An oral history of the beginning of Jordan Ta'amu era at Ole Miss
OXFORD – Towel over his head, the lights of Vaught-Hemingway Stadium beating down on him, Ole Miss quarterback Shea Patterson limped toward the tunnel at the southwest corner of the stadium.
He weaved through band members pulling their instruments onto the field for the halftime show. The Rebels, down 13-3 against LSU last October, still had time for one more drive in the first half. But it wasn’t going to be with Patterson under center.
Ole Miss offensive coordinator Phil Longo told Jordan Ta'amu, the Rebels backup quarterback, to go warm up.
This weekend, Ta’amu and Ole Miss travel to Baton Rouge to face LSU, the team they played when the Ta’amu era began. After replacing Patterson in the first half of a 40-24 loss to the Tigers, Ta’amu led Ole Miss to seven straight scoring drives. He finished the season as one of the best passers in the Southeastern Conference (115-of-173 for 1,682 yards). Only Missouri’s Drew Lock (165.7 QBR) had a better quarterback rating than Ta’amu (164.5).
When Ta’amu replaced Patterson, he was just a junior college transfer whose duties had mostly been handing the ball off at the end of blowouts, and whose stat sheet consisted of just three carries for 32 yards against Vanderbilt.
Just before halftime, when Ta'amu was forced into action vs. LSU, he led the Rebels into position for a first-half closing 26-yard Gary Wunderlich field goal to reduce the Tigers' lead to 13-6.
Patterson returned in the second half with a brace on his right knee – an MRI would later reveal a season-ending PCL tear – but he had to leave the game again in the fourth quarter. Ta’amu returned, this time for the first touchdown drive of his SEC career. In two drives, he was 7-of-11 passing for 78 yards, and had three carries for 20 yards.
“I think everyone kind of saw a glimpse of what it could be,” Ole Miss coach Matt Luke said, and I think it gave him a lot of confidence moving forward.”
‘You may play here’
Longo: “(Patterson) goes into the tent. They’re talking about him coming back, I did not think he was going to be able to come back. So I just told Jordan to go warm up. And I said, ‘You may play here, last drive. We’re in a two-minute scenario.’ I didn’t know how he would take it, so I just said, ‘Can you handle that?’ And he was like, ‘I’m fine.’"
Ta’amu: “When I found out he (Patterson) was hurt, my heart was beating. I was very excited and super nervous at the same time. I knew my name was going to get called, and once my name got called I strapped it up, and my O-linemen were telling me, 'Let’s go, let’s do this.'"
Wide receiver A.J. Brown: “On the field he asked me, he was like, ‘Why are you right here?’ I was like, ‘That’s the route I have.’"
Ta’amu: “I was just super nervous and I just wanted everything to be right, and I just wanted the formations and everything to go my way.”
Brown: “Going against LSU, that’s a great team. The backup comes in, his head’s probably spinning. … I was a little nervous, but he came in and handled his business.”
Ta’amu: “As soon as the ball came to me, all of the butterflies kind of went away, and I just started playing the game. Everybody trains, since we were little, just to play at this spot, just to play at this level, so I was excited for the opportunity.”
Ole Miss co-defensive coordinator Jason Jones: “I was on the sideline talking to the defensive guys, and I just heard the ball moving and heard some of the defensive guys cheering for him.”
Brown: “We were ready to go, we believed in him. After that first drive, he settled down and did what he did.”
Longo: “We drive down, kick a field goal. It was actually a huge momentum boost for us, and it closed the gap on the score, and we were very much in the ballgame at the time. It was a battle."
The fist pump
Longo: “I think visibly the entire second half, you could see [Patterson] wasn’t the same.”
Former Ole Miss punter Ben Craddock: "Shea’s a tough kid. I could tell he was in a lot of pain. We were sitting there (in our seats in the south end zone), watching when he first got back to the sideline and watching the coaches around him. You could tell he wanted to go back in but couldn’t. I know for that kid, he’s such a competitor, that it was a pretty serious issue with his knee if he could not go back in."
Longo: “I figured, let’s get Jordan some time because we don’t know if we’re even getting this guy back.”
Craddock: “I remember my brother (David Craddock) and I talking, and David’s like, ‘This kid, Jordan, came out of nowhere and completely looks in control.’ I mean, he had total control of that offense. And he’s like, ‘We’re not going to skip a beat.’ … I remember we all were very excited because at that time nobody knew Shea was going to transfer (to Michigan after the season), no one knew what would happen, and nobody knew the severity of Shea’s injury, but we felt good. It’s always great to have two quarterbacks in the SEC that can compete."
Longo: "Jordan leads them down, and we score a touchdown, and then the thing I like the most— when you say what do I remember most — there is one other thing. He rolled out on a naked (bootleg) under pressure and threw a strike to Dawson Knox for a two-point conversion. … Dawson Knox has about a step on a guy, he’s not wide open, but he has a step. And he (Ta’amu) throws a laser shot right into his belly, and Dawson catches it, and it’s a two-pointer. And then you get a little fist pump from Jordan, which is a lot. Because you don’t get a lot of that. But he gives one of those, and you can just see he has that competitive (flair), he just doesn’t show it very much. That’s the most demonstrative thing I’ve seen him do last year."
Ta’amu: "It was just unbelievable just getting that touchdown and scoring on a two-point conversion to Dawson. So I was pretty pumped about that. But the score was not as happy."
Defensive tackle Josiah Coatney: “I talked to him (Ta’amu) after the game. He just said he’s been working, he’s been ready, so if the time came, if it was his job to take, he’ll take it.”