Dylan Moses Looks to Rebound From Injury

The Crimson Tide senior linebacker looks to lead his defense after suffering a season-ending injury last August

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Alabama football senior linebacker Dylan Moses spoke to the media for the first time in 2020, speaking at-length on his return to the field since suffering a season-ending injury almost one year ago.

Last August, Moses suffered an injury to his knee during fall camp that required surgery and kept him from joining his teammates on the gridiron for the 2019 season.

On Monday, Moses stepped foot on the field and participated in a full team practice for the first time since his injury.

“Getting back out there yesterday I felt really good,” Moses said. “I feel really great actually being out there with my teammates again being that it’s been a year since I’ve been out there. As far as my health I’ve felt really good. I just need to keep getting better as far as developing that feel for being on the field again since it’s been a while but it’s been great.”

Last fall camp, Moses was entering his junior season with many considering him a shoo-in for the 2020 NFL draft. However, his injury kept him from realizing those goals and the linebacker decided to return to the Crimson Tide for one more season.

It’s good to be back. 😎 #RollTide pic.twitter.com/AIyiyMkDI3

— Alabama Athletics (@UA_Athletics) August 17, 2020

After recovering from his injury, the 2020 season soon began to be called into question due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, cancelling spring practices and Alabama's annual scrimmage game.

For Moses, navigating both rehabilitation and a global pandemic was no easy task.

“This last year’s actually been really hard for me,” Moses said. “Especially in the beginning when I first got hurt. As far as COVID and as far as practicing and getting ready to play and all the uncertainty that was going on before, I’m actually pretty at peace with it. Either way it would’ve been good in my favor whether if we had pushed the season back like we did or have it played at all it would’ve been great for me because it would have given me more time to heal so like I said I’m kind of neutral in that sense but at the end of the day I’m happy.”

For his freshman and sophomore seasons Moses totaled 116 tackles including 15.5 for a loss. In those two seasons Moses also tallied up 5.0 sacks, and interception and two forced fumbles.

With the onset of COVID-19 and the uncertainty that continues to surround the 2020 college football season, Moses expressed his frustration at preparing for the season.

“It was very frustrating,” Moses said. “I’m not the type of person that likes when things are up in the air or stuff like that. I like for things to be certain so having all of that going on and having to try and focus and keeping like a purpose in mind knowing all of the workouts and the training [is] for a reason. It was hard self-motivating myself to do that but being able that I was to overcome it and be at the point where I’m at now I’m ready.”

Now that his injury is behind him and the Crimson Tide is two days into its fall camp, Moses is already assuming his role as a veteran leader on the defense.

When asked about his thoughts on the College Football Playoff in a year that has been wildly unpredictable, Moses reiterated his role as a leader and how his team is taking its approach one step at a time.

“Honestly I’m really focused on one game at a time,” Moses said. “Especially with my guys, you know. I try to get them to understand that even in practice you gotta focus on one play at a time so we’ve been trying to move on towards that and like focus it towards the games as well so I try to use it in every single situation that we go into but as far as like our readiness — how we want to execute or what we want to execute — I feel very confident in that especially with me being able to be very hands-on with guys and getting in the guy’s heads and being able to be a leader on the team and I’m happy to be able to do that.”

In Moses' absence, freshmen linebackers Shane Lee and Christian Harris played in his stead, taking on the responsibility of filling some fairly large shoes.

According to Moses, he feels the duo did a solid job despite their young age.

“I actually think that they did great as true freshmen,” Moses said. “They did better than what I could have did at that time because I know when I was a freshman in August I was still learning. I commend them for doing a great job in stepping up and taking up that role and only losing two games with two middle linebackers as freshmen that’s great. Them coming back this year and me being able to help them and lead them and give them some of things that have helped me along the way and pass on my knowledge is a great feeling.”

That being said, there's no doubt that Moses and his teammates are all glad that he is back on the football field this season.

“Of course I feel like I could’ve made a difference but you know you can’t look back on the past or reminisce on things,” Moses said. “You have to keep moving forward so now that I’ve sat back and looked at the things that we really need to work on, I’ve been trying to apply it in every way possible.

“We’re just trying to get there slowly but surely.”