Nebraska barred defensive lineman Avery Moss from campus for the rest of the year Monday and said he won’t be able to play next season after he pleaded no contest to public indecency for a 2012 incident at a residence hall.
University spokesman Steve Smith said Moss had been ordered off the campus through at least Dec. 31. Smith said he couldn’t disclose the reason for the ban because of privacy laws, though a police report said a female student in December 2012 reported that a man exposed himself twice to her at a campus convenience store where she worked. She later identified Moss after looking at a photo.
Moss appeared in Lancaster County Court on Monday and, in addition to pleading no contest to public indecency, pleaded guilty to a charge of failing appear to a previously scheduled court hearing. A charge of disturbing the peace was dropped. He’ll be sentenced March 28.
Moss said he originally was banned from entering residence halls last fall as a result of the public indecency charge. He lived off-campus. He said he thought he could enter residence halls again at the end of the fall semester last month, and he did so. But he said officials told him the ban had not been lifted at that point, and it was extended to cover the entire campus.
“Miscommunication, a procedural thing,” Moss said.
Moss said he looked into transferring but would prefer to re-enroll in 2015, finish his degree in psychology and resume his football career.
“I have complete faith in God, and He would not put a test in front of me that I can’t handle. This is another test I feel I’ll get through,” Moss told The Associated Press. “For everybody else, I want them to know that we all make mistakes. I’ve learned from my mistake and seek to become a better man. I won’t let this bump in the road stop me.”
Moss, from Tempe, Ariz., declined to say where or how he planned to spend the next year. He said he’s going through counseling “so there is no re-enactment of anything I’ve been in trouble for.”
Moss said he must meet with university administrators later this year to ask to be allowed to return for the 2015 spring semester.
“I’m trying my best to come back to Nebraska,” he said.
Athletic department spokesman Keith Mann referred questions, including a request for comment from coach Bo Pelini, to Smith. Messages also were left with UNL Police Chief Owen Yardley and Dean of Students Matthew Hecker.
Moss started three games and played in nine others in 2013. He made 36 tackles, including 4.5 sacks, and returned an interception 25 yards for a touchdown in a win over Northwestern.
The 6-foot-2, 270-pound Moss didn’t travel to the Gator Bowl against Georgia because of what Pelini in December described as a personal issue.
Moss played in three of the first four games as a freshman in 2012, but a shoulder injury kept him out the rest of the season.
The loss of Moss diminishes the Huskers’ depth on the defensive line, which returns one regular starter in All-Big Ten end Randy Gregory. Part-time starters Aaron Curry and Vincent Valentine will be back, as will Maliek Collins, who made his first start in the bowl. The Huskers lost a verbal commitment from prized junior-college recruit Terrell Clinkscales, who switched his pledge to Kansas State.
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