receivers for eight seasons with the Jets and Redskins.
Moss had three 1,000 yard seasons receiving and between 2003-10 he had at least 790 yards receiving and 45 receptions in each season. He finished his career in 2014 with 732 receptions for 10283 yards and 66 touchdowns.