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Sep 5, 2005, 9:39:10 PM9/5/05
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Former Atlantic QB could
become unlikely Heisman hopeful
By Shandel
Richardson
Staff Writer
September 3, 2005
Omar Jacobs'
hair is as impressive as his stats.
|
Staff Writer
September 3, 2005
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio ·
The dreads. Oh, they love his dreads here. They can't get enough of
them.
Bowling Green football fans arrive on Saturdays wearing dangly rasta wigs just so they can sport his look. Blog posters say things like, "He has cool dreads." A student newspaper last year went as far as suggesting hair alone was enough to give his team the advantage over the opponent's quarterback.
All the fuss over his hairdo, yet junior Omar Jacobs can't understand all the commotion. Why it's all they talk about. Why he has to hide his locks under a cap when he wants to avoid attention.
Go figure, the hair style as common as sandy beaches in South Florida is treated as rarity in northwest Ohio.
"Back home, everybody has them," said Jacobs, a Delray Beach native. "[Dreads] are like having a fade. When I went home, I wanted to cut my dreads because everybody had them."
No chance of that happening now. Not when it's become his signature, the reason he is the most recognizable face in town. As Jacobs sets to begin a push for the Heisman Trophy, he says the dreads, which he has worn for just more than a year, are here to stay.
"I don't want to lose my power," Jacobs says, hinting at a Samson reference. "That's like my trademark now."
A "unique" hairstyle is not the only thing Jacobs has locals getting used to. They now know what it feels like to have a player in the national spotlight, a player many are calling the best quarterback not named Matt Leinart in the country.
He has appeared in magazine spreads, and on the front pages of national publications. Now, Jacobs, whose Heisman campaign is themed after the movie The Fantastic Four because of his jersey number, is out to prove he's no fall blockbuster bust. His show opens at noon today against Wisconsin on ESPN.
"Last year, the expectations weren't very high," said Jacobs, who played at Atlantic High School. "They basically told me to not lose the game. This year, it's second-team preseason All-American, it's Sports Illustrated, it's ESPN the Magazine, it's USA Today. I mean, it's a whole 180 from last year."
Jacobs earned the rep after having one of the most prolific seasons in college football history. He threw an NCAA-high 41 touchdowns against just four interceptions, the best ratio ever in Division I-A. He finished fourth or better nationally in six passing categories, while leading Bowling Green to a 9-3 record and a win over Memphis in the GMAC Bowl. Experts say if he chooses to go pro, he is a likely first-rounder in next year's NFL Draft.
No place to hide
So a town most notably home to Olympic figure skater Scott Hamilton and college home of two players from the U.S. hockey team that upset the U.S.S.R. in the 1980 Olympics -- Ken Morrow and Mark Wells -- has given way to a guy simply known as "Omarvelous."
"Oh boy, it's Omar-mania here," Bowling Green offensive coordinator Greg Studrawa said. "The students have the dreads going. Not only is it his play on the field, but people just know what kind of person he is. You meet him and talk to the young man and you have to cheer for him because he's such a likable person."
Says wide receivers coach Zach Azzanni, "You can't go around too many places here and find people who don't know who Omar is. This is a small town [30,000 population]. He's a big kid with a lot of hair. He can't be missed."
It is why Jacobs can't drive his silver 1992 Chevy Caprice without fans waving at stop signs. He spends most of the time signing autographs and taking pictures on campus.
At 6 feet 4 and 224 pounds, it's hard to blend with the crowd. The hair makes it almost impossible to go unnoticed. At times, he tries to disguise himself.
"I have the little rasta hats where I can put [my dreads] up," Jacobs said. "It hides them when I go out. If I don't hide them and I'm in a bar, I'll spend the whole night doing this and doing that."
Still, you won't hear Jacobs complain too much about the attention. Not too long ago he was slumping his head after being snubbed by major universities.
"We've had other Bowling Green players earn Heisman votes, we've had good hockey players here, but what makes Omar special is that it seems all the stars lined up in some way, shape or form for him to get here," said Nathan Boyle, a 1997 Bowling Green graduate who started the Web site www.jacobs4heisman.com. "Many people assumed he was going to play somewhere else. We all just wondered how he got here."
Unlikely path
At times, Jacobs can't believe this is all happening.
He was talking recently with his father, Frank, who is from St. Croix but has been working maintenance in Iraq the last few months. The conversation turned to Jacobs' popularity.
"My dad has that [Caribbean] accent and was like, `Brotha man, I can hear about you all over the seas, mon,'" Jacobs said, trying to impersonate his father. "`They're talking about you over here. You're known all over the world, mon.'"
A few years ago, that seemed so unlikely.
After his senior year at Atlantic -- where he was the Sun-Sentinel's large-school Player of the Year in Palm Beach County in 2001 -- Jacobs learned the bitter side of college football recruiting.
Some schools wanted him to play linebacker. The small programs didn't want to waste a trip because they thought he was too good. The larger ones thought he wasn't good enough. The worst moment came when Kansas State canceled his visit just days before.
Jacobs only landed at Bowling Green after a quarterback backed out of his commitment 10 days before signing day. Urban Meyer, the coach at the time and now at Florida, watched some film and offered Jacobs a scholarship.
Next great QB
When he arrived, it was cold.
He was in Bob Evans country. The area lacked the diversity of South Florida.
But after redshirting his freshman year and sitting one season behind Josh Harris, all that seemed to matter less.
In his first game as the starter, he threw for 218 yards and two touchdowns against second-ranked Oklahoma. After that, as Jacobs likes to say, "It was on."
Jacobs went on to win the Mid-American Conference Offensive Player of the Year award, earning honorable mention All-America honors. He was MVP of the GMAC Bowl and at one point had completed a school-record 224 consecutive passes without an interception.
Chad Pennington. Byron Leftwich. Ben Roethlisberger. And just like that, Jacobs was the next great quarterback to play in the MAC.
"Sometimes, you have to struggle in order to shine," said Chris Bean, Jacobs' uncle, who is now the football coach at Atlantic. "A lot of times you don't appreciate things if you get to that point and it's easy. I told him to wear a chip on your shoulder."
Football fears
The photo on the 8-by-10-inch pamphlet the Bowling Green sports information department will distribute to fans at games has Jacobs displaying almost perfect passing form. Feet set. Shoulders square. High release point.
Flip to the back and the image isn't as flattering. It's less Peyton Manning, more Bernie Kosar. It is Jacobs showing the sometimes side-armed delivery that has resulted in his biggest criticism.
Jacobs blames baseball for the awkward release. It is the sport he grew up playing because his mother, Barbara Bean, out of fear, refused to let her son on the football field. Jacobs, who was always bigger than peers, would have had to play up in age-group because of weight restrictions.
"She really didn't want me being a fifth-grader and playing against eighth-graders," Jacobs said. "I really had no say. I couldn't argue with her. So all I had was baseball."
Jacobs played first base and pitcher before his mom, a teacher at Atlantic, let him try football his freshman year of high school. At first, he wanted to play defense to release the aggression from not playing all those years.
Bean convinced him to play quarterback and they began trying to correct the release. Jacobs stopped pitching. He was taught to keep his elbow high. The improvement has been gradual. Jacobs says he only throws side-armed in certain situations, mostly when under extreme pressure.
Most draft bios on Jacobs claim he needs to fix the release before the next level. Side-armed quarterbacks tend to have their passes deflected more at the line of the scrimmage because of low release points. In Bowling Green's spread offense, Jacobs spends a lot of time in the shotgun, making it easier to avoid the arms of defenders.
`The same Omar'
It's 6:15 p.m. and Jacobs is late for an interview. Signing too many autographs? Taking too many pictures? Or just too big-time to arrive on time? None of the above.
Jacobs, who is majoring in recreational programming, was tardy because it was the first day of an internship at the Bowling Green Community Center. He works with parks and recreation, doing maintenance around the facility.
Through all the hype, some things have stayed the same. He still has to stay on top of his studies or hear from his mother, still returns home to help run Atlantic's summer football camp, still plays video games.
"He's still the same Omar," said receiver Charles Sharon, who is from Jacksonville. "Nothing has changed. Yeah, he's doing a lot more interviews. He probably doesn't like the attention, but he knows it's part of the deal."
Jacobs continues to be amazed when he hears his name on SportsCenter or mentioned with the likes of USC standouts Leinart and Reggie Bush and Texas' Vince Young, all household names and playing at major universities.
"Matt Leinart is in the national spotlight every day," Jacobs said. "He can go out to any club in [Hollywood] and get in free. I heard he's cool with Jamie Foxx. I've never had Alyssa Milano come to my party. I heard he did. I'd be happy if I got a reporter to show up at my party."
As for Jacobs, the one time he felt sort of like a celebrity came during the summer when he took the hour drive north to Detroit to do some shopping. As he peeked in the stores, a guy approached.
"He stopped me and said, `You're Omar Jacobs, right?' I'm thinking, `I'm in Detroit, not on campus.' Maybe they do know about me outside Bowling Green."
They do now.
Shandel Richardson can be reached at sdrich...@sun-sentinel.com.
Bowling Green football fans arrive on Saturdays wearing dangly rasta wigs just so they can sport his look. Blog posters say things like, "He has cool dreads." A student newspaper last year went as far as suggesting hair alone was enough to give his team the advantage over the opponent's quarterback.
All the fuss over his hairdo, yet junior Omar Jacobs can't understand all the commotion. Why it's all they talk about. Why he has to hide his locks under a cap when he wants to avoid attention.
Go figure, the hair style as common as sandy beaches in South Florida is treated as rarity in northwest Ohio.
"Back home, everybody has them," said Jacobs, a Delray Beach native. "[Dreads] are like having a fade. When I went home, I wanted to cut my dreads because everybody had them."
No chance of that happening now. Not when it's become his signature, the reason he is the most recognizable face in town. As Jacobs sets to begin a push for the Heisman Trophy, he says the dreads, which he has worn for just more than a year, are here to stay.
"I don't want to lose my power," Jacobs says, hinting at a Samson reference. "That's like my trademark now."
A "unique" hairstyle is not the only thing Jacobs has locals getting used to. They now know what it feels like to have a player in the national spotlight, a player many are calling the best quarterback not named Matt Leinart in the country.
He has appeared in magazine spreads, and on the front pages of national publications. Now, Jacobs, whose Heisman campaign is themed after the movie The Fantastic Four because of his jersey number, is out to prove he's no fall blockbuster bust. His show opens at noon today against Wisconsin on ESPN.
"Last year, the expectations weren't very high," said Jacobs, who played at Atlantic High School. "They basically told me to not lose the game. This year, it's second-team preseason All-American, it's Sports Illustrated, it's ESPN the Magazine, it's USA Today. I mean, it's a whole 180 from last year."
Jacobs earned the rep after having one of the most prolific seasons in college football history. He threw an NCAA-high 41 touchdowns against just four interceptions, the best ratio ever in Division I-A. He finished fourth or better nationally in six passing categories, while leading Bowling Green to a 9-3 record and a win over Memphis in the GMAC Bowl. Experts say if he chooses to go pro, he is a likely first-rounder in next year's NFL Draft.
No place to hide
So a town most notably home to Olympic figure skater Scott Hamilton and college home of two players from the U.S. hockey team that upset the U.S.S.R. in the 1980 Olympics -- Ken Morrow and Mark Wells -- has given way to a guy simply known as "Omarvelous."
"Oh boy, it's Omar-mania here," Bowling Green offensive coordinator Greg Studrawa said. "The students have the dreads going. Not only is it his play on the field, but people just know what kind of person he is. You meet him and talk to the young man and you have to cheer for him because he's such a likable person."
Says wide receivers coach Zach Azzanni, "You can't go around too many places here and find people who don't know who Omar is. This is a small town [30,000 population]. He's a big kid with a lot of hair. He can't be missed."
It is why Jacobs can't drive his silver 1992 Chevy Caprice without fans waving at stop signs. He spends most of the time signing autographs and taking pictures on campus.
At 6 feet 4 and 224 pounds, it's hard to blend with the crowd. The hair makes it almost impossible to go unnoticed. At times, he tries to disguise himself.
"I have the little rasta hats where I can put [my dreads] up," Jacobs said. "It hides them when I go out. If I don't hide them and I'm in a bar, I'll spend the whole night doing this and doing that."
Still, you won't hear Jacobs complain too much about the attention. Not too long ago he was slumping his head after being snubbed by major universities.
"We've had other Bowling Green players earn Heisman votes, we've had good hockey players here, but what makes Omar special is that it seems all the stars lined up in some way, shape or form for him to get here," said Nathan Boyle, a 1997 Bowling Green graduate who started the Web site www.jacobs4heisman.com. "Many people assumed he was going to play somewhere else. We all just wondered how he got here."
Unlikely path
At times, Jacobs can't believe this is all happening.
He was talking recently with his father, Frank, who is from St. Croix but has been working maintenance in Iraq the last few months. The conversation turned to Jacobs' popularity.
"My dad has that [Caribbean] accent and was like, `Brotha man, I can hear about you all over the seas, mon,'" Jacobs said, trying to impersonate his father. "`They're talking about you over here. You're known all over the world, mon.'"
A few years ago, that seemed so unlikely.
After his senior year at Atlantic -- where he was the Sun-Sentinel's large-school Player of the Year in Palm Beach County in 2001 -- Jacobs learned the bitter side of college football recruiting.
Some schools wanted him to play linebacker. The small programs didn't want to waste a trip because they thought he was too good. The larger ones thought he wasn't good enough. The worst moment came when Kansas State canceled his visit just days before.
Jacobs only landed at Bowling Green after a quarterback backed out of his commitment 10 days before signing day. Urban Meyer, the coach at the time and now at Florida, watched some film and offered Jacobs a scholarship.
Next great QB
When he arrived, it was cold.
He was in Bob Evans country. The area lacked the diversity of South Florida.
But after redshirting his freshman year and sitting one season behind Josh Harris, all that seemed to matter less.
In his first game as the starter, he threw for 218 yards and two touchdowns against second-ranked Oklahoma. After that, as Jacobs likes to say, "It was on."
Jacobs went on to win the Mid-American Conference Offensive Player of the Year award, earning honorable mention All-America honors. He was MVP of the GMAC Bowl and at one point had completed a school-record 224 consecutive passes without an interception.
Chad Pennington. Byron Leftwich. Ben Roethlisberger. And just like that, Jacobs was the next great quarterback to play in the MAC.
"Sometimes, you have to struggle in order to shine," said Chris Bean, Jacobs' uncle, who is now the football coach at Atlantic. "A lot of times you don't appreciate things if you get to that point and it's easy. I told him to wear a chip on your shoulder."
Football fears
The photo on the 8-by-10-inch pamphlet the Bowling Green sports information department will distribute to fans at games has Jacobs displaying almost perfect passing form. Feet set. Shoulders square. High release point.
Flip to the back and the image isn't as flattering. It's less Peyton Manning, more Bernie Kosar. It is Jacobs showing the sometimes side-armed delivery that has resulted in his biggest criticism.
Jacobs blames baseball for the awkward release. It is the sport he grew up playing because his mother, Barbara Bean, out of fear, refused to let her son on the football field. Jacobs, who was always bigger than peers, would have had to play up in age-group because of weight restrictions.
"She really didn't want me being a fifth-grader and playing against eighth-graders," Jacobs said. "I really had no say. I couldn't argue with her. So all I had was baseball."
Jacobs played first base and pitcher before his mom, a teacher at Atlantic, let him try football his freshman year of high school. At first, he wanted to play defense to release the aggression from not playing all those years.
Bean convinced him to play quarterback and they began trying to correct the release. Jacobs stopped pitching. He was taught to keep his elbow high. The improvement has been gradual. Jacobs says he only throws side-armed in certain situations, mostly when under extreme pressure.
Most draft bios on Jacobs claim he needs to fix the release before the next level. Side-armed quarterbacks tend to have their passes deflected more at the line of the scrimmage because of low release points. In Bowling Green's spread offense, Jacobs spends a lot of time in the shotgun, making it easier to avoid the arms of defenders.
`The same Omar'
It's 6:15 p.m. and Jacobs is late for an interview. Signing too many autographs? Taking too many pictures? Or just too big-time to arrive on time? None of the above.
Jacobs, who is majoring in recreational programming, was tardy because it was the first day of an internship at the Bowling Green Community Center. He works with parks and recreation, doing maintenance around the facility.
Through all the hype, some things have stayed the same. He still has to stay on top of his studies or hear from his mother, still returns home to help run Atlantic's summer football camp, still plays video games.
"He's still the same Omar," said receiver Charles Sharon, who is from Jacksonville. "Nothing has changed. Yeah, he's doing a lot more interviews. He probably doesn't like the attention, but he knows it's part of the deal."
Jacobs continues to be amazed when he hears his name on SportsCenter or mentioned with the likes of USC standouts Leinart and Reggie Bush and Texas' Vince Young, all household names and playing at major universities.
"Matt Leinart is in the national spotlight every day," Jacobs said. "He can go out to any club in [Hollywood] and get in free. I heard he's cool with Jamie Foxx. I've never had Alyssa Milano come to my party. I heard he did. I'd be happy if I got a reporter to show up at my party."
As for Jacobs, the one time he felt sort of like a celebrity came during the summer when he took the hour drive north to Detroit to do some shopping. As he peeked in the stores, a guy approached.
"He stopped me and said, `You're Omar Jacobs, right?' I'm thinking, `I'm in Detroit, not on campus.' Maybe they do know about me outside Bowling Green."
They do now.
Shandel Richardson can be reached at sdrich...@sun-sentinel.com.
Nathan W.L. Boyle
**********************
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