Kamari Cotton-Moya (born December 11, 1994) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

defensive back In gridiron football, defensive backs (DBs), also called the secondary, are the players on the defensive side of the ball who play farthest back from the line of scrimmage. They are distinguished from the other two sets of defensive players, the ...

. His accolades during his college career include

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First-team All-

Big 12 The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its fo ...

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Second-team All-Big 12, and

Big 12 Defensive Freshman of the Year Coaches of the Big 12 Conference bestow the following individual awards at the end of each football season. Offensive Player of the Year * 1996: Troy Davis, RB, Iowa State * 1997: Ricky Williams, RB, Texas * 1998: Ricky Williams, RB, Texas * 199 ...

in 2014.

High school career

At Ridgeview High School Cotton-Moya was a two-way star on the football field, he started both as

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

and

for the Wolfpack. His junior season Cotton-Moya rushed for 1,580 yards and 13 touchdowns as well as throwing for 464 yards and six touchdowns. The following year en route to a Central Section Division III Championship he rushed for 2,258 yards and 27 touchdowns in addition to passing for 1,580 yards and 13 touchdowns.

Recruiting

Despite excelling at multiple positions, Cotton-Moya was only lightly recruited as an athlete out of high school. He ultimately committed to

Iowa State Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a public land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm, Iowa State became one of the n ...

over

Fresno State California State University, Fresno (Fresno State) is a public university in Fresno, California. It is one of 23 campuses in the California State University system. The university had a fall 2020 enrollment of 25,341 students. It offers bachelo ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

, and

Utah State Utah State University (USU or Utah State) is a public land-grant research university in Logan, Utah. It is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. With nearly 20,000 students living on or near campus, USU is Utah's ...

College career

2014 season

After redshirting his initial college season Cotton-Moya made his debut in

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, he started 11 of the 12 games he played in. He led the Cyclones in tackles with 77 and was third on the team with seven passes defended. His 77 tackles rank sixth best for an ISU freshman. His season highlights were 12 tackles and a tackle for loss against Toledo, another 12 tackles against

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...

, and seven tackles plus a recovered fumble against

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...

. At the conclusion of the season Cotton-Moya was named the

as well as a First-team Freshman All-American by the

FWAA The Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) is an organization of college football media members in the United States founded in 1941. It is composed of approximately 1,200 professional sports writers from both print and Internet media ou ...

2015 season

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Kamari was on pace for an even better season than his last but it was cut short by a season ending hamstring injury after six games. He finished the season with 40 recorded tackles as three tackles for a loss. Against

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Cotton-Moya made eight tackles and he had a season high of nine tackles against both

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...

and TCU.

2016 season

while serving as co-captain, Cotton-Moya built upon the success of his freshman campaign. He was third on the team with 73 tackles and led the team in solo tackles with 58, ranking sixth in the Big 12 and 27th in FBS. Additionally he led the team in takeaways with two interceptions, two fumble recoveries, and a forced fumble. He had 11 tackle games against both

and

San Jose State San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a public university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the oldest public university on the West Coast and the founding campus of the California State University (CSU) sy ...

. He earned Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week against

Texas Tech Texas Tech University (Texas Tech, Tech, or TTU) is a public research university in Lubbock, Texas. Established on , and called Texas Technological College until 1969, it is the main institution of the five-institution Texas Tech University Sys ...

for making six tackles, forcing a fumble, recovering a fumble, and a 48-yard pick 6. Cotton-Moya was named to the second-team All-Big 12 (

) at the end of the season.

2017 season

Serving again in

as a team captain, Cotton-Moya once again anchored the Cyclone defense. He finished the season with 60 tackles, three for a loss, three interceptions, and one touchdown. His three interceptions were good for fifth best in the Big 12. He opened the season against

with three tackles and his second career pick 6. He followed that up with interceptions against

and

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

and eight solo tackles against

Oklahoma State Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New ...

. At the conclusion of the season he was named a consensus first-team All-

player.

College statistics

Professional career

In 2018, Cotton-Moya signed with the

Arizona Hotshots The Arizona Hotshots were a professional American football franchise based in Tempe, Arizona, and one of the eight members of the Alliance of American Football (AAF), which played one season from February 2019 to April 2019. They played their h ...

of the

Alliance of American Football The Alliance of American Football (AAF) was a professional American football minor league. The AAF consisted of eight centrally owned and operated teams in the southern and western United States, seven of which were located in metropolitan are ...

for the 2019 season. He was placed on

injured reserve The injured reserve list ( IR list) is a designation used in North American professional sports leagues for athletes who suffer injuries and become unable to play. The exact name of the list varies by league; it is known as "injured reserve" in th ...

after suffering a season-ending injury to his right knee. The league ceased operations in April 2019.

Personal life

Kamari's cousin, Sheldon Croney Jr, also played at Iowa State. Kamari contemplated quitting 3 times from Iowa State football program but was able to stick it out. He has a daughter.

References

External links

Iowa State Cyclones bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cotton-Moya, Kamari 1994 births Living people Iowa State Cyclones football players Coaches of American football from California American football defensive backs Players of American football from Bakersfield, California Arizona Hotshots players