2014 JACKSONVILLE AREA TOP 20 FOOTBALL RANKINGS 1.0

1 David Sharpe (Providence) OT 6'6 288 Top 4: Florida, Alabama, Florida state, Ohio State
2 Kain Daub (Sandalwood) ILB 6'3 234 committed: Florida State
3 Dillon Bates (Ponte Vedra) OLB 6'3 220 Top 4: Tennessee, Alabama, Florida, South Carolina
4 Isaiah Ford (Trinity Christian) WR 6'2 170 Top 3: Louisville, South Carolina,Clemson
5 D.J. Gillins (Ribault) DT-QB 6'3 185 TOP 3: coming later
6 Desean Blair (Sandalwood) WR 6'4 185 Committed: Louisville
7 Stepheny Durham (Atlantic Coast) CB 5-11 185 Top 4: Georgia Tech, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida State
8 Blake McClain (Sandalwood) SDE 6'3 257 Committed: Florida State
9 Josh Allen (University Christian) OG top4: North Carolina, Florida State, Georgia, Oregon
10 Travaris Dorsey (Raines) OG 6'2 315 Committed: Florida
11 Darrion Owens (OakLeaf) ATH 6'3 225 TOP 5: Boston College, Iowa State, Kentucky,Louisville, Maryland
12 Kavaris Harkless (Trinity Christian) OT 6'5 283 committed: LOUISVILLE
13 Kam Lott (First Coast) CB 5'10 180 Top 4 : South Florida, Georgia Tech, Central Florida, Ole Miss
14 Marvin Zanders (Raines) ATH 6'3 180 Top 3: Duke, Ohio, Western Kentucky
15 John Wolford (Bishop Kenny) PRO-QB 6'2 207 Top 4: Mississippi State, Akron, Charlotte, Florida International
16 Reggan Northup (First Coast) OLB 6'2 190 TOP 2(FOR NOW): North Carolina, Akron
17 Jake Stoshak (University Christian) Safety 5'11 170 Committed: Florida Atlantic
18 Alex Gardner (Raines) RB 5'10 185 offer: Western Michigan; Miami, Duke, Iowa State, North Carolina -interested
19 Michael Scarneccia (Fleming Island) PRO-QB 6'3 185 Interest: Iowa, Vanderbilt, Georgia
20 Bryce Motes (Fleming Island) WR 5'10.5 170
I thank everyone who help with this process. Many more to come feel free to comment or tweet me @Coach_moss players to look at and your opinion of the rankings thanks.

Sit down w/ LB Gary Alexander

I had the pleasure of interviewing LB Gary Alexander to get the perspective from a defensive leader.

Randy: What were your reflections from how the season ended last year?

Gary: It left a bad taste in my mouth and I am determined to not let it happen again.

Randy: Do you feel like the team has been preparing themselves to be the state champs and why?

Gary: Yes because we can only have 11 players on the field at one time and we have a good number of committed players who have been in the weight room since December.

Randy: What do you think it will take as a team to reach your goal?

Gary: Everybody has to be willing to work hard, have the desire to win as a team, and be willing to listen to the coaches.

Randy: What is your passion for playing football?

Gary: Knocking out people legally.

Randy: What do you think makes you try to motivate people around you to get better?

Gary: I want to be the weakest player on my team because that means we're a hard working disciplined team.

Randy: What do you think it takes to be a leader of this football team?

Gary: They have to hold the players accountable and someone who younger players can look up to. And their has to be more than 1 leader. The most important thing is they have to have a no nonsense for doing the wrong things.

Randy: How do you feel about new QB D.J. Gillins transferring in?

Gary: I'm on defense so I'm not to focused on him I just want him to put up points and I know he can't do it by himself.

In conclusion I got a feeling from him that their would be big expectations for the upcoming season, in fact their's a feeling of State Championship or Bust. 

Their's nothing wrong with a little hard work

It makes me sick to my stomach when I see high school football players who act like they're afraid of the weight room. And yet they want to voice how bad they want to go to college, but don't want to put the work in to get their. Then after a coach has begged them to get in the weight room for 3 1\2 years then they finally come, then they want the coach to break a leg to try to get them in college. It seems they feel like they're so talented that they don't need to work out. For EX: I know this football player who had the most prolific freshman and sophomore season's I have seen as far as stats and in terms of one of the hardest workers. In fact during the spring of his sophomore year he was the 1st player college coaches asked about. It seemed to me after the spring game of his sophomore year he began to think he was the best at his position in the area, and he stopped working as hard as he should have, and I guarantee you the player's at his position who was not better than him at that time in the city or state outworked him and eventually became better than him. You should realize that talent can only take you so far, but hard work is the only thing that can take you to the next level. The common athlete thinks the coach is trying to hurt you by trying to get you into the weight room when he's actually trying to develop a habit that will make you a better athlete and person. The thing that makes me so mad is when I see athletes who have so much potential, but has some of the laziest work ethics I have ever seen. What gets to me is when that same person wants to say how much they want to get to college but doesn't want to put the work in to get their. Then after their senior year is over they realize they should have worked harder than they did and instead of your coach worrying about signing day he is struggling to get you into a division 2/3 college. What really upset is when I found out from a source that a player we can't even get in the weight room is playing AAU basketball when he knows his best chance to make it to college is through football, I guess he's going to get better by doing nothing. A common trend that I have noticed is how the athletes look for every excuse not to work out, and how they constantly let girls or friends get in the way of their potential success. Because the moment you realize that you are trying to get to the next level you want let nothing get in your way. Because I guarantee you if your friend gets a offer he's not going to ask are you going to offer my friend , so you have to be SELFISH about you, and when you're on the field/ weight room you don't have for playing around because you're trying to get BETTER.