JCS’ Mosley rehabbing knee; narrows college choices to 6

Jay’len Mosley has had a memorable 12 months.

He had a history-making junior season of high school football cut short by injury, and the four-star recruiting prospect that has 18 offers – 11 from Power 4 conference schools – narrowed his recruiting list to six schools this past weekend.

Those schools were Alabama, Louisville, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Purdue and Tennessee.

His junior football season was full of highlights playing receiver for Jackson Christian as the Eagles rolled through the first nine games of the season. He amassed 1,482 receiving yards and 26 touchdowns on 74 receptions.

But his season came to a screeching halt in the second quarter of the final game of the regular season at Trinity Christian when the Eagles and Lions were playing for the Division II-A West region championship.

“The ball was coming to me, and I jumped up,” Mosley said. “And the way I jumped with my toes, it was like I put so much pressure on my knee that it blew up my knee cap.”

Mosley tore one of the tendons on his kneecap and chipped the bone. After surgery to reattach the bone, he began the rehabbing process that hasn’t been completed yet. But he did win the Division II-A Mr. Football award in December.

And every school who had offered him beforehand stayed in contact with him throughout the process.

“Everyone who was already recruiting me stayed in contact and checking up on me,” Mosley said. “And I was able to take visits during the winter.”

During that time, Mosley was rehabbing and healing.

“I’ve been working and doing the training and rehabbing at Dynamix and getting back to where I can do football moves again,” Mosley said.

Mosley said he plans to commit to a program in the fall and enroll early in January.

He was back to jogging in March, progressed to running and is now beginning to make cuts. Doctors and Eagles head coach Darby Palmer had already decided soon after surgery that Mosley won’t take a hit until at least the first game of the season, so the rest of the offseason will be some non-contact drills with the team and walking through plays.

And because he has been able to jog and run for months now, his conditioning may be the best it’s ever been in June.

“Running is all they have me doing during practice when they’re doing contact stuff,” Mosley said with a laugh. “But it’s OK because I’m getting better, and we’re all getting better.

“We felt like we were good enough to compete for state last year, and that’s a goal for us again this year. But we’ve got to take things as they come. We’ve got dead period the next two weeks, then the preseason and getting ready for Week 1. Right now, Jackson Christian football is focused on Jackson Christian football and getting ourselves better every day.”

Brandon Shields, brandon@jacksonpost.news