As fate would have it, both starting quarterbacks in the upcoming Super Bowl got their start in the Bay Area. Patriots quarterback Tom Brady famously played high school ball for Junipero Serra in San Mateo, while Jared Goff plied his trade in Marin County as a three-year varsity player for Marin Catholic.
Goff’s high school coach at Marin Catholic, Mazi Moyaed, joined Murph & Mac on Wednesday morning, and reminisced about what it was like to coach the Rams starting QB.
“To me his great moments were just when we were down and battling us back,” Moyaed said. “Against El Cerrito in the Section Finals in a monsoon, our goal was not to turn the ball over that game cause it was gonna be so wet and sloshy, and he did a great job in that game, and we were down early and he brought us back to win.
“Against Cardinal Newman when Scooby Wright was on that team. He rarely turned that ball over that was something he was really good at, but in that game I think he threw three interceptions, two on his first two passes. I think he had three interceptions on the season before that, so he doubled his total in one game. But he kept it together and kept chopping wood and brought us back to win in big games there.”
During his three-year varsity career, Goff threw for 7,687 yards and 93 touchdowns with 18 interceptions, completing 477-of-767 passes (62.2%) for teams that combined to post a 39–4 overall record and 21–0 Marin County Athletic League.
Moyaed first noticed Goff when he was playing on the freshman team.
“He was a freshman football player here and I saw him on the freshman team. First thing that stood out was he was a tall skinny kid. Good looking athlete, had some bounce to his step. Sort of watch him throw the ball out there and it’s like ‘Hey this guy is sort of could fling the ball, flip the ball here.’ He just made it look easy, and you just started to notice him then.
“You never equate it to the NFL at that time but yeah he had those attributes. He always had the ‘Joe Cool’ factor. You know calm, cool, collected. All the great quarterbacks and great athletes have that, and he had that. It’s not something you teach, it’s just something that’s in him to just stay calm and focused in any stage, in any moment, and we saw that play out through his high school career.”
Listen to the full interview below.