Experienced JC Eagles looking strong in preseason

Jackson Christian’s football team can’t have a much better season than it had last year.

The Eagles finished 2023 10-2 after starting the season 9-0 and winning a playoff game.

But as everyone in the program would like to achieve more, there’s one thing that head coach Darby Palmer is already proud of for the team at this point in the offseason.

“We’ve had one of our strongest offseasons we’ve ever had,” Palmer said. “We’ve got 14 guys on this roster who are in the 1,000-pound club in the weight room.

“That’s big for us, and that’s because all of those guys have bought into our strength and conditioning program.”

There are a number of key returners this season on both sides of the ball, so there’s plenty of experience coming back starting with four-star recruit Jay’len Mosley, a wide-receiver who has more than a dozen NCAA FBS scholarship offers and recently narrowed his choices to six, with four of those being in the Southeastern Conference.

Quarterback Austin Kelley is back after throwing for 40 touchdowns and more than 3,000 yards in the 12 games, and there are plenty of experienced teammates for him to throw to.

Palmer said one added option in the passing game is one that could come out of the backfield.

“Deuce Lawrence gained more than 1,000 yards for us rushing, and he’s spent the offseason working on running routes and improving his hands,” Palmer said. “So we’re hoping he can be a dual threat for us and another read for Austin, which would be another receiver for the defense to look out for after the snap.”

On defense, the linebacking corps and defensive secondary has a good bit of experience back as well.

But even for the spots that don’t feature a returning player, Palmer said he’s confident in the guys he has filling those roles.

“They didn’t get as many reps on Friday nights as they will this year, but a lot of them got Friday night reps in some of those games where we had big leads and got some young guys in,” Palmer said. “And on top of that, who were these guys going up against in practice reps? The guys ahead of them last year on the depth chart, so they got better from that too.”

But the good part about this time of year is the team has more than a month to improve before their Week 1 game, which is at Northpoint Christian.

“We’re pushing them to fail now,” Palmer said. “We want them to fail because we want to force them to have to see what they need to do to be better – whether it’s improve their technique, get stronger or faster or whatever it is they need to do.

“Hopefully that means they’ll succeed when the season starts.”

The season begins on Aug. 23.

Brandon Shields, brandon@jacksonpost.news