An engagement, a graduation and an SEC baptism: Why Jarrett Stidham is ready for the national spotlight
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ATLANTA — Jarrett Stidham walked up to his elevated table at SEC Media Days, smiled and looked around at the sea of reporters waiting to talk to him.
“How’s everybody doin’?” he said.
The real question that we were all there to find out was, “How are you doin’, Jarrett?” After all, it’s been a wild offseason for the Auburn quarterback. He had shoulder surgery, went to the Elite 11 camp (he’s heading back to California for the weekend for the Elite 11 Finals), attended the Manning Passing Academy, graduated and because he wanted a little more chaos in his life, he got engaged.
Man. How are you doin’?
“It’s been a lot, but it’s been kind of crazy,” Stidham said. “A summer to remember.”
How about a year to remember?
Much like how rapidly a president ages in office, a year of playing quarterback in the SEC seems to have a similar effect. Well, at least it seems like it with Stidham. You can’t really blame him, though. It’s not like anybody had the roller coaster ride he did.
A year ago, he was a guy with 3 career starts. A year later, one thing is clear.
His SEC baptism coupled with an eventful offseason has him ready to take the big stage in 2018.
Stidham’s highs and lows were well-documented. The highs, of course, were pretty epic. Taking down No. 1 twice in the final month and clinching an SEC Championship berth was a dream high.
It didn’t take long for the Texas native to realize just how incredible Auburn’s Iron Bowl victory was.
“Yeah, I didn’t really know what to expect. The people in Alabama are crazy about their football. I’m from Texas, right. So I thought everybody was pretty crazy about our football,” Stidham said. “But Alabama’s a little bit different story. People tried to prepare me for it. I don’t think you can be prepared for it until you actually experience one … obviously this experience last year is one that I’ll remember forever.”
That moment will likely be neck-and-neck with another kind of high that Stidham experienced in the last year.
Yes, ladies. He’s off the market.
Less than 2 weeks ago, Stidham got engaged to his longtime girlfriend, Baylor soccer player Kennedy Brown.
That was the finished product of what turned out to be quite the detailed process. Stidham planned everything back in May and had to keep it a secret. That included asking Brown’s father, Houston Rockets CEO Tad Brown, for his blessing. Stidham did have to lie and tell Brown that they were going out to dinner — so that she’d still get dressed up — and not to a lake in Texas to pop the question.
And just in case that wasn’t enough, Stidham sure that all of their family and friends were there to celebrate to occasion.
“More planning than I would’ve initially thought,” Stidham said.
Speaking of planning, the newly-engaged man learned a bit more about that on the field, too. One of the other highlights of Stidham’s offseason was getting a chance to learn from Peyton and Eli Manning at the Manning Passing Academy.
Yeah, the Mannings taught Stidham a thing or two about planning.
“They talked about preparation more than anything, whether it’s physically, and obviously they talked about mentally preparing,” Stidham said. “You know how Peyton plays the game. He just out-checks everybody pretty much. It’s just a chess match for him … they talked about preparing more than anything. That’s something that I’m gonna try and implement into my game a little bit more this year from a preparation standpoint.”
Stidham is more prepared in general to handle the rigors of an SEC season. Last year was a bit of trial and error. There was an obvious learning curve.
Getting sacked 11 times at Clemson wasn’t his finest moment. But it was a learning moment, nonetheless.
“I’m glad Clemson happened. I’m glad I got sacked 11 times,” Stidham said. “I can guarantee that’s never happening again. I can promise you that.”
Part of Stidham’s confidence stems from this increased freedom in the offense. Last year, he wasn’t given the ability to check at the line of scrimmage. The relationship he developed with Gus Malzahn and offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey was a work in progress. Fitting into an offense with run-pass option principles obviously wasn’t an overnight transition.
But by the end of the season, Stidham said he felt like he knew what Auburn was checking to “99 percent of the time.”
“He’s like a coach on the field. Towards the end of the year, (Stidham and Lindsey) were thinking the same, talking the same,” Malzahn said. “Going into this year, he’s going to have freedom to get us into the right play and to check us out of the bad play. We have a lot of confidence in him and I’m really looking forward to him leading our offense.”
Stidham admitted that part of the reason that he came back to Auburn for his junior season was because of the freedom he was going to get in the offense. Auburn needs him to be that calming presence on offense. The Tigers lost SEC Offensive Player of the Year Kerryon Johnson, had injury issues on the offensive line during spring camp and they already lost two receivers to torn ACLs.
Malzahn said that he felt Auburn had the toughest schedule in America. It’s hard to argue with that. What eases his mind is that for just the second time since he has been at Auburn, he has a returning starting quarterback.
After just a year in the SEC, Stidham is suddenly the grizzled veteran.
“No, I feel really old, especially when we have guys on the team now that were born in the 2000s. It makes the ’90s babies feel weird,” Stidham said. “I mean, I don’t even know if they know what ‘The Lion King’ is.”
Stidham will be 22 in a couple of weeks, just in case his summer hasn’t been eventful enough. He’ll enter 2018 as a Heisman Trophy candidate, a first-round draft prospect and perhaps most important to Auburn fans, he’ll enter as the only active quarterback in America with a victory against Alabama.
The spotlight is shining bright on Stidham. It has been since the moment he was announced as the starting quarterback 11 months ago.
Eleven months later, Stidham couldn’t be more experienced.
But he’s ready for more.
“We feel very good about his focus,” Malzahn said. “I know he’s chomping at the bit for August 3 to get here.”
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.
