For Jefferson, a star is torn about that label
AUSTIN — Malik Jefferson is in denial.
For proof, watch the effortless way he commands a room, like he did Wednesday when he mesmerized 120 high school team captains with advice about leadership. Listen to the two full classes of heralded recruits who’ve followed him to Texas like four-star baby ducklings to their mother’s nest.
Talk to the coaches who give him more credit for selling the program than they give themselves. Ask Longhorn Network producers why they picked him — a 19-year-old kid — to serve as a studio analyst on signing day. And check in with all of the older, more experienced teammates who’ve been deferring to him ever since his first few weeks on campus. Humble nature
Howcan anyone not see the obvious — that this freshman linebacker with the 5-o’clock-inthe-morning work ethic, Sunday-afternoon talent and Oscar-night charisma is the face of UT football?
“I will never admit to that,” Jefferson said, grinning. “Maybe one day, when I’m 80 years old.”
By then, he might finally have seen what everyone else does. It didn’t take Daron Roberts long to notice it.
Roberts isn’t the type to be easily blown away. As an undergraduate at UT in 2000 he served as president of the student government, earned a degree from Harvard Law School, and then, somehow, became an NFL quality control assistant and a college defensive backs coach.
For the past year, he’s served as the founding director of UT’s Center for Sports Leadership and Innovation, a wide-ranging program with the goal of educating high school and college athletes on decision-making. Every freshman scholarship athlete at UT is required to take Roberts’ class, “Game Plan for Winning at Life.”
And after Jefferson was in Roberts’ class for one day, Roberts went home and told his wife he’d never met any teenager like him.
“I could tell right away he was a different guy,” Roberts said. “He came to campus thinking of ways he could leverage his status beyond Saturdays. … Whenhe asked questions, it wasn’t about what was on the test. Hewanted to know how to impact the world.”
For now, Charlie Strong and the Longhorns are happy with the impact Jefferson is making in their pocket of Central Texas. From the moment he left Mesquite Poteet in Jan. 2014 and enrolled at UT, he was one of the best players on Strong’s team. He started immediately, earned freshman All-America honors, and with his long braids and gigantic grin, he’s the most recognizable student on the Forty Acres.
As Strong tries to turn the Longhorns into a power again, Jefferson is, unquestionably, his biggest star.
“I don’t mind the pressure,” Jefferson said. “It’s part of it.”
So it was only natural that three weeks ago, when Roberts was looking for a keynote speaker for his “Captains Academy” for students from Austin Independent School District, he texted Jefferson first. Roberts told him he needed someone to talk to kids about success on and off the field, and to answer whatever questions they had about preparation and accountability.
Jefferson returned the text within seconds. He was in. Captive audience
For his entire 20-minute speaking session Wednesday, the kids sat transfixed. Keith Carey, the Austin Reagan athletic coordinator who brought his students to the event, said it was easy to see why.
“He’s perceived by them as a superstar,” Carey said. “We’re trying to convince those kids that character and diligence can help them be a leader. He’s showing them that.”
After his speech, Jefferson spent 15 minutes posing for phone-camera selfies with hordes of giddy students, then hustled to class for a test he was dreading. “It’s not easy, ” he said. But considering his track record, he might have been in denial about that, too.