With the Tide
An Oklahoman with Alabama will be in the national championship game tonight.
Josh Jacobs stood on the floor of the massive arena in downtown Tampa Bay a couple days ago looking a lot like every other football player there. Black sweats. Gray hoodie. Familiar crimson script A on the right side.
Only the number on his hoodie was different — No. 25. His number. Jacobs is a true freshman running back at Alabama, and Monday night, he and his Crimson Tide teammates will play for a national championship. But a couple days ago during the team’s media day at Amalie Arena, the Oklahoma native couldn’t help but marvel at how much has changed in a year.
He never dreamed he’d be at a Power 5 school, much less at Alabama. “It’s crazy,” he said. Oftentimes, that type is talk is an exaggeration. Hyperbole. In this case, it might not be strong enough.
On the night the college football season culminates with a showdown of renowned powers with distinguished coaches and decorated players, there’s no more unlikely participant than Josh Jacobs. A year ago today, he didn’t have a single big-time majorcollege scholarship offer despite an amazing senior season at Tulsa McLain. He rushed for 2,704 yards, the state’s top mark in 2015. He scored 36 touchdowns. He propelled the Titans to the playoffs for the first time in four years.
But a month out from early February’s Signing Day, Wyoming and New Mexico State were his best offers.
“We were happy with Wyoming,” Jacobs said of he and father, Marty. “We really liked the coaching staff. They were a tight-knit group.”
Had things stayed the same, Jacobs would’ve gone to Wyoming.
But they didn’t come close to staying the same.
At the suggestion of
an internet recruiting service, Jacobs launched a social media campaign. He had to first sign up for Twitter — he had no account before starting @iam_joshjacobs — and then, he linked and shared highlights with as many people as possible.
After only a couple days, the direct messages started coming. Coaches from Iowa, Arkansas and Iowa State were among the first Power 5 schools. Soon, Oklahoma offered a scholarship and Oklahoma State showed interest, too.
“I was getting phone calls from the time I woke up until about 11 at night,” Jacobs said.
The highlights he shared didn’t include anything that wasn’t already on other films sent to colleges or posted on websites.
So, what kept recruiters away for so long?
“To this day,” Jacobs said, “I really don’t know.”
It could’ve been geography. McLain isn’t a football mecca. Not since Prentiss Elliott went to Oklahoma State a decade or so ago had the program produced a majorconference Division-I player.
It could’ve been position. Jacobs, then 5-foot10 and a little under 200 pounds, played quarterback for McLain, but that was largely to cut out the middle man. He was the team’s best player. He was going to get the ball. Might as well snap it directly to him and let him run out of the wildcat.
But as much as anything, it could’ve been that no big-time schools recruited him because no other big-time schools were recruiting him. Crazy as it sounds, recruiters often need others’ interest to validate theirs. Some might’ve liked what they saw of Jacobs on highlights, but when they saw that none of their peers were after him, they might’ve figured there was a problem.
That was Nick Saban’s thinking.
Soon after Alabama beat Clemson in last year’s national title game, the Crimson Tide coach saw Jacobs’ highlights. With the loss of Derrick Henry and Kenyan Drake to the NFL, Saban needed another running back. He loved Jacobs’ quickness, his speed, his hands. But ... “We thought something was wrong with the guy,” Saban told reporters last spring on Signing Day. “Maybe he’s too small or whatever.”
Saban sent running backs coach Burton Burns from Tuscaloosa to Tulsa to get a firsthand look. Burns arrived at McLain during basketball practice. After watching Jacobs for a bit, then talking to him for a while, he ducked out of the gym and called Saban.
“This is a pretty goodlooking guy,” Burns told Saban. “I watched him practice basketball, and he’s very athletic and very explosive.”
Still, Saban had doubts.
“Well, there’s got to be something wrong with the guy,” he insisted.
Burns assured him. Jacobs even checked out off the field; he got the ACT score he needed on the first try and planned to major in engineering.
The weekend before Signing Day, Jacobs made on-campus visits to Missouri and Alabama.
A few days later in the auditorium at McLain, Jacobs sat at a table on the stage with teammates behind him and OU, Missouri and Alabama hats in front of him. He chose the one with that familiar crimson script A, setting off a wild celebration and culminating an even wilder month.
Now, Jacobs has gone from forgotten to frontline. He has played in every game for Alabama this season, backing up Damien Harris and Bo Scarbrough, rushing for 551 yards and four touchdowns on 83 carries. His 6.6-yard-percarry average is tied for second on the team.
What’s more, Jacobs more than tripled the production of fellow freshman B.J. Emmons, the big-time tailback in the Tide’s recruiting class last spring.
He knows he earned this opportunity at Alabama. He understands he did everything in his power to make it happen. And still, Jacobs marvels at the way things have changed in a year’s time. “It’s surreal,” he said. Surreal, yes. For real, too.