Samford Linebacker Honored By Teammates With No. 5 Jersey
By Steve Irvine
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - August 8, 2025
Jaden Mosley’s journey from his hometown of Mobile to Samford University came complete with a challenging pitstop in Hutchinson, Kansas.
On the surface, the 6-foot-2, 230-pound linebacker, who is one of the unquestioned leaders of the Samford defense, would have loved to skipped the trip to Kansas. It would have been nice to hop directly from McGill-Toolen High to Division I college football. However, that plan was scrapped after he suffered a torn ACL as a high school senior. His plans changed.
“I was just blessed to get the JUCO offer with the Hutchison Community College,” Mosley said.
Not that the first year felt like much of a blessing. He was a long way from home in a small Kansas town that had little in common with Mobile. He worked hard to get his knee in shape to play as a true freshman but that didn’t happen, which made a tough time even tougher.
“Just seeing everybody out there, you know, and you can't go, it's hard,” Mosley said. “But I just tried to change my mindset. While they were at practice, I would literally go around the track, walk backwards, run, do the lateral drill just to get something in, just to feel like I'm doing something important. I didn’t want to be a guy there just sitting around. I was there just encouraging them and stuff like that. But yeah, that's the only way I got through it really.”
He played safety in 2022, contributing 26 tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss, four pass breakups and two interceptions to a team that won its first 11 games before losing to Iowa Western in the NJCAA Football National Championship game. Mosley had the option to return for another season but opted to look for a bigger opportunity. It didn’t take him long to pick Samford.
“When I got my visit here, it was really my first time coming to the Birmingham area and seeing what it's like,” Mosley said. “This is a beautiful campus. When I came here, I said, yeah, I can't go back, I can’t go far away again. I was happy to be close enough to home.”
Mosley started in all 21 games he played in over the past two seasons. He had a combined 137 tackles while lining up at linebacker next to All-American Noah Martin the past two seasons. Martin finished his Samford career with 422 tackles and had back-to-back seasons of more than 100 tackles in 2023 and 2024.
“I learned from everything he did,” Mosley said. “How he went day by day and stuff like that. On away games, that was my roommate. I just took in all the knowledge he could give me, soaking it all, and I’ll apply it to this year.”
Just like Martin, Mosley will finish his career wearing No. 5 for Samford, which is perhaps the biggest honor in the Samford football program. One player is by the coaching staff and teammates each year to wear the number in honor of former Samford defensive back Charles Williams, who wore No. 5 in 2001 and 2002 and was killed in a car accident before his junior season began in 2003.
“I was a little surprised,” Mosley said. “I voted to give it to the quarterback, Quincy (Crittendon). But I'm just grateful that my teammates picked me to wear the No. 5 jersey, just knowing how big it is here. I'm just grateful to my teammates and consider it an honor to wear the number.”
He will be one of the few players with Samford experience on the defensive side of the ball. The Bulldogs are also playing under defensive coordinator Scot Sloan, a college football veteran in his first season at Samford. Mosley has been encouraged with the growth of the defense through spring practice and early in fall camp.
“At first, you gotta crawl before you can walk, I would say,’ Mosley said. “You gotta love the process and seeing it each day get better and better. You just listen to the coaches take in everything they say and apply it every day.”