Alabama junior inside linebacker Dylan Moses broke into the starting lineup late in his freshman season in 2017 and last year led the Crimson Tide in tackles.
Alabama junior inside linebacker Dylan Moses never has known a life away from the spotlight or a life free from challenges, and that's just how he likes it.
The 6-foot-3, 235-pounder was a can't-miss prospect not long after ditching the diapers, and he has delivered since signing and enrolling early with the Crimson Tide in 2017. Moses led Alabama in tackles last season with 86, and he also collected 10 tackles for loss, 3.5 sacks and a forced fumble.
Moses was 6-2 and 220 pounds coming out of ninth grade in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, so imagine how dominant he must have been in peewee competition.
"I had like six touchdowns in our championship game when I was 9," Moses said with a smile. "The field was really muddy. I remember that game like it was yesterday."
As a sophomore inside linebacker last season, Alabama's Dylan Moses racked up 86 tackles, 10 tackles for loss and 3.5 sacks in becoming a finalist for the Butkus Award.It wasn't too long after that when Moses seemingly made news every week on the recruiting front. He committed to LSU in September 2013, as he was starting the ninth grade.
In August 2014 Moses was projected by 247Sports.com as the No. 1 player in the 2017 signing class. He opened up his recruitment in the summer of 2015 and named LSU as his leader in the summer of 2016, when he decided to leave Baton Rouge and play his final high school season at the prestigious IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida.
When an 18-13 loss at Auburn saddled LSU with a 2-2 start to the 2016 season, Les Miles was fired the next day and replaced on an interim basis by Ed Orgeron, who landed the job in a full-time role that November. Within a week of Miles getting canned, Moses announced on social media that he was heading to Alabama.
"When I was a recruit, I said that if Coach Miles wasn't going to be there, then I wasn't going to go to LSU," Moses said. "That wound up sticking. I also didn't feel like staying home would be something that would make me grow as a player and as a person.
"In order to grow, you have to put yourself in uncomfortable positions, and that's what I did."
Leaving Baton Rouge for IMG Academy and then picking Alabama over LSU did not sit well with most Louisiana residents, but Moses has no regrets and will never forget meeting with Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban the initial time on Saban's turf.
"When I walked into Coach Saban's office the first time, the door closed behind me, and I looked at it," Moses said. "He had pressed this button and closed the door, and I was like, 'Who's closing the door?' I thought that was pretty funny."
Moses signed in 2017 as a consensus five-star prospect and the No. 13 overall recruit, which actually placed him third on the Tide's bumper crop that year behind running back Najee Harris (No. 2) and offensive tackle Alex Leatherwood (No. 4).
Once in Tuscaloosa, Moses learned for a season under Rashaan Evans, another former five-star who played for the Tide from 2014 to 2017 before becoming a first-round pick of the Tennessee Titans. Moses worked his way into making a pair of starts as a freshman before suffering a foot injury that knocked him out of the playoffs that yielded Alabama's fifth national championship under Saban.
After earning Freshman All-America honors, Moses played so well as a sophomore that he became a finalist for the Butkus Award. He enters this season on every preseason All-America list.
"Dylan Moses was the center of our defense last year, and he will be the signal-caller this year," Saban said. "He is certainly a very talented guy who is very productive."
Alabama became the first team in college football history last year to produce a 12-0 regular season with all 12 victories by at least three touchdowns. The Tide posted consecutive November shutouts of LSU and Mississippi State, but they wound up allowing an uncharacteristic 106 points during the three-game stretch of the 35-28 Southeastern Conference championship game victory over Georgia, the 45-34 Orange Bowl national semifinal win over Oklahoma and the 44-16 loss to Clemson in the national championship contest.
Clemson's first score occurred via an interception of Tua Tagovailoa, but the Tigers wound up shredding Alabama defenders for 482 total yards.
"They just game-planned against us better than other teams did," Moses said. "They didn't have better athletes. They were just more competitive than us, and I'll give them credit for that. It left a bad taste in our mouth, and we've got to learn from it, obviously.
"We've got to get better from it and go into this season with a chip on our shoulder."
The Clemson game was the latest big stage for Moses, who appeared on a recruiting magazine cover as an eighth-grader. He has lived under a microscope and will do so again this season, when he hopes to help guide an Alabama defense that can be significantly stronger at the end of the season this time around.
"Coming here to Alabama was similar to when I went to IMG Academy," he said, "because they have four-stars and five-stars at IMG Academy, too. I had to wait my turn here for a little bit, but I didn't mind, because the guy I was playing behind was a first-round draft pick.
"I want to lead this defense the way it's supposed to be led. I want our defense to be dominant, and I want our team to be dominant."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.