Alexander Christian Mortensen (born November 24, 1985) is an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

coach and former

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

. He played college football at

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the O ...

and at Samford. He was signed by the

Tennessee Titans The Tennessee Titans are a professional American football team based in Nashville, Tennessee. The Titans compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) South division, and play their hom ...

as an

undrafted free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

in 2009.

High school career

Mortensen attended

Landmark Christian School Landmark Christian School is a K-12 private school, private Christian school in the Atlanta metropolitan area in Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, United States. It has a main campus in Fairburn, Georgia, Fairburn, serving students in grades K4 thr ...

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,7 ...

. He was named the 2003 '' Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' Class-A Offensive Player of the Year at Landmark Christian. As a senior, he completed 159-of-269 passes for 2,565 yards and 29

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone. In Amer ...

s, was named first-team all-state by the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. ne ...

and the ''Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' and was a three-time all-state selection. The team posted a record of 29–7 over his last three seasons. He was also selected to the

Tom Lemming Tom Lemming is an American high school football recruiting analyst. Tom Lemming serves as the host of ''The Lemming Report'' on CBS Sports Network, the only national weekly high school football recruiting show. He is the editor of ''The Tom Lemmin ...

's Prep Football Report All-America squad, which ranked him as the No. 25 overall quarterback in the country and the No. 1 quarterback in Georgia and was rated as the No. 29 pro-style quarterback in the nation by

Rivals.com Rivals.com is a network of websites that focus mainly on college football and basketball recruiting in the United States. The network was started in 1998 and employs more than 300 personnel. History Rivals.com was founded in 1998 by Jim Heckma ...

. He received the Headmaster's Award for student leadership in high school.

College career

Mortensen began his college career at

before transferring to Samford, then returning to Arkansas to finish. Mortensen's cumulative stats in college were 40-84 for 372 yards, four touchdowns and four interceptions. In 2005, Mortensen announced: "On Friday, I had a bittersweet meeting with Coach Nutt when I told him that I would be leaving the University of Arkansas and that I will transfer to Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama, beginning this fall of 2006."

Professional career

Tennessee Titans

After going undrafted in the

2009 NFL Draft The 2009 NFL Draft was the seventy-fourth annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible football players. The draft took place at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, New York, on April 25 and 26, 2009. ...

, Mortensen was signed by the

as an

. He played an offensive series in the Hall of Fame Game against the Buffalo Bills on August 9, completeling 1-of-2 with an interception returned for a

by Bills

cornerback A cornerback (CB) is a member of the defensive backfield or secondary in gridiron football. Cornerbacks cover Wide receiver, receivers most of the time, but also blitz and defend against such Play from scrimmage, offensive running plays as sweep ...

Reggie Corner. Two days later, the Titans

waived A waiver is the voluntary relinquishment or surrender of some known right or privilege. Regulatory agencies of state departments or the federal government may issue waivers to exempt companies from certain regulations. For example, a United St ...

Mortensen.

Coaching career

In 2012, Mortensen joined

New Mexico Highlands University New Mexico Highlands University (NMHU) is a public university in Las Vegas, New Mexico. Founded in 1893, it has satellite campuses in Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Rio Rancho, Farmington and Roswell. NMHU has an average annual enrollment of approximate ...

as Passing Game Coordinator. He then spent 2013 as a coaching assistant with the

St. Louis Rams The St. Louis Rams were a professional American football team of the National Football League (NFL). They played in St. Louis from 1995 to the 2015 season, before moving back to Los Angeles, where the team had played from 1946 to 1994. The arr ...

. In 2014, he joined the

Alabama Crimson Tide The Alabama Crimson Tide refers to the intercollegiate athletic varsity teams that represent the University of Alabama, located in Tuscaloosa. The Crimson Tide teams compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I as a me ...

as an offensive graduate assistant. In 2018, Mortensen became the wide receivers coach for the

Birmingham Iron The Birmingham Iron were a professional American football franchise based in Birmingham, Alabama, and one of the eight members of the Alliance of American Football (AAF), which played one season from February 2019 to April 2019. They played thei ...

of the Alliance of American Football. Mortensen was named Offensive Coordinator of the UAB Blazers by Head Coach

Trent Dilfer Trent Farris Dilfer (born March 13, 1972) is a former American football quarterback and analyst who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 14 seasons. He is best known as the starting quarterback of the Baltimore Ravens during their Su ...

on December 2, 2022.

Personal life

Mortensen is the son of

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...

NFL analyst

Chris Mortensen Chris Mortensen (born November 7, 1951) is an American journalist providing reports for ESPN's '' Sunday NFL Countdown'', ''Monday Night Countdown'', '' SportsCenter'', ESPN Radio, and ESPN.com. Early life Mortensen attended North Torrance ...

and Micki Mortensen.

References

External links

Tennessee Titans bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mortensen, Alex 1985 births Living people American football quarterbacks Arkansas Razorbacks football players Birmingham Iron coaches Players of American football from Atlanta Samford Bulldogs football players Tennessee Titans players Alabama Crimson Tide football coaches