In many ways, Jake Coker is still on that rain-soaked high school football field in Mobile, Alabama, in the spring of 2014. He’s still there getting reps in with a couple of local receivers. They are running routes against no one and he’s scrambling from a pocket no one is collapsing. He’s throwing darts -- a 15-yard out as he hits his three-step drop, a 30-yard rope he flicks down the middle of the field as he scrambles toward the sideline. He hears thunder in the distance and keeps going.
His dad, Bryant Coker, is still watching from underneath that awning behind the end zone, wondering whether his son will ever get an opportunity.