USJ’s Spencer wins Mr. Football

Noah Spencer’s mindset while standing on the stage at the Tennessee Titans Mr. Football ceremony was pretty similar to the mindset he had in football games all his life at University School of Jackson.

“I wanted to win,” Spencer said via a phone call after being named Mr. Football for Division II-AA earlier in the day on Tuesday. “My eyes were closed and I was trying to stay calm and stay patient while standing up there.

“I wanted to win, but I also knew I was standing with a pair of quarterbacks that could easily win it too,” Spencer said about Christ Presbyterian Academy quarterback Hutson Chance and Battle Ground Academy quarterback Kaedyn Marable.

Titans radio broadcaster Mike Keith called Spencer’s name when it was time to announce the award winner for the Division II-AA winner.

“It’s a huge honor for me and my teammates,” Spencer said. “I know this is an award with one person’s name on it, but no one in the game of football is successful by himself.

“It’s a team effort, and I couldn’t have gained a single yard if it weren’t for everybody else on my team.”

Another player from Jackson, Jackson Christian wide receiver Jay’Len Mosley, was also a finalist for the Division II-A award, which went to Nashville Christian quarterback Jared Curtis.

One teammate was among the 10 people who were at the ceremony supporting Spencer, and that was quarterback Corben Howard.

“We’ve been best friends all our lives, playing football together since we were in fifth grade,” Spencer said. “So when we found ourselves playing together in the backfield - him as quarterback and me as running back - you couldn’t have made it sound any better.

“We didn’t have to work much on hand-offs because we’d already been doing it for years. I’d been catching passes from him for years.”

The last two years were full of questions and opportunities for instability for the Bruins as they moved up to Class AA, competing for a region championship with bigger school state championship contenders Lausanne and Northpoint Christian.

But Spencer has been the one on the field to bring stability within all those questions.

Whether it was him running for nearly 300 yards against Union City or carrying the ball 38 times against Lausanne in an almost must-win situation to put USJ in the best possible shape when it came to the playoffs.

“Both of those games and the South Gibson game this year are probably my three favorite memories from playing at USJ,” Spencer said. “Those three and the Lakeway Christian game in the first round of the playoffs last year.

“All four of them were hard-fought wins against really good teams that we had a hard time executing against,” Spencer said.

Spencer said he was OK with having played his final football game if that’s the plan God had for him, but his drive to play college football has increased in recent weeks.

He couldn’t pinpoint on thing that made him want to continue playing after having wrapped up his playing days at USJ when the Bruins lost in the state quarterfinals last month.

He also just received his first official offer for scholarship from Harvard University. He spent this past weekend on campus there for an official visit and was offered a scholarship before he left to return to Tennessee on Sunday.

“I’m thinking seriously about it and praying for some kind of direction,” Spencer said. “I’m talking to a couple other schools that could offer me a scholarship, so I’m making sure to take as much time as I can to make this decision.”

Brandon Shields, brandon@jacksonpost.news