Middle Tennessee State University Athletics
"Giving up, that wasn’t in me” — Ja’Kerrius Wyatt finds his voice as MTSU captain
8/17/2022 6:15:00 PM | Football
The sixth-year defensive lineman had a long road to just starting for the Blue Raiders
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — The summer workouts, the "Mat Drills," as the players call them, can be brutal over the summer for Middle Tennessee. Even at the early morning hours in which they're run, the agility, strength and explosion drills test even the most in shape Blue Raiders.
But those passing by Floyd Stadium in the early morning this summer, when the sun was just starting to blanket the turf, would've heard one voice over the others. Encouraging, getting people up when they're down, making sure they finished.
Defensive lineman Ja'Kerrius Wyatt had always been liked by his teammates as one of the guys, one who could crack a joke and then get serious. But this summer, ahead of his sixth year as a Blue Raider, he showed off his voice in a new way.
As a leader.
"It started during Mat Drills during the summer," fellow defensive lineman Marley Cook said. "He was a real big voice to us out here. When everybody was going down tired, he was up there to lift us up."
That voice has carried over to camp, where Wyatt is one of the vocal leaders of the defense every day on the field, to the team meetings, where he's someone the team looks up to while scouting. And eventually, it led to his election by his peers as a permanent team captain for the 2022 season.
"It's kind of a dream come true, the respect I got from my teammates means a lot to me," Wyatt said. "I won't take it lightly."
It's a remarkable climb for a defensive lineman that did not start a game in Murfreesboro until 2021, in what would've been his redshirt senior season if not for the COVID-19 pandemic granting Wyatt and a host of other student athletes an extra year of eligibility. But afforded that sixth year, Wyatt is among four sixth-year captains (Chase Cunningham, Jordan Ferguson and Yusuf Ali) who are getting the chance to lead a program that they all entered together back in the summer of 2017.
Wyatt being among that group itself is remarkable, a product of one of his primary recruiters at Samford, Jeff Beckles, joining the MTSU coaching staff, and NCAA Clearinghouse issues making him unable to sign with a team until after signing day. When defensive line coach Tommy West called him on April of 2017, Wyatt knew MTSU was the right spot for him.
That didn't mean things came easy afterwards. Wyatt was redshirted as a freshman and then appeared in zero games in 2018, while earning defensive scout team player of the year honors at the team's awards banquet.
"Everybody was that guy in high school, so you want to come in and play right away," Wyatt said. "I went through some dark times; I called my parents a lot and talked to them."
Around that time, however, a flip switched for Wyatt, West said. The defensive lineman started eating right, doing everything he could do off the field to help him on the field.
"He floated for a couple of years," West said. "He was OK. He did what he had to do. The last three years, he's done it with a plan, with a purpose, like he's on a mission. You see what it's got him now. I'm really proud of him."
Wyatt was a little more reflective in his assessment.
"Once I stopped pointing fingers at everybody else and started looking at myself, everything changed for me," Wyatt said.
With that drive, the Prattville, Ala. native started seeing the field, playing in 11 games in 2019 and three games in 2020, a season shortened by ankle and knee injuries due to a chop block in the team's season opener at Army. Like a lot of defensive tackles, Wyatt never filled up the stat sheet with tackles in those years, but got his shot in 2021, where he played in all 13 games and started seven for MTSU, his first collegiate start coming against Marshall on October 2.
Wyatt still remembers all the details of Coach West announcing that he was starting that week, how Thursday was a "no sweat" Thursday, the evaluation during practice that week, heading up to checking that milestone off. It was a culmination of all of his hard work, and an affirmation of the fact he didn't pack up, or at least not continue to work, when those dark times came over him.
"My family back home, I built some great relationships with guys up here, I feel I can't give up on them," Wyatt said. "I could've easily quit, but I would've given up on a lot of people. I've got a nephew at home, he thinks the world of me, he thinks I'm the best player ever. If I give up, I feel like I'm giving up for everybody, and that wasn't in me."
No. 88 finished the 2021 season for the Blue Raiders with career highs in tackles (19) and sacks (1.5) and contributed to MT's takeaway success with a fumble recovery. But as Wyatt will almost certainly start the 2022 season on the field with "C" on his chest, his uniform will have one more modification, with the sixth-year season switching his number to No. 10.
It was a two-fold decision for Wyatt. First and foremost, he and the rest of the defensive room thought seeing linemen with lower numbers across college football was cool, and rare. Wyatt wasn't the only one in Coach West's room to switch, with Zaylin Wood going from No. 96 to No. 7, and Jordan Ferguson going from No. 91 to No. 9.
Wyatt also thought that him and Ferguson being one number away from each other was pretty neat, given how close they've gotten and the fact they're captains together in their final year at Middle.
"You would've thought he was me," Wyatt recalled Ferguson's reaction when he was named a captain. "He was just as excited as I was."
For West, Wyatt's acceptance as a formal leader by so many of his peers, alongside Ferguson, was an affirmation not only of those two, but also of how his group operates.
"I really appreciate our team recognizing us," West said. "In our room, we're going to do everything right. It may not be better than everybody else, but we're going to the best we can and we're going to do it right."
But those passing by Floyd Stadium in the early morning this summer, when the sun was just starting to blanket the turf, would've heard one voice over the others. Encouraging, getting people up when they're down, making sure they finished.
Defensive lineman Ja'Kerrius Wyatt had always been liked by his teammates as one of the guys, one who could crack a joke and then get serious. But this summer, ahead of his sixth year as a Blue Raider, he showed off his voice in a new way.
As a leader.
"It started during Mat Drills during the summer," fellow defensive lineman Marley Cook said. "He was a real big voice to us out here. When everybody was going down tired, he was up there to lift us up."
That voice has carried over to camp, where Wyatt is one of the vocal leaders of the defense every day on the field, to the team meetings, where he's someone the team looks up to while scouting. And eventually, it led to his election by his peers as a permanent team captain for the 2022 season.
"It's kind of a dream come true, the respect I got from my teammates means a lot to me," Wyatt said. "I won't take it lightly."
It's a remarkable climb for a defensive lineman that did not start a game in Murfreesboro until 2021, in what would've been his redshirt senior season if not for the COVID-19 pandemic granting Wyatt and a host of other student athletes an extra year of eligibility. But afforded that sixth year, Wyatt is among four sixth-year captains (Chase Cunningham, Jordan Ferguson and Yusuf Ali) who are getting the chance to lead a program that they all entered together back in the summer of 2017.
Wyatt being among that group itself is remarkable, a product of one of his primary recruiters at Samford, Jeff Beckles, joining the MTSU coaching staff, and NCAA Clearinghouse issues making him unable to sign with a team until after signing day. When defensive line coach Tommy West called him on April of 2017, Wyatt knew MTSU was the right spot for him.
That didn't mean things came easy afterwards. Wyatt was redshirted as a freshman and then appeared in zero games in 2018, while earning defensive scout team player of the year honors at the team's awards banquet.
"Everybody was that guy in high school, so you want to come in and play right away," Wyatt said. "I went through some dark times; I called my parents a lot and talked to them."
Around that time, however, a flip switched for Wyatt, West said. The defensive lineman started eating right, doing everything he could do off the field to help him on the field.
"He floated for a couple of years," West said. "He was OK. He did what he had to do. The last three years, he's done it with a plan, with a purpose, like he's on a mission. You see what it's got him now. I'm really proud of him."
Wyatt was a little more reflective in his assessment.
"Once I stopped pointing fingers at everybody else and started looking at myself, everything changed for me," Wyatt said.
With that drive, the Prattville, Ala. native started seeing the field, playing in 11 games in 2019 and three games in 2020, a season shortened by ankle and knee injuries due to a chop block in the team's season opener at Army. Like a lot of defensive tackles, Wyatt never filled up the stat sheet with tackles in those years, but got his shot in 2021, where he played in all 13 games and started seven for MTSU, his first collegiate start coming against Marshall on October 2.
Wyatt still remembers all the details of Coach West announcing that he was starting that week, how Thursday was a "no sweat" Thursday, the evaluation during practice that week, heading up to checking that milestone off. It was a culmination of all of his hard work, and an affirmation of the fact he didn't pack up, or at least not continue to work, when those dark times came over him.
"My family back home, I built some great relationships with guys up here, I feel I can't give up on them," Wyatt said. "I could've easily quit, but I would've given up on a lot of people. I've got a nephew at home, he thinks the world of me, he thinks I'm the best player ever. If I give up, I feel like I'm giving up for everybody, and that wasn't in me."
No. 88 finished the 2021 season for the Blue Raiders with career highs in tackles (19) and sacks (1.5) and contributed to MT's takeaway success with a fumble recovery. But as Wyatt will almost certainly start the 2022 season on the field with "C" on his chest, his uniform will have one more modification, with the sixth-year season switching his number to No. 10.
It was a two-fold decision for Wyatt. First and foremost, he and the rest of the defensive room thought seeing linemen with lower numbers across college football was cool, and rare. Wyatt wasn't the only one in Coach West's room to switch, with Zaylin Wood going from No. 96 to No. 7, and Jordan Ferguson going from No. 91 to No. 9.
Wyatt also thought that him and Ferguson being one number away from each other was pretty neat, given how close they've gotten and the fact they're captains together in their final year at Middle.
"You would've thought he was me," Wyatt recalled Ferguson's reaction when he was named a captain. "He was just as excited as I was."
For West, Wyatt's acceptance as a formal leader by so many of his peers, alongside Ferguson, was an affirmation not only of those two, but also of how his group operates.
"I really appreciate our team recognizing us," West said. "In our room, we're going to do everything right. It may not be better than everybody else, but we're going to the best we can and we're going to do it right."
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