When he first began spreading the phrase about Waymond Jordan, Mike Bennett figured the movie would communicate for itself. The Escambia Excessive coach had been within the South Florida preps scene lengthy sufficient to know what he was seeing from his new operating again.
“Just watching him run the football for the first time, he was amazing,” Bennett stated. He figured scholarship affords would roll in quickly sufficient.
Jordan had comparable expectations. Since he first picked up soccer, at 4 years previous, he’d at all times instructed himself that he’d play at an enormous faculty, on the largest stage. He’d come to Escambia as a senior with that in thoughts.
However in 2021, 4 years earlier than Lincoln Riley and USC would see that very same star potential, different faculty coaches, for no matter motive, weren’t paying a lot thoughts.
USC operating again Waymond Jordan carries the ball throughout a win over Georgia Southern on the Coliseum on Saturday. Ignored earlier in his profession, Jordan has change into a key piece of the Trojans’ offense.
(Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Occasions)
Given the place Jordan stands immediately — the highest operating again on one of many nation’s high speeding offenses by means of two weeks of the school soccer season — loads of them in all probability remorse that now.
“Every coach in the country, I sent stuff to,” Bennett stated. “I mean, everybody. I sent it out to everybody.”
Some smaller colleges monitored Jordans’ senior yr at Escambia, holding an in depth eye as he rushed for 1,225 yards and 12 touchdowns. A couple of colleges stated he may walk-on. However none of them prolonged a scholarship supply. Jordan couldn’t perceive why.
Hutchinson Neighborhood School, a junior faculty in Hutchinson, Kan., was one of many solely locations to offer him a chance. Hutchinson was a thousand miles from his hometown of Pensacola, and a world away from the key faculty soccer he thought he’d be enjoying. However the employees there knew Escambia nicely, they usually believed in what they noticed in Jordan’s tape.
If all went nicely with junior faculty, he may nonetheless get the Energy 4 affords he was on the lookout for.
“He believed in himself. And he bet on himself,” stated Greg Cross, the Hutchinson operating backs coach. “And I would say he bet right.”
Cross figured it was a worthy wager then, earlier than most anybody else. He may see on movie that Jordan had a uncommon intuition for making defenders miss. Within the open area, not many individuals may carry Jordan down on their very own both. In some methods, his skillset reminded Cross a bit of little bit of Alvin Kamara, who performed the 2014 season at Hutchinson.
“But that wasn’t going to happen for him overnight,” Cross stated.
USC’s Waymond Jordan stretches out to attain a landing towards Georgia Southern on the Coliseum on Saturday.
(Sean M. Haffey / Getty Photos)
Jordan was in no way a completed product on arrival at Hutchinson. He hadn’t actually realized but find out how to maintain his physique. He was out of practice. He wanted so as to add muscle and alter his food plan. Plus, he struggled early on with move safety.
Then his hamstrings began bothering him.
“I knew it was in the best interest for him to redshirt,” Cross stated.
Hutchinson may afford to be affected person with him. However it was a tricky capsule to swallow for Jordan.
“He went through a phase where he was kind of down,” Cross stated. “We had a lot of talks. We would talk every day. I just wanted to keep him focused, keep him locked in, keep him motivated.
“So, me and him had a talk about it, and I said, ‘You can either let it get the best of you, or you can stay motivated and work 10 times as hard.’”
It was a formative chat for Jordan. Cross implored him to get severe about taking good care of his physique. He wished him within the coaching room day by day. They began monitoring his meals. He started utilizing the top coach’s YMCA membership.
From then on, Cross says, “I was grilling him, 24/7.”
He got here again that second season trying like a completely totally different participant. He misplaced weight. He was stronger and extra explosive. He had a full restoration routine.
However his hamstring was nonetheless appearing up. Then, after showing in two video games as a redshirt freshman, Jordan suffered a minor fracture in his foot.
“It felt, to him, like he couldn’t catch a break,” Cross stated.
He wore a boot for a few weeks. When he got here again, he needed to play by means of ache.
Even nonetheless, there have been glimpses of what Jordan could possibly be. Late within the season, in a sport towards No. 2 ranked Iowa Western Neighborhood School, Jordan broke out with two fourth-quarter speeding scores, one from 47 yards out, the opposite from 16, that helped put Iowa Western away. He completed with 4 carries for 99 yards and two touchdowns.
Hutchinson misplaced its subsequent sport to East Mississippi Neighborhood School and fell wanting an NJCAA nationwide title in 2023. However for Jordan, every part was trending upward that offseason.
“You really saw him take that next step,” stated Drew Dallas, Hutchinson’s head coach. “It was just how quickly he was hitting the hole, how fast and confident he was playing. He’d trimmed down his body fat to hardly any at all. He was just this rocked-up ball of muscle who could see the field really well.”
That spring, as phrase received round, some smaller colleges like Florida Atlantic and Florida Worldwide began asking about him.
By the top of that spring, Jordan had the scholarship affords he’d been ready for.
Cross figured he would take the chance and run with it. And he wouldn’t have blamed him for doing so. In truth, he couldn’t bear in mind anybody in his time at Hutchinson turning down an FBS alternative to return to junior faculty.
However in Jordan’s case, he believed larger affords may come.
“He told me that if I stayed, I would be able to come to places like [USC,]” Jordan recollects. “That it would all pay out in the end.”
USC operating again Waymond Jordan cuts and modifications course whereas carrying the ball towards Georgia Southern on the Coliseum on Saturday.
(Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Occasions)
Jordan known as Cross again with a choice just some minutes after their dialog.
“When you leaving?” Cross remembers asking him.
“He says no, ‘Coach, I’m gonna stay. I know what I can be.’”
Cross was shocked on the time. Pondering again on that dialog, he laughs.
“He put it all on red, I guess,” he stated.
However it took all of 1 week that season for Jordan’s wager to be vindicated. He rushed for 179 yards and two touchdowns throughout Hutchinson’s season opener on simply 14 carries. That Sunday, Cross received a name from a coach at Michigan State. Was Jordan for actual? As a result of, he stated, they have been watching intently.
It was “one phone call after another, every week after that,” Cross stated. Jordan rushed for 174 yards the next week, then 175 yards and 4 touchdowns on simply 9 carries in Week 4. Over a two-week stretch in November, Jordan exploded for 348 yards and 4 touchdowns, prompting Missouri and Central Florida, two Energy 4 colleges, to supply him scholarships.
He lastly had the chance he’d been ready for. So in December, simply earlier than the NJCAA playoffs, Jordan dedicated to Central Florida.
USC didn’t come into the image till later that month, simply as Jordan was named the junior faculty nationwide participant of the yr. Different Energy 4 colleges, like North Carolina and Mississippi, have been already making their instances to Jordan. However USC had a connection to Cross by means of Doug Belk, the Trojans’ secondary coach.
USC didn’t essentially have a necessity at operating again, having already added explosive New Mexico switch Eli Sanders to its class. However when Anthony Jones, USC’s operating backs coach, spoke to Jordan on the telephone, he got here away satisfied that “USC needed this young man.”
“Waymond checked all the boxes that we were looking for,” Jones stated.
Hutchinson beat Iowa Western to win the NJCAA nationwide title regardless of Iowa Western’s all-out efforts to bottle up the Blue Dragons’ star operating again. Two weeks later, he was on USC’s campus.
As quickly as Jordan known as him throughout his go to to L.A., Cross knew he was committing to USC.
9 months later, the identical operating again who didn’t have a single Division I supply as a highschool senior was bursting out of the USC backfield, weaving by means of a crowd of defenders on his means into the Coliseum finish zone, similar to Reggie Bush, Marcus Allen and O.J. Simpson as soon as did.
As he scored his first landing as a Trojan, Jordan seemed up into the stands and noticed his household.
He’d waited 4 sometimes-frustrating years for that second.
“His patience, his perseverance really built him into something a lot bigger and better,” Dallas stated.
“I think that’s as big of a part of his journey as anything.”
