Jay’len Mosley still has two seasons of high school football remaining to play at Jackson Christian.
But the rising junior athlete for the Eagles who excels in three sports at the school is already receiving plenty of interest from various college programs.
He received his first scholarship offer on his birthday last year from Ole Miss, and that number of offers has risen to 13 as of this summer.
Four of those are from the Southeastern Conference with Tennessee, Vanderbilt and Auburn joining the Rebels. Other Power 5 programs like Arizona and Louisville have made offers as well.
Mosley, who’s listed as 6-feet-1-inch and 190 pounds, is listed as a four-star prospect by ESPN and On3. He can’t be directly recruited by the coaches until Sept. 1 per NCAA regulations, but Eagles head coach Darby Palmer said Mosley has done well so far in not letting the offers get to him.
“He works hard to try to earn those offers and has continued to work hard after getting offers,” Palmer said.
Mosley said that first offer from Ole Miss made him want to work harder.
“I feel like I’ve always been a hard worker, or I’ve always tried to be at least,” Mosley said. “But when I got that first offer, I couldn’t believe it at first.
“But then that just made me want to work harder because that let me know my work was paying off. So if I continue to keep working, that will pay off even more.”
There were plenty of times this past spring during the Eagles’ practice when coaches representing multiple schools would be on the sidelines watching Mosley and his teammates.
“That didn’t really make me nervous because I was out there practicing and I just kept practicing,” Mosley said. “I was aware of it, but I just tried to stay focused on whatever drill we were doing at any given time.”
He’s visited six campuses including Tennessee. Other schools from which he hasn’t received an offer from that he has visited include Notre Dame, Virginia Tech and Miami of Ohio.
“Being on their campuses, I’ve gotten a chance to see how big and fast their athletes are, but also see how big football is at that level,” Mosley said. “High school gets you ready for college, and I understood that already, but I didn’t know what that looked like until I was there.
“It was amazing.”
As dead period approaches, Mosley said he and the rest of the Eagles are ready to work toward the first game of the season in August.
The Eagles are coming off a season in which they went 10-2, finished second in their region and made it to the state semifinals in Division II-A.
“We lost some good players, but we’ve got a lot back too,” Mosley said. “We’re working hard with the coaches to be better as a team.
“We’re working hard, and we’re ready to work hard the rest of the summer to get as good as we can when the season gets here.”
Brandon Shields, brandon@jacksonpost.news
Watch this young man! He’s already showing he has goals and dreams.. His father TJ is the same way. This doesn’t surprise me. #23 is exciting to watch , no matter what uniform he’s wearing! Can’t wait for August!!! GO EAGLES! AND #23! CONGRATULATIONS Jay!len!