MOBILE, Ala. – Football is game of hard knocks, of high-speed collisions that thrill the crowd. Getting hit hard these days should come as a surprise to no one, especially the guys on the field.
So why is it that opponents are left stunned after being discarded by University of South Alabama junior cornerback Jerron Mitchell?
“I know a lot of times opponents will see me and have that look on their face that says, ‘Are you serious? Is this the guy that everyone is saying hits so hard?’” he said. “Going into it, they never think they are going to be in that group who gets hit by me. Once I finally get a chance to make that big hit, they have a stunned look that it just happened.
“It’s a little entertaining, I find it humorous.”
Maybe it’s because at 5-foot-7 and 155 pounds, Mitchell is one of the smallest players on the Jaguar roster. Opponents may not see the big hit coming from the little guy, but his teammates sure aren’t surprised.
“It’s nothing out of the usual for him,” stated linebacker Justin Dunn. “We know it’s possible because he does the same thing in practice, he comes out and works hard every day. It’s very exciting, it gives everyone a thrill and a little pep in their step. It makes you want to do the same thing.”
As players have gotten bigger and stronger in the game of football over the years, it’s not hard to believe that Mitchell has had to overcome the stigma that comes with being his size. It’s a battle he has faced since first stepping on a football field over 15 years ago, and it’s one that will most likely last until his playing days are over.
“All my life I’ve been smaller, so I never really have seen it as being a weakness,” Mitchell observed. “Being smaller has got me a lot of attention, but when I’m out there I just see it as another opportunity to prove people who have already ruled me out of the equation wrong. I actually take pride in being small and being able to accomplish what guys who are way bigger than me are trying to do.”
Jag head coach Joey Jones, who overcame a perceived size disadvantage as a wide receiver at Alabama in the early 1980s to earn all-Southeastern Conference honors as well as selection to the Crimson Tide’s All-Decade Team, knows the battle Mitchell is fighting. “It’s almost like discrimination, where coaches don’t give smaller players a chance because they think they can’t do it,” he explained. “You overcome that by having a competitive edge, and he definitely has that.”
“I was excited to get to this level so I could work with bigger athletes,” USA defensive backs coach Duwan Walker joked about first seeing Mitchell, “and in my first hand this is what I have to play with?”
But having worked with smaller cornerbacks in the past, count Walker as one of those who didn’t have doubts about putting Mitchell on the field. “Where I came from we always played with short players. But, they always had those intangibles — speed, a physical presence. They always have to work so much harder to overcome being undersized.
“I went in with a lot of optimism since I had seen a lot done by shorter guys that have competed against great receivers.”
While it is easy to catch everyone’s attention with a big hit — “I can definitely say that my big-hit ability has proven a point, it’s one of the ways I can show that I am effective on the field,” said Mitchell — there is more to his game, which is why he has been hard to remove from the lineup. And it’s something that caught the attention of the Jaguar coaching staff almost immediately.
“It didn’t take long because he’s football savvy, the kid knows the game,” Walker commented. “Once you know that, that’s half the battle. Jerron was the only kid at the time [during the program’s first spring in 2009] who had all the instincts you need.”
“Jerron is very good game player, he has a good feel for the game — he understands it and reacts well,” added Jones. “Plus, he’s an unbelievable leader, a guy who always has a great attitude and is willing to work hard. And he’s very competitive, so I knew that once we got him out on the field he would prove to our staff that he could play.”
Jones should know — his ties to Mitchell go back to the recruiting process when the player was at Sparkman High School in Harvest and the coach was rebuilding the program at Birmingham-Southern after the school decided to bring back football in time for the 2007 season. Mitchell recorded 77 tackles while helping the Senators win their first-round state 6A playoff game his senior year — he would earn all-state and all-district honors — creating some interest from schools such as Jacksonville State and Tennessee-Martin (both play at the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision), and even the possibility of joining the program at Alabama if he would wait to enroll until the spring semester after graduating from high school. But it was the persistence and belief shown by Jones and his staff that won Mitchell over.
“Coming out of high school I had a few scholarship offers from different schools, although throughout the recruiting process a lot of teams backed away because of my size,” he recalled. “Coach Jones and his staff were real adamant about getting me to Birmingham-Southern. I always liked his coaching style, and he let me know from day one that he really wasn’t concerned about my size. He always believed in my ability to play and saw the passion that I had for the game, and I appreciate that.
“I think it was a no-brainer. A lot of people asked me why I chose to go to a Division III school instead of any of my other options, and I credit it to coach Jones and his influence. Birmingham-Southern stood out because they were the only school who said, ‘We want you.’ The other schools told me I was a good football player and they would like to have me, but Birmingham-Southern always wanted me so that’s where I wanted to go in my heart.”
Jones related a story he heard from current Arkansas head coach Bobby Petrino that helped influence his decision to overlook Mitchell’s lack of size.
“He did a study how many times in a season that a short cornerback mattered; how many negative plays happened where he got outjumped for a ball. And he said it was two plays in the whole season,” he explained. “One was a touchdown, another was for a 15-yard gain. The rest of the time that guy played great.
“That made me think, we just can’t get caught up in the cookie-cutter mold that they can’t play if they are not a certain height. That was an interesting story that I learned from.
“We knew Jerron was a very good player. Other schools knew that too but passed on him just because of his height, they were worried about him being able to cover these 6-foot-3 receivers.”
Mitchell would go on to prove Jones right. He would finish fourth on the team with 47 total stops, intercept a pass, recover a fumble and block a kick. Enough to earn honorable mention all-Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference recognition. Enough to prove to others that he could play at the collegiate level?
“I think it did. Of course, a lot of people looked at the level of competition and would still have some things to say,” Mitchell stated. “But that was always my intention, to be all-conference. A lot of that wouldn’t have been possible without my teammates — I wanted to go out and gain their support, let them know they could trust me out there on the field.
“I think I proved that my freshman year.”
That’s when it came time to make another decision.
Jones had been selected as the first-ever coach at South Alabama barely two months after the school’s Board of Trustees voted to add the sport in December 2007. In making the move, he had encouraged his players to remain at BSC.
Which was on Mitchell’s mind before he ultimately decided to follow Jones to Mobile.
“Part of me wanted to stay there because of the commitment I had made to my teammates. The bond that we have is something that will never go away, I remember them — a lot of them are still my friends to this day,” he said. “But as a football player my instincts told me instantly to go with coach Jones just because that was what attracted me to the school initially; he and his staff, the way he ran the program and the belief he had in me.
“I was kind of down about it when he told me he was leaving, and it was hard because they couldn’t recruit me right away and I couldn’t talk to them. But I knew that I wanted to play for him, so I took a big leap of faith and came down here not knowing what was going to happen.”
“I was very excited because I thought he could be a player for us, I really did,” commented Jones. “I didn’t know what kind of players we would get here, I just knew he was a very good football player. Not only that, but because of his leadership ability, I knew that in the early years when we were trying to establish a standard of how we work that he would fit in great because he’s one of those guys who understands what it takes to win.”
With the plan for the Jaguars to move to the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision faster than any other school had ever accomplished the transition, the doubt that Mitchell could play at a higher collegiate level due to his physical stature came back. “When Jerron came here from Birmingham-Southern, I could tell that all of our coaches looked at me asking, ‘What are you doing bringing this guy?’” Jones remembered. “Even going into preseason camp last summer he was a second-string guy. But I knew deep down that if he ever got a chance to play on the field, that he would prove himself.”
Walker noted that once the program got on the field for its first-ever spring practice in March 2009, that Mitchell stood out almost immediately. “That first spring, Jerron was the one guy that if we could, we would have cloned him and put him everywhere,” he recalled. “He had all the intangibles that you need to play any position, he was undersized but he would outwork everybody.”
Last season, Mitchell didn’t start in the Jags’ debut against Hargrave (Va.) Military Academy. But when he did get on the field, he made three tackles and intercepted a pass in the fourth quarter that he ran back 31 yards that helped seal USA’s 30-13 victory. The next time out, he started and returned an interception 27 yards for a touchdown as the Jaguars defeated Army Prep 56-0 — in fact, he would force one fumble, recover another, and make three more stops against the Black Knights.
He would go on to finish with 18 solo tackles, which tied for second on the squad, post 22 total stops and return his three interceptions a team-best 94 yards.
It seems the move has worked out for all parties involved.
“The day I told him that I was going to come I could tell he was tickled,” said Mitchell. “He said that he was always glad to have me, that he loved me as a player at Birmingham-Southern and that he was pretty sure he was going to love me as a player at South Alabama. I told him that I supported him and what he does, that I had appreciated him and I didn’t want it to end that soon.
“We both laughed at the time, but here we are and I’m happy with the decision I made.”
Mitchell has two years of eligibility remaining to build on those accomplishments, beginning with today’s match-up against Pikeville (Ky.). Beyond that, he can’t see leaving the sport in the rearview mirror once he earns his degree from USA. “I really don’t see myself leaving the game of football,” he explained. “There are other avenues I want to explore, but at the end of the day when I lay down my head, I always look forward to waking up the next day and being around football. I’m not going to give up on playing, but when those days come to an end I can see myself being a football coach.
“I want to work on the collegiate level. Being from the south, I love college football. It has always been something that people have made a big deal about, there’s nothing like Saturday mornings when you can look forward to a whole day of football.”
Count Walker among the group who can see that happening because of all Mitchell’s attributes that have helped him overcome his size disadvantage.
“Some people you have to continue to reiterate this is what we are doing to drive it home, but Jerron is someone you tell once and he has it,” Walker said. “He’s the only one in a meeting room who you know is going to ask a question, whereas everyone else is thinking of that question but afraid to ask. He is the kid who is going to make sure that everyone is on the same page.
“He’s a coach on the field and a great communicator. And he does all the little things we ask that are going to make a big difference.”
But first, Mitchell is focused on helping USA continue to establish its program before the school is eligible to compete in the Sun Belt Conference in the fall of 2013. While the university — much like Mitchell has his whole life — has a lot to prove to the outside world, it is just one more opportunity to overcome the perception of being the underdog.
“A lot of it is not being concerned with having to prove something,” he said. “We’re starting a new program, so of course there are going to be naysayers who are going to doubt you. You just have to focus on what you came to accomplish, and when it comes down to it, first of all that’s to get a college degree. Second, take care of what’s important on the football field — executing your plays, gaining the trust of your teammates and coaches; just doing everything the right way. You can’t be concerned with what other people have to say, because you’ll lose focus.
“When you start a new program it takes an extreme amount of focus, and I think we have done a tremendous job of that at South Alabama.”
Some of the focus of Jaguar fans this fall are bound to fall on Mitchell, one of the smallest USA players who packs a big hit.
For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).
—USA—
