Jordan Jefferson hasn’t quite earned “big man on campus” status yet, but he’s certainly a mountain of a young man.
The Navasota freshman stands 6-2 and tips the scales at 295 pounds. In 2016, he became the first freshman in more than a decade to start the season at varsity for the Rattlers. Last week, he became the first verbal commitment for Texas A&M’s Class of 2020.
And from his words, he plans to honor his commitment.
“It’s an amazing feeling because I’ve always wanted to go there ever since I knew how to play football,” said Jefferson. “They like me because of my personality and my size.”
The Texas A&M campus is just a mere 23 miles away from Navasota High School.
Jefferson said that Texas A&M offensive line coach Jim Turner offered the freshman a scholarship last Wednesday evening (Feb. 1) while the ink was still drying on the letters of intent from the 2017 signing class earlier that day.
To put this into perspective, A&M doesn’t have any verbal commitments from the 2019 class and only has six commits from the 2018 group.
Roughly a week and a half ago, A&M coaches visited the Navasota campus to interview and measure Jefferson. Jefferson said the Aggies told him that they’d like him to play left tackle to protect the blind side of a right-handed quarterback.
Jefferson was penciled into the Navasota varsity depth chart before he even left junior high last year. During that eighth grade year, he broke the junior high bench press record with a lift of 320 pounds.
When asked what he needs to do the next three years to prepare for A&M, Jefferson said, “They want me to keep playing basketball and keep working on my quickness.”
Jefferson, who has a good punch and delicately quick feet, started getting looks from scouts in the summer before his freshman year. While lined up at tackle, he fended off big, quick senior defensive linemen.
Jefferson began the season playing solely defensive tackle, but by the third game he replaced a senior at left tackle on offense, thus playing both ways — as a freshman.
Last Friday, after his freshman basketball game against Smithville, he was walking around the gym in a maroon, long-sleeve Texas A&M shirt, towering over almost all his classmates — with the exception of freshman quarterback Gage Pahl, who’s already slightly taller than his good friend Jefferson.
Jefferson is an A/B student who has two older siblings who experienced athletic success at Navasota. His brother, Lamarquis Jefferson, played on Navasota’s 2012 and 2014 state championship teams as a running back and safety. His sister, Kalandrea Jefferson, was a four-year starter on the Lady Rattler basketball team that won four district titles. She was the point guard on last year’s team that went 39-1.
The last time Texas A&M signed a Navasota player was back in 2010 when they brought in offensive lineman Jarvis Harrison. He ended up blocking for Ryan Tannehill and Johnny Manziel from the left guard spot.
The last Navasota lineman to go to an FBS school was Michael Coffey (Class of 2015), who signed as a preferred walk-on at Baylor. He recently got moved to second-string center.
Jefferson said he also had an offer from Memphis and that LSU had shown interest but had not yet offered. Verbal commitments are non-binding and the recruit isn’t part of the collegiate program until signing their National Letter of Intent during their senior year.
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