For Mosley, next level is at North Texas

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For Mosley, next level is at North Texas

By CHRIS DABE, The Enterprise

 

NEDERLAND - First came an invite, then an offer.

North Texas football coach Todd Dodge invited Nederland running back Micah Mosley to the Denton-based campus shortly after watching a 19-minute highlight tape of the record-setting senior.

Dodge followed the next day by offering Mosley a scholarship to play football at North Texas without ever setting eyes on the only running back to be in Dodge's first high school recruiting class.

Just like that, Mosley went from thinking he might never play football again to being among the first players to join a team coached by one of the most innovative figures in Texas high school football history.

"It happened pretty fast," said Mosley's father, James, who will join his wife Phyllis as they watch their son sign a letter of intent today to play football at North Texas.

Today is national signing day for college football, meaning thousands of high school seniors nationwide will fax signed letters to their college coaches, officially making them members of a recruiting class.

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Although slowed for part of the season with an ankle injury, Micah Mosley rushed for more than 2,400 yards and 29 touchdowns in 12 games last season. Even so, no school offered the 6-foot-1, 200-pound senior a chance to join a college team as a running back.

"I would have thought that many more than (North Texas) would have offered him a scholarship," Nederland coach Larry Neumann said.

James Mosley said most schools that expressed interest in his son only wanted him as a defensive back. Among them were Southern Methodist, Tulsa and Navy.

Micah Mosley was only interested in playing in NCAA Division I-A football if he could be an offensive player, meaning he had no interest in attending those other schools.

Houston said Mosley would have a chance to play running back but never made a scholarship offer, James said.

Instead, Mosley made none of the five official visits allotted to each recruit by the NCAA and began thinking about a baseball career.

A first-team all-district outfielder last season and left-handed pitcher, Mosley trained with former Nederland star pitcher Brian Sanches, who pitched in 18 games with the Philadelphia Phillies last season.

But then along came Dodge, who left Southlake Carroll after winning four Class 5A state championships in five seasons and going 79-1 along the way. Dodge was raised in Port Arthur and played for Memorial coach Ronnie Thompson when both were at Thomas Jefferson.

Dodge is the first quarterback in Texas history to throw for 3,000 yards, achieved in the season he led TJ to a 1980 state final appearance against Odessa Permian. He played at the University of Texas.

Dodge brings with him to North Texas a spread option offense that has been arguably the most effective in state history. His quarterbacks in each of the last five years have been selected as the Class 5A player of the year by The Associated Press, the latest being his son, Riley, who will be a senior next season.

North Texas went 2-5 in the Sun Belt Conference and 3-9 overall last season. The team returns leading rusher Jamario Thomas, who rushed for 668 yards and two touchdowns.

James Mosley said Dodge told him he liked Micah Mosley's highlight film enough to make him the only running back in a recruiting class that Rivals.com says has 14 players. Another running back, Cam Montgomery, is a junior college transfer from Booneville, Miss.

The highlight film was mailed to Dodge Jan. 5. He viewed it Jan. 10 after he returned home from a national coaching convention and invited Mosley to visit the school. By Jan. 11, about a week before the scheduled visit, Dodge offered Mosley a scholarship.

NCAA rules prohibit Dodge from talking about Mosley until he is officially signed.

"I'm happy with what I have, and if I wasn't, I wouldn't further my career in football," Mosley said before Nederland's first baseball scrimmage Tuesday.

Mosley said he watched film on Southlake Carroll and liked what he saw.

"I'm going to get a chance to run the ball and catch the ball and to pass block," Mosley said. "It's a very spread out offense. Everybody is going to receive the ball."

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