Ben Moa’s star continues to rise.
The senior tight end-wide receiver, who has recently made headlines for his impressive work at tailback, today was named a semifinalist for the John Mackey Award, which is given annually to the nation’s top collegiate tight end.
Moa was one of just eight finalists across the nation to be named a semifinalist.
“It’s a well-deserved honor for Ben to be recognized as one of the nation’s top tight ends,” head coach Urban Meyer said.
Finalists will be announced on Nov. 26, with the winner taking the prize on Dec. 9 upon vote by a selection committee comprised of national sports writers, commentators and NFL players.
The honor came as a surprise to many, and it rendered Moa speechless.
“I’m just in shock,” he said. “I don’t even know what to say.”
On the season, he has 23 receptions for 359 yards and three touchdown catches, and he has also rushed 31 times for 151 yards and three scores.
“I couldn’t think of a guy more deserving of it, with the kind of player he is and the amount of work he puts in,” quarterback Alex Smith said. “Everybody saw what he can do this year. He’s a tight end at heart, but he’s been playing receiver and running back as well as tight end, and he’s never really missed a beat. I think it’s awesome. I’m just happy for him. He’s a guy you want to succeed and a guy who should succeed.”
When the season began, national honors for the Utah receiving corps were hardly the first thing on players’ and coaches’ minds. New head coach Meyer actually considered the receiving corps the weakest position on the entire team. During the preseason, he went as far as to say that his receivers “are not a Division I group.”
That has changed over the past three months, and the group’s rapid improvement has owed a lot to the performance of Moa.
“He’s impacted this team with his attitude, his work ethic and his performance,” Meyer said. “It’s no surprise that he’s playing well because he works at it in practice. Just as it’s no surprise he didn’t do well last year and he didn’t do well in the spring-he wasn’t practicing well then. But now he’s doing well.”
Following a relatively slow start by Ute receivers, Moa really began to emerge when the Utes took on the Oregon Ducks in the first week of October.
Oregon took a 13-10 lead into the fourth quarter, but the Utes-who have established themselves all year as a fourth-quarter club-completely dominated the game’s final 15 minutes.
It was Moa who scored the game’s go-ahead touchdown, taking a 9-yard strike from Smith that capped off a 93 yard drive and gave the Utes the lead for good.
It was Moa’s first touchdown of the season, but he’s been one of the U’s top red-zone and third-down weapons ever since-which, of course, is exactly what is expected of a tight end.
A week later against San Diego State, Moa scored the Utes’ first touchdown of the game, a third-quarter, 15 yard reception that erased a 6-0 halftime deficit.
Moa’s impact has been felt most in recent weeks-and ironically, it hasn’t just been from the tight end position.
In a Nov. 1 meeting at Air Force, Moa did his part in the passing game, grabbing five passes for a solid 68 yards.
But with star running back Brandon Warfield out of the lineup, Meyer inserted Moa into the backfield. The move paid off, as he rushed for three rushing touchdowns and threw a game-winning two point conversion to fellow tight end Matt Hansen that sealed a 45-43 triple overtime victory.
Last week against Wyoming, Moa was the offensive workhorse, rushing 22 times for 125 yards.
But his finest talent is in the receiving game, a fact he has proved again and again this season.
Moa’s performance and newfound recognition is indicative of the way the U receivers as a whole have responded to their earlier, less impressive performance.
“They’re probably our most improved position on the team,” Meyer said. “They’ve gone from what I considered inadequate to actually playing very well.”
The improvement of the receiving corps has come hand-in-hand with the comfort level of the entire offensive unit in Meyer’s spread offense, a scheme that was just installed this year. With former starter Elliott going down with an ankle injury in the second game of the season and the inexperienced Smith getting thrown into the fire to replace him, finding continuity within the passing game was a difficult task.
But thanks in large part to the play of Smith and Moa, the receiving corps has grown into something of a team strength.
“I don’t think talent was ever an issue. Obviously we were a little thin, and we still are,” Smith said. “But Ben has been such a huge leader and a huge player for us, and he doesn’t get enough credit.”
If getting credit was any question, John Mackey has provided an emphatic answer.
