The Spire

Aiden Konold ’26

Chief Sports Editor

When junior Max Mosey first committed to Holy Cross to play football, the plan was for him to sling the football down the field as a quarterback. Though Mosey played snaps at just about every position growing up, ranging from offensive lineman and linebacker to safety, he grew most comfortable standing behind the center, with control of the game in his hands. 

At Central Dauphin High School in Harrisburg, Pa., Mosey excelled through the air as a quarterback, but he also showed off his versatility, an attribute Max learned from playing all those other positions growing up and an attribute alongside his winning mentality that later helped him in his transition from quarterback to wide receiver at Holy Cross. 

In 35 high school games, Mosey threw for 4418 yards and 37 touchdowns. He also ran for 1028 yards and 22 scores, 17 of which came during his senior season. Still, Mosey was recruited to play quarterback. 

But when Mosey first arrived on the Hill in the fall of 2022, the Holy Cross quarterback room was loaded with talent. Junior Matthew Sluka was poised to start his second full season as the Crusaders’ starting quarterback, and sophomore Joe Pesansky was the solidified backup. 

“His [Mosey’s] freshman year, we had some other quarterbacks, and we felt like [Mosey] was an explosive player, like he could run really well, he could change direction,” said Holy Cross wide receivers coach and pass game coordinator, Rich Gunnell. “He was smart, and somebody we felt we could utilize early. But it’d be tough to be in the quarterback room, obviously, just playing one of them at a time.”

The explosiveness and sudden change of direction that Coach Gunnell noticed out of Mosey in training camp and practices led him and other coaches to ponder the possibility of having him switch positions if he wasn’t going to have the opportunity to make as big of an impact at quarterback. Shortly after Mosey’s freshman season, the coaching staff decided to move him from quarterback to wide receiver. 

“I was [the] first to raise my hand,” Coach Gunnell said when other coaches proposed the idea of having Mosey switch to wide receiver. “I said, ‘I will gladly take Mosey and train him to be a  receiver.’ ” 

Having spent his first season in the quarterback room, Mosey already had a good idea of how the Holy Cross offense worked from an X’s and O’s standpoint. 

“[C]oming in as a quarterback, you get the knowledge of having to read coverages, read certain alignments of DBs, linebackers,” said Mosey. “So it helps you transition, I think, to navigate through routes and who you’re supposed to block, how to attack certain positions on the field.” 

Even coming in with experience playing other positions and a detailed understanding of how the offense worked having learned the playbook inside and out as a quarterback, Mosey still had to adjust to different aspects of playing wide receiver. 

“Conditioning was a big part that I had to transition to,” said Mosey. “So we worked on conditioning footwork, how to get in and out of brakes… It was kind of tough at the start, but I started coming along [in the] past year or two.” 

Last year, Mosey played primarily on special teams, and he recorded three tackles on the season. This year, Mosey broke onto the scene as a wide receiver in game three against Bryant University. After recording two catches for nine yards in the first two games of the season, Max hauled in two passes for 67 yards, including his first college career reception touchdown, in game three. 

Since Mosey’s first career touchdown catch against Bryant, he has hauled in 21 passes for 460 yards and three touchdowns. Two of those scores came in Holy Cross’ most recent game against the Harvard Crimson in which Mosey recorded a career-high 149 receiving yards. Mosey’s other reception touchdown came on a 63-yard catch and score against the Syracuse Orange. 

In the closing minutes of a blowout win over Colgate, Mosey ran for a score and completed a pass for 21 yards. He’s finding success whenever his name is called. 

The key to Mosey’s breakout season is the attention to detail and work that he puts into each and every practice and in the offseason. During the offseason, Mosey finds time to work on his chemistry with senior quarterback Joe Pesansky, and runs various routes. During the spring, as the weather constantly shifts, Mosey and Pesansky alternate between throwing in the indoor facility and out on Father K field, the outdoor turf practice facility. 

“We always try to find time to run the routes, get the timing down so he [Pesansky] knows my speed, where to put the ball, where weak spots are, where my strong spots are,” said Mosey. “We would do that in the off season, in the winter to the summer, where we would be here, mostly on campus all day, and we would just get out there, just throw the ball around, just naturally, just let it happen, [let] the chemistry build.” 

And when Mosey performs below the high standards he sets for himself, he pays close attention to the advice coaches offer. 

“I was having a bad case of the drops during camp, and at one point, Coach Westin [Elliott] would tell me, ‘when the ball is traveling towards you, open your eyes as much as possible, and really just look it in, overexaggerate the look in,’ ” Mosey said. “And I would do that. I still do that almost before every practice, every day, just to get the eye discipline down, just to really help hone in on catching the ball first, and then trying to make a move.”  

Pesansky is particularly impressed with how Mosey has transitioned from playing quarterback to starring as a wide receiver. It’s a transition that did not always come easy. Mosey had to learn how to play an entirely different position from the one he was so accustomed to playing since his high school days, at the division one level. And it’s something that Pesansky really respects. 

“I think an underrated part of the transition is learning how to essentially play football again,” Pesansky said. “From a different point of view, being able to catch the ball and take hits, being able to know the routes, but not just know the routes, know how to run them, is something that he [Mosey] had to learn. He’s making big time plays for us, and has stepped up to be a crucial part of our offense.” 

Pesansky also appreciates the eagerness with which Mosey approaches everything his coaches ask of him. 

“[In] this new offense, we’re asking receivers to do a lot of blocking, a lot of lead blocking, and he’s done a phenomenal job,” Pesansky said of Mosey. “He puts his head down. At camp, we had some injuries, and we even brought him into play running back and carry the ball. He’s a guy who’s willing to do whatever it takes to win.”

Featured image courtesy of Holy Cross Athletics

Web Edited by Zexuan Qu ’28