'I'm going to be a beast!' Florida high school coaches reflect on top NFL Draft prospects

NFL Draft prospects stand together on the precipice of seeing their football dreams realized, but they all have an origin story.

Jalen Carter spent his first three years at Apopka High School blocking in the Blue Darters' vaunted single-wing offense. Devon Witherspoon (Pine Forest) and Gervon Dexter Sr. (Lake Wales) were more focused on playing basketball than football when they started high school. Anthony Richardson made a major impression both on the basketball court and the football field at Eastside.

Nolan Smith (IMG) and Jordan Battle (St. Thomas Aquinas) both made major impressions off the field with their leadership and attitude.

USA Today Florida Network asked the high school coaches of some of the top prospects in the draft for one quintessential memory from the player's prep days.

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Jalen Carter (Apopka/Georgia)

"When I got back in '19, he’d been playing offense for his first three years. When I got here, I knew what he was. He's a defensive lineman. We had a spring game against a couple different teams. Jacksonville Raines was one and we played them for a half. That was a good football team. Jalen was dominant. Making plays, pressuring the quarterback, hitting the quarterback. Very rarely you see a kid perform and your jaw just drops. It was pretty incredible. He hadn’t played defensive line for us in a game before. He'd been a tight end and a blocking back in the single wing. We knew he was extremely good in practice. And our practices are hard and physical, but practice is practice. He was shining in practice. But in that spring game, it was a completely different level. A different gear. He flipped a switch. It was incredible. He made play after play after play in that game." — Jeff Rolson, Apopka coach

Devon Witherspoon (Pine Forest/Illinois)

"He didn’t start until the spring going into his junior year. At the time, he was a basketball guy. He had played football his whole life in little league, but he got to high school, and he had those hoop dreams. Fortunately, my freshman football coach was also the basketball coach, and he finally came out the spring going into junior year. The sky was the limit. There was nothing he couldn’t do. He was awesome, like he hadn’t missed a beat. His senior season we had a game against one of our big rivals, Escambia. The kid had two huge interceptions. One was near the end of the game. They were driving down to score and possibly tie the game and he picks it in the end zone. He just had an awesome night. It was just one of the many things the kid did in high school." — Jason McDonald, former Pine Forest coach

More: Witherspoon's lockdown defense was equally important as his enthusiasm and spark

Anthony Richardson (Eastside/Florida)

"It was a basketball game. We had Penn State down on a visit and we were playing North Marion. I can't remember if he caught it off the backboard or someone threw it off the backboard to him. But he caught it off the glass and threw it down and was basically sitting on the guy. It was a rivalry game that night. He’d probably done it in practice. But now he did it in a game and it was a good game. He catches it off the glass, he threw it down and the gym goes crazy. The Penn State coaches said, 'We've seen enough,' and they left. I'm not saying they walked out right then, but they didn’t stay much longer. That’s how he was. He’s always been that guy. Always a freak of an athlete." — Cedderick Daniels, former Eastside coach

Nolan Smith (IMG/Georgia)

"We used to do a 24-hour boot camp at IMG. We would bring in a group of military officers and the group was called Above The Best out of Utah. They were Black Hawk helicopter guys. For 24 hours they would do a boot camp with our whole team. It was designed to try to stress those guys out, see who the leaders were. The exercises were more taxing mentally than physically, intentionally to see how guys would react. These were guys up in your face, those types of things. Nolan stood out as a leader that weekend, that night, under duress, He was ‘Yes sir, no sir,’ Calm under pressure. This was in the spring before his junior season. At that point, we had had a good idea the talent on the team, but we didn’t know who the team leaders were going to be. There were so many alphas that it was hard to find guys that wanted to step up and lead. You had to have a special something inside you to step up and lead and I remember that 24-hour boot camp, him emerging from the pressure and stress. The tasks were almost impossible to do and him stepping up and becoming a leader in front of all his teammates was impressive. A lot of guys on that team ended up playing in the league. We had guys who wanted to walk off and quit, guys who didn’t want to lead. That stuck out to me that Nolan might be a little different." — Kevin Wright, former IMG coach

Zay Flowers (University School/Boston College)

"I think that it’s important that people understand that he wasn’t best player ahead on the team initially. There were two guys ahead of him. One was (Georgia running back) Kenny McIntosh, who will get drafted, too. There was Josh Sanguinetti, who is a safety at Indiana. Those guys were all best friends. Zay watched those guys getting offers from Ohio State and he didn’t. UM offered those two and they didn’t offer Zay. He really dedicated himself after his sophomore season. He came back his junior year 20 pounds heavier. He went from playing running back to playing both sides of the football, defensive back and wide receiver. He just exploded from there. He has really persevered. He just devoted that entire summer to developing his body. Whatever (offers) his best friends were getting, he wanted some of that too. It went from a sometimes thing to an all-the-time thing. He was like a child forming into a young man. His junior year, his legs were bigger. He was more explosive. He had body armor on his shoulders. His presence and leadership excelled. Guys believed him. — Daniel Luque, former University School coach

Calijah Kancey (Miami Northwestern/Pitt)

"When he was in the 11^th grade, he was 15 years old, and he was one of the best defensive linemen I had. But I used to tell him, 'You're too young to take me to state.' And he said, 'Watch me, I'll do it.' So, we're in the playoffs and we're playing one of our biggest rivals. We played Naples to go to state. He was playing on the defensive line with a bunch of seniors. Naples came out with an unbalanced line and he had to tell them to make adjustment. He said, 'Coach, they're not listening to me.' I got them together and I said, 'Y'all better listening to this young guy. He's trying to get me to state.' He became a coach on the field from that point. We won the game because of him. He said, "See that coach? You said that a 15-year-old couldn't get you to state.' Not many kids like that. Every five to 10 years you get one of those kids that understood the fronts like that. He always said no one can block him. He was absolutely correct." — Max Edwards, former Miami Northwestern High School coach

Gervon Dexter Sr. (Lake Wales/Florida)

"I would have to go back to how we got him to play football. Gervon was told he would be the next Julius Peppers or Donovan McNabb. He was a two-sport guy and he’d been traveling among the nation’s best AAU teams. I told him, ‘Your height, your measurements, you’ll be the talk of college football coaches.' I convinced him to come in the locker room and try on the uniform. I still send him that picture to his day. We laughed about it. He said, ‘I feel good. I’m going to be a beast!’ He said, ‘When I am going to get my first offer?’ ‘Gervon, you haven’t played a down. They’re not going to offer you based on how you look in a uniform.’ He said, ‘I’ll be the first one, watch.’ I said, ‘It’s not happening.’ He comes out for spring football and one coach comes by. I’ll never forget, it was Eric Mathies and he was at USF. He came by and he said, ‘I hear you have some potential prospects.' I’m showing him all these potential guys. He saw Gervon at practice and the look on his face was worth a million dollars. He says, ‘Coach, who the hell is that kid?’ I said, ‘That’s just a project, don’t worry about it.’ He watched Gervon run. He said, ‘Coach, he runs like a gazelle.’ I said, ‘Coach, you haven’t seen anything yet.’ I’m hyping him up. Gervon gets in a stance and it looks like he’s done it all his life. (Mathies) came back the next day. I’m telling you. He said, ‘Coach, don’t tell anyone about this kid. He’ll be the next Mr. Football.’ I told him not to tell Gervon anything. Gervon had no clue. He’s just all in the moment. Then I see the two of them walking together. At the end of practice, I’m giving this big speech about how you have to work hard and you really have to earn it. At the end of the speech, Gervon asked if he could say something. He screams out, ‘I got an offer!’ We didn’t even have pads on yet. Just helmets and shorts. The next day we had 15 coaches out there." — Tavaris Johnson, Lake Wales coach

Jartavious "Quan" Martin (Lehigh/Illinois)

"I coached against him in Pop Warner. He was a linebacker, and he was one of the meanest little kids that I ever ran into as a youth football coach. When I got the Lehigh job, I noticed he was there. He was a quiet kid. Never complained. Showed up to work every day. He made play after play. On the basketball court, he had 40-something dunks his senior year. I had a very hard time getting that kid an offer. I took him to a camp at FIU. Donnie Abraham of the Tampa Bay Bucs was coaching with Lovie Smith at Illinois and he said, ‘Who is this guy.’ I told him. He said to me, ‘Coach from what I see at this camp, he’s going to be in the NFL.’ Quan ended up going to Illinois. I knew the kid was a special talent. He isn’t real flashy. Quiet, but he’s got a mean streak on the field. Same attitude at Illinois. I am so happy for his success." — James Chaney, former Lehigh High School coach

DJ Turner (IMG/Michigan)

"A guy who coached him earlier in high school called me about DJ and said, ‘He’s an under the radar guy who has the potential to be really good. Talk to him, he’s interested in coming to IMG. He’d be a great get.’ DJ was one of those guys that just showed up. He isn’t the biggest guy, he isn’t the fastest guy, but he is a guy that was all business all the time. Dependable. Did everything to the letter. Never any issues with him. From the day he stepped on campus at a boarding school at 17 years old. We had multiple NFL guys. He wasn’t afraid of competition. He actually embraced competition. That was the biggest thing was the first week of practice. You see this kid compete, how he carried himself on and off field. He had that potential to be special. Not the biggest, fastest, strongest but he was one of the most competitive and locked in as anyone we’ve had. Now that we’re both in the Big Ten, watching DJ, playing against DJ, wherever I see him I always tell him that I’m really proud of all the success he’s had. On both of his high school teams, he wasn’t the highest recruited. He was just the kid who worked his tail off, who had a goal and knew he had to do every single thing within his ability. He’s a guy I remember would be doing extra on Saturdays. Just a very driven guy. That’s why he had success at Michigan. That’s why he’ll have success at the next level." — Kevin Wright, former IMG coach

Sydney Brown (St. Stephen's Episcopal/Illinois)

"This is probably the moment that launched him as a prospect. He didn’t have the kind of exposure that we wanted, but we were playing IMG and IMG had just introduced the White team. The National team was competitive against the best teams in the country and then the White team was supposed to be competitive with the best teams in Florida. Their first game ever was against us at our place. They had a running back from Texas we heard a lot about. Good looking kid. They got off bus and they were enormous up front. I want to say in the first quarter, Sydney buzzed a kid on an outside zone play. He spun him with force. It wasn’t a big hit, but the kid went to the sideline and he and never came back. Later on, he starts to track this kid inside and out and the result is the best high school hit I’ve ever seen. He hit the kid so hard that the running back’s helmet came off. The kid hit the ground and didn’t move for about seven or eight minutes. But the thing that no one caught is not only did he separate the kid from his helmet, but he also separated the kid from the ball. We scooped up the fumble and start to return it and they blew the ball dead because the kid wasn’t moving. That’s the kind of hit it was. From that moment everybody knew. He would run the alley and kids would just fall down or run out of bounds. That was the moment that really stands out." — Tod Creneti, former St. Stephen's Episcopal School coach

Jordan Battle (St. Thomas Aquinas/Alabama)

"Jordan had a number of exciting game highlights, which inevitably made him one of the top high school football prospects in the country. However, my fondest memories of Jordan stem from his spirited leadership style and a rare family-oriented devotion he had for the program. In my personal opinion, Jordan’s greatest moments were the times when he’d motivate his teammates with inspirational pregame speaks and lead our pregame warm-up with a war call that he started. The war call is now a seasonal tradition reserved for the most dynamic, charismatic, and well-respected leader on the team. Jordan Battle is still credited for creating our war call as an admirable honor of leadership, loyalty, and brotherly love." — Roger Harriott, St. Thomas Aquinas coach

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Florida high school coaches reflect on top NFL Draft prospects