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Jack Moran always saw himself playing football in the south.
Even the way he goes about his days in New Jersey, the star quarterback admits that people tend to say he has a “southern draw” — a visit to Jacksonville State all but confirmed those statements.
“I just felt like I belonged down there: it wasn’t too much different for me, other than really, people weren’t cutting other people off when they were driving, stuff like that,” Moran laughed. “It fits my vibe very well.”
Moran will continue his football career down south and play for Jacksonville State, confirming the news to AL.com on Friday.
The 3-star quarterback chose Jax State over Florida Atlantic, also holding offers from Maryland, Marshall, East Carolina, Tulsa and Charlotte.
“When I went down there for my official visit a couple of weeks ago, I immediately felt like I was at home: the staff did a great job welcoming me,” Moran said. “I got to spend some time with the players, mostly the offensive linemen, which was super cool. Right away I just felt like I could see myself going there, and like I said, just the welcoming they have for me, they made me feel like I was a necessity there.
“It was hard to say no; I couldn’t say no.”
The Hun School quarterback, who stands at 6-foot-5, 225 pounds, was named New Jersey’s Gatorade Player of the Year last season after throwing for a state-record 4,513 yards while completing 203 of his 278 passes.
He threw 47 touchdowns and just five interceptions as he led his team to a 9-1 record, also throwing for a single-game record 608 yards and seven touchdowns in a victory over Maryland’s Mount Zion Prep.
The record-shattering season for Moran came after playing behind a pair of Power Four quarterbacks in Marco Lainez (signed with Iowa out of high school) and Miles O’Neill (with Texas A&M) before taking the reins as a senior.
“It put a little chip on my shoulder,” Moran said. “Senior year, I was able to put it all together and have fun throwing the ball with my best friends. We played a national schedule, or semi-national schedule this year. So we got to go to Chicago, down to Georgia to play some games and it was just a blast. I just had fun playing football this year and the stats spoke for themselves.”
Impressed with the whole coaching staff at Jax State, Moran said offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Clint Trickett played a huge role in his decision, with the two developing and maintaining a strong relationship.
Trickett played quarterback at Florida State and West Virginia before getting into coaching.
“I talk to him every single day about whatever,” Moran said. “Whether it’s games on TV, whether it’s at home and personal life. What I said when I was going through my recruitment was that relationships were the biggest part of it for me, and I wanted someone to be almost like a football father for me as I took the next steps, and he was that.
“It was constant communication; he told me how much he valued me and where he saw me in the future. He’s such a great guy.”
He also expressed plenty of appreciation for first-year coach Charles Kelly, with Moran becoming the Jax State coach’s first high school quarterback commit as a head football coach.
“Even though people like to call him a defensive guy, he says he’s a head coach, so he takes it the right way,” Moran said. “He told me and my family how much he values the quarterback position, it makes the whole team better. The draw was there from all sides with the coaching staff. It’s just a great group of guys, every single position, and they’re doing a great job bringing kids in and building the program up. They’re going in the right direction.”
While he will have a freshman status heading into his time at Jax State and join a veteran quarterback room, Moran will look to compete immediately and noted the confidence in the coaching staff whenever he took visits to the program.
“They wanted me to go in and compete,” Moran said. “They weren’t looking at me as just an incoming freshman. They wanted me to go in there and try to play and work to get to that point. They had a lot of confidence in me, and like I said, they value me a lot.”
With plenty of confidence in himself and in the coaching staff’s plan for the program during Kelly’s first year, Moran is equally as excited with hopes to lead Jax State to a conference championship and even a College Football Playoff berth.
“I just love throwing the ball,” the quarterback said. “I’m a big kid who can stand in the pocket, take hits, throw accurate footballs wherever they need to be, and I love to score points. We’ll be scoring a lot at Jax State in the next few seasons.
“I love football, I love the area, and I’m excited to get down there, get acclimated, meet people and get this thing rolling, get Jacksonville State football where we need to be.”
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