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WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - He sometimes would just fall asleep on the floor in the corner of the apartment.
Navon Mosley was an eager learner when he arrived at Purdue, and he found the perfect mentor: three-time team captain Ja'Whaun Bentley.
They would talk football. But a lot of times, they would just hang out in Bentley's apartment.
"Sometimes I wouldn't know he was still there," says Bentley, entering his second season with the New England Patriots. "I'd wake up and 'Oh, Navon is here.' I'd wake him up, and we would head to practice and start the day."
Mosley has followed in Bentley's footsteps, being voted a captain this season by his teammates. It's an honor the West Bloomfield, Michigan, native admitted wanting.
"These guys have put a lot of faith into me," Mosley says. "I feel a lot of trust from the coaches and the players. I'm trying to live up to that."
Mosley, a safety, arrived on campus thinking individual statistics would be the measuring stick for the impact he made during his career. Quickly, he realized a true impact would go deeper. He wants to leave Purdue making the same impact on younger players that Bentley made on him.
"When Ja'Whaun was here, I never told him how much I admired how much he respected the game," Mosley says. "He did everything right, whether it was vocally, or moving people with his actions."
As time went on, Mosley observed Bentley and picked up on all of the little things he did to be successful. Always be on time for practices and meetings. Practice at game speed. Help the younger players.
Mosley found himself like most freshmen – trying to grasp all the different nuances of being a collegiate player. As the Boilermakers prepared to take the field for their 2016 season opener, the team stopped outside of the tunnel, waiting for the prompt to take the field.
Mosley recalls his teammates jumping around, hyped to get onto the field. His emotions were different: nervous with a mind wandering to a number of different thoughts. He even thought about how his high school prom was just three months prior.
"Coming in as a young guy, usually your head is spinning a little bit, but he was just eager to figure out how to get control of everything," Bentley says. "I wanted to take him under my wing and show him the ropes as much as I could. I wanted to make sure he was going down the right path, but pretty much it's been him. He had the right mindset going into it and it was all him, not much of me."
Once that season opener began, Mosley said he calmed down and "the jitters kind of went away and everything became football again."
Mosley didn't have to wait long to get onto the field, starting 10 of 12 games as a true freshman. He has started 37 of 40 games heading into today's game against TCU. Last season, he started all 13 games and amassed 93 tackles, second-most on the team.
After three full seasons, Mosley is a different player. He's more instinctive. He's more vocal, on and off the field. And as Mosley says, he's willing to take "educated risks." But that wasn't always the case.
At least not until late in his sophomore season during Purdue's 24-15 victory at Iowa, a must-win situation in order to stay in contention for a bowl game.
The Boilermakers were leading 21-9 in the fourth quarter and the Hawkeyes had just crossed into Purdue territory, when they tried to squeeze a short pass to tight end T.J. Hockenson. Mosley jumped the route, deflected the ball and made the interception as he fell to the ground.
Mosley admits he would not have made that play the previous season. He likely would have gone with a conservative approach and not jumped the route.
"I think that was a defining moment for him," says Anthony Poindexter, Purdue co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach. "It was a play we had been talking about all year. Let it go, turn it loose. You know what to do, you have the ability to do it. We needed a play at that time of the game, and to his credit he made a play."
Prior to arriving at Purdue, Mosley anticipated making plenty of those big-time plays. In an interview after signing his letter of intent, Mosley said he wanted to set the program's career interceptions record, held by fellow Michigan native Stuart Schweigert.
"You come in, and you're going to want to leave as one of the greats," Mosley says. "You want guys to come here and say I want to be like him. I wanted to be just like Schweigert, and I said I want to do stuff just like that."
As Mosley grew older, he realized his impression goes beyond the numbers. He's a two-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree, setting the tone in the classroom and on the field. And he makes himself readily available to answer questions from a young secondary.
"The older I get, the more mature I get and realize that the number of interceptions and number of tackles I get probably won't define my time here," Mosley says. "Hopefully it will be about life lessons and advice I've given. I'm confident and I feel like when I leave Purdue I will be able say I changed somebody or helped somebody look at the game differently, and I stayed true to the game and stayed passionate."
Buy Tickets
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - He sometimes would just fall asleep on the floor in the corner of the apartment.
Navon Mosley was an eager learner when he arrived at Purdue, and he found the perfect mentor: three-time team captain Ja'Whaun Bentley.
They would talk football. But a lot of times, they would just hang out in Bentley's apartment.
"Sometimes I wouldn't know he was still there," says Bentley, entering his second season with the New England Patriots. "I'd wake up and 'Oh, Navon is here.' I'd wake him up, and we would head to practice and start the day."
Mosley has followed in Bentley's footsteps, being voted a captain this season by his teammates. It's an honor the West Bloomfield, Michigan, native admitted wanting.
"These guys have put a lot of faith into me," Mosley says. "I feel a lot of trust from the coaches and the players. I'm trying to live up to that."
Mosley, a safety, arrived on campus thinking individual statistics would be the measuring stick for the impact he made during his career. Quickly, he realized a true impact would go deeper. He wants to leave Purdue making the same impact on younger players that Bentley made on him.
"When Ja'Whaun was here, I never told him how much I admired how much he respected the game," Mosley says. "He did everything right, whether it was vocally, or moving people with his actions."
As time went on, Mosley observed Bentley and picked up on all of the little things he did to be successful. Always be on time for practices and meetings. Practice at game speed. Help the younger players.
Mosley found himself like most freshmen – trying to grasp all the different nuances of being a collegiate player. As the Boilermakers prepared to take the field for their 2016 season opener, the team stopped outside of the tunnel, waiting for the prompt to take the field.
Mosley recalls his teammates jumping around, hyped to get onto the field. His emotions were different: nervous with a mind wandering to a number of different thoughts. He even thought about how his high school prom was just three months prior.
"Coming in as a young guy, usually your head is spinning a little bit, but he was just eager to figure out how to get control of everything," Bentley says. "I wanted to take him under my wing and show him the ropes as much as I could. I wanted to make sure he was going down the right path, but pretty much it's been him. He had the right mindset going into it and it was all him, not much of me."
Once that season opener began, Mosley said he calmed down and "the jitters kind of went away and everything became football again."
Mosley didn't have to wait long to get onto the field, starting 10 of 12 games as a true freshman. He has started 37 of 40 games heading into today's game against TCU. Last season, he started all 13 games and amassed 93 tackles, second-most on the team.
After three full seasons, Mosley is a different player. He's more instinctive. He's more vocal, on and off the field. And as Mosley says, he's willing to take "educated risks." But that wasn't always the case.
At least not until late in his sophomore season during Purdue's 24-15 victory at Iowa, a must-win situation in order to stay in contention for a bowl game.
The Boilermakers were leading 21-9 in the fourth quarter and the Hawkeyes had just crossed into Purdue territory, when they tried to squeeze a short pass to tight end T.J. Hockenson. Mosley jumped the route, deflected the ball and made the interception as he fell to the ground.
Mosley admits he would not have made that play the previous season. He likely would have gone with a conservative approach and not jumped the route.
"I think that was a defining moment for him," says Anthony Poindexter, Purdue co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach. "It was a play we had been talking about all year. Let it go, turn it loose. You know what to do, you have the ability to do it. We needed a play at that time of the game, and to his credit he made a play."
Prior to arriving at Purdue, Mosley anticipated making plenty of those big-time plays. In an interview after signing his letter of intent, Mosley said he wanted to set the program's career interceptions record, held by fellow Michigan native Stuart Schweigert.
"You come in, and you're going to want to leave as one of the greats," Mosley says. "You want guys to come here and say I want to be like him. I wanted to be just like Schweigert, and I said I want to do stuff just like that."
As Mosley grew older, he realized his impression goes beyond the numbers. He's a two-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree, setting the tone in the classroom and on the field. And he makes himself readily available to answer questions from a young secondary.
"The older I get, the more mature I get and realize that the number of interceptions and number of tackles I get probably won't define my time here," Mosley says. "Hopefully it will be about life lessons and advice I've given. I'm confident and I feel like when I leave Purdue I will be able say I changed somebody or helped somebody look at the game differently, and I stayed true to the game and stayed passionate."