Ex-Gaither High QB continuing NFL career close to home

TAMPA, Fla. (FOX 13) - Alex McGough, who quarterbacked Gaither High and Florida International, has found his way back to the Sunshine State. After spending one year with the Seattle Seahawks, McGough is now a Jacksonville Jaguar. 

He’s excited to continue his NFL career close to home, but is putting in some final work at the Applied Science and Performance Institute in Tampa before heading to Jacksonville. 

“Florida is in my bones, really,” McGough told FOX 13’s Kevin O’Donnell. “I’ve lived here since I was five. It’s good to be back in the sun. Seattle has sun, but it kind of gets a little gray at times. It’s good to be back in Florida and I had a great opportunity to come to Jacksonville. I jumped on it.” 

McGough, who trains under former Storm quarterback John Kaleo, is also getting hall-of-fame-level coaching from Randy Moss. 

“It’s so helpful that he can teach you the ins and outs of a receiver and how they run routes and why they run their routes,” said McGough. “It helps you gain knowledge so you can throw an accurate ball. The right shoulder or left shoulder throws, based on their leverage. You know what they are going to do.” 

It’s a new team, but a similar situation for McGough. He leaves behind the backup role for a Super Bowl-winning quarterback to serve the same role for another.

McGough made a solid impression with the Seahawks, but they left him unprotected at the end of the season. That’s when Jacksonville grabbed him as an unrestricted free agent.

It was what he learned playing behind Russell Wilson that has made him the strongest candidate to be the Jags' backup quarterback. 

“It was a great experience,” added McGough. “Seattle travels their practice squad. So it was cool to be able to go to all the games and see how people prepared in different ways, to see how Russell Wilson prepared. Just to make sure that I can emulate that and I could hopefully, one day, be as great as him.”