Jordan Watkins explains how the birth of his daughter has inspired him on the field

Jordan Watkins has been playing with a new purpose the past two weeks and it’s been evident in his performance on the field. The Ole Miss receiver welcomed his daughter, Kamrynn, into the world in late October and has been on a tear since.

In one of his games since becoming a father, Watkins had a career performance against Arkansas to finish with 254 yards receiving and five touchdowns. He had never had a multi-touchdown game prior in his four-year college career.

Watkins was the subject of an article in The Athletic this past week that detailed his rocky upbringing moving around between different family members as his mother struggled with addiction. Knowing where he came from, he is motivated to provide a better example for his daughter.

“I think it made me a stronger person and it made me work even harder,” Watkins said on The Paul Finebaum Show. “Coming from that kind of background, you want to look at the positivity in it. So as a kid, me and my brother really just tried to find the positivity and making the best of every opportunity that we get. That’s why I play with a big chip on my shoulder.

“I want to create generational wealth for my family because I never had that. Having a daughter now has really put it into perspective because everything that I didn’t have growing up, I want her to have. That’s put a big chip on my shoulder, especially now because I have a daughter. I just want to make the best situation possible for her to where she doesn’t even know what kind of background I came from. I want her to know that whatever she needs, she’s gonna have.”

Jordan Watkins’ recent production has come at an opportune time for Ole Miss with fellow receiver Tre Harris having missed the past three games. He now ranks third on the team with 29 catches for 617 yards and seven scores on the year.

His mother has since gotten sober and he explained how her journey has been an inspiration to him. Watkins’ upbringing has inspired him to make a difference in his own community in Oxford. His NIL deal with HarborPath, which provides Narcan, a life-saving medication that can be used when a person is overdosing, to students is the perfect example of that.

As his daughter grows up, Jordan Watkins hopes to inspire her in a similar way that his mom has inspired him, just with a slightly different story.

“I want my daughter to be able to look up to me and all of my accomplishments and want to do better than me and inspire her kind of like my mom inspired me,” he said. “My mom has been drug through the mud and her being able to climb her way back up and just be a positive influence for me, my brother and my little sister has been awesome to be a part of and to see her journey. So I know being her son, I look up to her and want to be better than her in that aspect of things.

“I want my daughter to be able to mimic the same thing that I’m doing now to my mother. Being a parent is a blessing. Being able to look at my daughter and think, ‘That’s my creation’ and just setting a good example and being a role model for her is something that I’ll cherish and take to heart.”