CATCH OF A LIFETIME
Worton has vaulted from walk-on to star
There are almost half-amillion views of “The Catch” on YouTube. About half of those hits probably came from Kathy Worton, the mother of UCF receiver J.J. Worton.
“Every time I see it, it’s so much fun,” Kathy Worton exclaimed. “I think I’ve watched it 1,000 times if not a million.”
The image of his outstretched right arm pulling in a last-second touchdown reception from Blake Bortles to save UCF’s bowl game chances and help fuel the Knights’ dramatic 39-36 win at Temple never gets old to the Worton family. As the Knights prepare to host Temple on Saturday at 5 p.m., the memories of that unique reception come flooding back.
J.J.’s parents, Bill and Ka-
thy, watched their three sons practice those moves so many times before as they leaped over the family swimming pool during what the boys called “Worton ball.”
Those private moments set the stage for public admiration of a receiver so many college coaches doubted in 2010.
Before J.J. Worton created one of the most recognizable moments in sports last year, he first worked to gain the attention of any major Football Bowl Subdivision programs. Coach George O’Leary offered him a chance to walk on at UCF four years ago, and Worton will finish his last season with the Knights among the top 10 alltime career leaders for reception yards and top three punt returners of all time, ahead of NFL cornerback Asante Samuel.
“I’ve matured more at becoming a complete player and not just focusing on the passing game,” Worton said, later recalling advice he got from UCF receivers coach Sean Beckton. “[Coach] said anyone can catch a ball, it’s the other things that set you apart. What are you doing different that other people aren’t? That’s going to make you better.”
Growing up in Miami, an area saturated with high school football talent, Worton knew it would be difficult to stand out.
He didn’t start playing organized football until a year before entering South Dade High School, having been an avid soccer goalie with a knack for catching the ball.
Worton was a scrawny freshman at 5-feet-7 and around 170 pounds. But coaches moved him up to the varsity football team after he went through a substantial growth spurt in the 10th grade.
After that, Worton played lights out.
“I remember going to a game and watching him. He did everything,” Beckton said. “He didn’t come off the field. He was a punt-return guy, he was a punter, he was a holder, he was a kicker, he played safety, he played receiver, they threw him in at quarterback some. He’s one of those kids that’s always been a tremendous athlete.”
Short of throwing and catching his own pass, Worton struggled to retain the attention of college football recruiters during his senior year.
At the time, he said, his coaches didn’t tape their games and couldn’t assist with creating highlight reels to promote to colleges. Worton’s mother would climb up the stadium bleachers near the press box and tape all her son’s games and eventually posted some clips on YouTube.
Sometimes, she’d catch the images of Worton’s touchdown plays. Other times, the novice videographer would miss those key plays while cheering for her son.
“He’d come back [home] and say, let me see that touchdown, and I’d say you know what, J, I didn’t get it,” Kathy Worton laughed. “I was looking up and I jumped and the camera moved. So that was hard.”
News of J.J. Worton’s talent did spread. Several coaches visited him on his high school campus and every campus visit seemed to end with the same question. Why hasn’t anyone offered you a scholarship?
The suspicion levels were so high that recruiters from Duke and Oregon even asked Worton to do a fitness test on the spot.
“Usually with football, it’s like a chain reaction. As soon as you get one [offer], people recognize you and see something and they want to do the same thing,” Worton said. “[Coaches] were skeptical. Somebody must have known something, I guess, and they were all spooked out. I even had to go into the gym and dunk one time for a school. They were like, ‘Can you jump? Is there something wrong that we don’t see?’ I was like, ‘No.’ I said I’ll go out there and run around right now if you want me to. So in the middle of gym class, I went in there and dunked a ball.”
But the big scholarship offers never came, and he was left empty-handed on national signing day.
“It was hurtful,” Worton’s mom said. “He was concerned. He was worried about it. On national signing day, J.J. was getting an award for All-Dade County, but there wasn’t one offer for him. Not one.”
From that day forward, Worton resolved that he would never be overlooked again. It was an attitude that made him an early scoutteam star at UCF, but also a bit of a hot-head.
“His maturity level is the biggest aspect of growth since I’ve been here,” said Beckton, who was the defensive backs coach when Worton first arrived. “He had a little bit of a temper, but he’s grown up a lot and learned to hone that down a little bit and temper that down some and he’s really developed in that area. I’m really proud of his progress.”
The low point was when Worton was arrested his freshman year after trying to slip away from police breaking up a rowdy St. Patrick’s Day celebration at the popular off campus bar Knight Library. He had to go through a court process and in-house discipline administered by O’Leary before the case was closed and he could continue working to make headlines for his work on the football field.
After a few years of steady development, the rest of the world really learned to appreciate Worton during the Knights’ win at Temple.
UCF trailed Temple by seven points with 1:58 remaining when Bortles began Worton’s career-defining drive. Starting from Temple’s 30-yard line, Bortles dropped back, rolled left and — as he was hit — connected with Worton for a game-tying touchdown pass. UCF’s defense got a stop and Bortles later hit Rannell Hall for a 64-yard gain. Shawn Moffitt drilled the game-winning 23-yard field goal as time expired to complete the Knights’ rally for a win.
Worton was surprised by the mania that followed what became known as The Catch.
NBC nightly news anchor Brian Williams played the highlight and said, “This is how we catch a pass in our dreams.” Others marveled at the play and Worton went on to win an ESPY for the miraculous grab.
“After it happened, I literally had to turn my phone off for a couple of days. It was non-stop vibrating and would die within the hour,” Worton said. “It’s died down, but I still get recognized when I go to class and when I meet individual people when I’m out to eat. They always want to know, ‘What were you thinking after it happened?’ Honestly it was just raw emotion. I remember Storm Johnson and Josh Reese were the first ones there to celebrate.”
The Catch was part of a marquee season, capped by the Knights’ Fiesta Bowl win and Bortles being selected No. 3 in the NFL Draft.
Worton was among the UCF seniors left behind to figure out how the Knights could possibly top a storybook year, how he could possibly build on The Catch.
“He’s started to accept the responsibility more as a football player and being a leader and helping the younger guys,” said UCF center Joey Grant, one of his close friends on the team and his roommate. “I think that’s something he didn’t necessarily understand when he first got here, and he’s matured a lot and done a great job growing up and stepping into that leadership role.”
Those leadership skills have proved most important for him this year. The target opportunities are fewer and farther between for Worton, who shares the ball with what’s billed as one of the deepest, most talented receiving corps in college football.
But Worton, the kid who once competed on every play of the game, doesn’t mind the shift.
Now Worton wants to leave a legacy behind at UCF that’s bigger than his individual accomplishments.
He wants to help mentor the n ex t generation of Knights receivers and he’s also trying to help his younger brother, C.J. Worton, who’s watching his every move from 130 miles up the road in Gainesville.
“I’ve been getting on [Tre’Quan Smith] about running crisper routes. He’s really taken what I’ve said and put it into his own game now and you can see it and it makes me feel good because I feel like I’m helping the future of UCF,” Worton said of his advice to the rookie. “That’s what I really want to do: leave behind [relationships], making people recognize that they can come to me for anything whether it’s on or off the field and they know I’m not gonna judge or talk to anybody else about it. They can confide in me because of what I’ve been through.”