Another good read on Joshua from November.
McLain RB Josh Jacobs leaving defenders in his dust, but flying under college recruiters' radar
When he takes off with the football under his arm, McLain’s Josh Jacobs enters into something like a dream state.
“It’s crazy. It feels like everything is going slow. I don’t hear the crowds,” he said. “It even feels like I’m running slow — until I watch it later on tape and it looks like I’m going really fast.”
That’s how Titans opponents see it. Jacobs, a running back-turned-quarterback, has been leaving them in the dust regularly this season, and to a lesser extent, for the past four years.
He breaks long runs almost at will and averages 15.7 yards per carry. He leads eastern Oklahoma in rushing this season with 2,444 yards and 29 touchdowns.
In a heartbreaking loss to Cascia Hall two weeks ago, Jacobs ran for a staggering 455 yards and six TDs on 22 carries. In a six-week stretch, he averaged 306.2 yards per game.
Against Cascia Hall, he had scoring runs of 76, 72, 65, 56, 14 and 5 yards. He also had an 88-yarder nullified by a penalty.
“When I think of all the yards he’s had called back this year,” athletic director Phil Johnson said, “he could easily have another 1,000.”
Facing fourth-and-13 from his own 4-yard line with 58 seconds left, Jacobs broke free again and almost made a game-winning 96-yard run. But Cascia’s Chandler Sokolosky saved the game with a shoestring tackle after a 30-yard run.
Jacobs’ ability, size (5-foot-11, 200 pounds) and speed (4.5 seconds in the 40-yard dash) suggest a potential difference-maker at the collegiate level. He has a qualifying ACT score, good grades and a desire to get a college degree. By all accounts, Jacobs is a model citizen in the classroom.
“He’s usually busy doing his work or taking notes,” standout linebacker Jelani Lewis said. “He’s a good listener. The teachers love him.”
But he doesn’t have a single NCAA Division I scholarship offer. What gives?
“That’s kind of what we’re wondering,” coach Jarvis Payne said. “One of the biggest things the recruiters say when they call is, ‘Why haven’t we heard of this kid?’ I honestly don’t have an answer for them.”
Jacobs said it could be where he’s from. McLain has had a tough reputation for more than the 30 years since his father, Marty Jacobs, now a Titans unpaid volunteer assistant, played on state championship teams coached by Melvin Driver in 1985-86.
“But the culture’s changing,” Jacob said. “It’s changed since I was in the eighth and ninth grades. I used to come here and see people skipping school every day. With the new principal (Enna Dancy), nobody skips now and everybody is on time for school. She’s stern, but fun. She understands what it’s like to come from a hard background. She’s changing the culture and we’re killing some myths.”
Jacobs has helped change the football culture. The Titans will make their first playoff appearance in four years Friday when they visit No. 2 Poteau in a Class 4A first-round game.
Big things come from small beginnings. Grade schoolers arrived to practice in McLain Stadium late one autumn afternoon as Jacobs interviewed for this article. They took him back to his own childhood.
“They make me feel old,” he said with a chuckle. “But it also makes me want to work harder so they can see somebody coming up from this area with goals and ambition. Maybe when they come up, they’ll be the same way.”
Football probably saved Jacobs. When he was younger, his father went through a divorce, lost his job and lost the family’s home. They were living from hotel to hotel at one point. Friends and food stamps helped them survive, Marty Jacobs said.
“Football was an outlet,” said the father, now employed. “I had custody of the kids, but we were kind of displaced. For the kids, the most important thing was to keep some degree of normalcy. School and football helped me do that.”
Josh Jacobs started playing football for his dad in the third grade, graduated to running the football in the fourth grade and has been making opponents dizzy ever since.
He works hard to develop his game, emphasizing details. But the swerves and jukes that make him unique are “mostly God-given because they seem to come natural,” he said.
Payne said “great vision” is part of the package.
“I’ve rarely seem him get hit hard because he sees everything coming. You’re very rarely able to sneak up on him. He sees things before they happen. That comes with being a running back for so long, but it also comes from having great vision,” Payne said.
Assistant John Ford, a University of Tulsa walk-on during the Dave Rader coaching era, marvels at Jacobs’ cutting ability.
Jacobs planted so hard on his cuts against Cascia Hall that he wore out a brand new pair of shoes after only two weeks.
“He’s the shiftiest back I’ve ever seen,” Ford said. “When he makes a cut, you see the bits of tire (in the artificial turf) flying up around his helmet and shoulder pads. For most guys, it never gets up past the ankles.”
The obvious comparison to Jacobs is 2003 McLain All-Stater Prentiss Elliott, a similarly wondrous talent who rushed for 2,515 yards and 29 TDs his senior year and had a promising freshman season at Oklahoma State.
Unrelated issues sidelined Elliott’s football career, but his athletic abilities were legendary.
“I put (Jacobs) in the same category as Prentiss, I really do,” said Payne, an assistant on Danny Daniels’ coaching staff in 2003.
“Prentiss was taller and a little faster, but Josh is a little more rugged. The main thing is that they both can do it all. They’re the same kind of player. Both could play wideout, running back or quarterback.”
Payne said he moved Jacobs to quarterback to give him more options, but running back is where he should play at the next level.
“You could run gadget plays with him or put him at slot receiver. There’s a lot of things you could do with Josh. He could be a defensive back and he would make a great safety because he doesn’t shy away from contact,” Payne said.
Jacobs has a few Division II scholarship offers and, recruiting interest from Tulsa, North Texas and Arkansas State, according to his Yahoo.com recruiting page.
He has passed calculus and has enough credits to graduate in December. Although he would love to help lead the Titans back to the 4A state tournament in basketball (where they lost to Central in last year’s finals), his father said he would be ready to enroll at a college in January if the right offer came along.
“Somebody’s going to get a steal when they offer him,” Payne said. “He’s a competitive kid and you’re never going to have to worry about him because he’s always going to do the right thing.”
“The (recruiters) have to be able to see it. All they have to do is come and watch him for themselves. He’d have to be one of the first kids you’d pick if you were starting a new program.”
No Joshin': One big senior year
Game-by-game totals for McLain rushing standout Josh Jacobs in 2015:
Date Game Attempts Yards TDs
9/4 at Mannford 10 185 12
9/11 at NOAH 9 205 3
9/18 Hilldale 9 95 1
9;25 Catoosa 14 273 3
10/2 Vinita 17 271 4
10/9 at Cleveland 25 340 2
10/15 at Wagoner 17 181 1
10/23 Miami 16 327 5
10/30 at Cascia Hall 22 445 6
11/6 Oologah 17 122 2
TOTALS 156 2,444 29
Quite a career
McLain quarterback Josh Jacobs' rushing statistics year by year:
Year Attempts Yards Average TDs
Senior 156 2,444 15.7 29
Junior 104 948 9.1 13
Sophomore 149 1,325 8.9 12
Freshman 55 395 7.2 2
Totals 464 5,112 11.0 56
Mike Brown 918-581-8390
mike.brown@tulsaworld.com
