When Jason Gesser took the role of quarterbacks coach, and then offensive coordinator at Idaho, it left the role of running backs coach vacant, which brought him to Moscow in the first place.
Ricky Scuderi | Argonaut
Wayne Moses gives Justin Veltung direction during a practice on the SprinTurf. Moses, who last coached at UCLA, was recently hired as Idaho’s new running backs coach.
Wayne Moses joined the Idaho staff this fall after coaching at UCLA last year on a staff that was disassembled when Rick Neuheisel got fired.
Before UCLA, Moses made stops in St. Louis with the Rams, Stanford, Pittsburgh, USC, Washington and California, dating back to 1996.
“Wayne brings a great deal of experience to this staff. He’s been in the Pac-10 and NFL his entire career. We’ve recruited against each other and competed against each other,” Akey said. “We were in need of a running backs coach and we were able to get it put together and I feel very fortunate to get a guy of his experience, both with his ability to tutor our running backs and his recruiting his ability. He’s got a name that’s known big time across the West Coast. Very happy to have him.”
At practices, Moses is noticeable as the non-verbally animated coach in the ‘boonie’ hat.
The fashion choice is an interesting one for a coach that comes off as soft spoken and one that tends to let actions speak louder than words. He’s not letting a smaller stage than he’s used to change how he does business as a coach.
“It’s football, the field is 100 yards long. We run the power play here the same we ran it in the Pac-12. It’s football,” he said.
Moses’ soft-spoken nature gives Idaho an interesting mix of coaches and experience on the offensive side of the ball. Gesser, the relatively inexperienced offensive coordinator, is as energetic as they come on the field.
Moses, on the other hand, is rarely overheard from the sideline, but is constantly seen giving one- on-one instruction to his running backs.
“I think we’ve got a real good blend on that offensive side of the ball,” Akey said. “We’ve got youth, we’ve got experience. We’ve all got great personalities about the way we go about it.”
Moses inherits a group of running backs that will be a bit of a question mark for the offense as the season opens, with the most experience coming from senior Ryan Bass. Bass only ran for 175 yards on 44 attempts last season. Junior college transfer James Baker looks physically imposing and should be in the equation, with redshirt freshman Todd Handley and Justin Parkins also getting work with the second team offense.
The exact rotation of ball carriers is still to be determined.
“Every day is a situation where one guy can shine, and the next day the next guy comes back,” Moses said. “Right now we’re going to let that play out a little bit.”
Sean Kramer can be reached at [email protected]