An Ode to Jahdae Barron

When Texas closed out the 2022 regular season with a win against Baylor and said goodbye to Bijan Robinson and Roschon Johnson, I felt a bit of existential dread come over me. Like many fans, I felt trepidation about the direction of college football. It’s not a statement on their greatness, but it’s admittedly harder for a fan to connect with an Adonai Mitchell or Isaiah Bond in just one year than it is with someone whose recruitment you followed, then watched their struggles, development, and success all play out over a multiyear span. I didn’t—and don’t—want football to become simply a transactional sport where we’re cheering only for laundry. Like most, I didn’t fall in love with the sport as a kid because it was mercenary by nature. That mercenary title can apply to both players and fans, by the way.

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I fell in love with college football as a kid because I looked up to and idolized the players. I still love college football as a grown man because there’s connective tissue through the name on the front of a jersey. Wearing that name across your chest connects someone like me to even someone superhuman like Bijan. It says we love the same thing, we take pride in what it represents, we’ll both honor what the name Texas means. As the crowd at Texas Memorial Stadium chanted Bijan’s and Roschon’s names and cheered them off the field for the last time, I feared we would lose those moments in the future.

But last year, the Texas fan was graced with Jordan Whittington and T’Vondre Sweat—players who are so relatable because they love the burnt orange and white as much as the most passionate fan but who also inspire through their grit and eye-popping talent. This year, we have several examples of this type of fan favorite: guys like Alfred Collins and Michael Taaffe, among others. I’d even throw out Quinn Ewers, who is taking too many undeserved shots this week online. But when I think of the player who embodies why the fan loves this sport, I see Jahdae Barron—the should-be Thorpe Award winner of 2024. The Pflugerville native and fifth-year corner is the latest entrant into the DBU Hall of Fame and a reminder of why this rollercoaster, whirlwind, mess of a sport is so freaking great.

Barron was a late addition to the 2020 class. The do-it-all defensive back had actually signed with Baylor but was released from his letter of intent after Matt Rhule left Waco for the Carolina Panthers. I remember thinking it seemed like a great pickup for Tom Herman’s staff, whose recruiting momentum was fading and who was on a new defensive coordinator in Chris Ash. Herman’s tenure was skidding off the tracks fast, so nabbing players who the esteemed raw talent evaluator in Rhule had tabbed seemed like a good strategy.

Barron flashed a few times in 2020, showing his knack for finding the ball when he scored a touchdown off a blocked punt in Lubbock. But toward the end of 2021, during Steve Sarkisian’s first year, Barron really began to pop. In a year defined by Texas defenders looking lost, Barron always seemed to be around the ball. He also looked the part: a long and rangy defensive back in a defense that badly needed size and effort.

One of the biggest signals that Texas should hold onto Barron at all costs came in the offseason before the 2022 campaign, when there were rumored overtures from other programs and fears Barron might leave Central Texas. The Longhorns did right to keep Barron in his hometown.

But when the next season began, he lost his expected starting position at nickel to true freshman Jaylon Guilbeau. Injuries and playmaking allowed him to earn his starting role back, and once he got it, he never relented. He showed a ball-hawking ability in victories over UTSA and Oklahoma that Texas corners and safeties had rarely shown in the previous decade.

As he began to put it all together, the moments followed. Moments are what take a player from good to great, making sure they’re never forgotten and Barron has stacked them up in Austin. He single-handedly took over the TCU game in 2022, with his sheer will nearly overcoming a putrid offensive effort. In 2023, he intercepted Jalen Milroe early in Tuscaloosa and then came up with the game-saving stop against Houston. Barron was banged up late in the season, and his impact on the games slowly started to wane, but he had surely put enough on tape to get drafted on day two.

But, the NFL evaluation process said otherwise, and he found himself back in Austin for a fifth year. Changing his number to Michael Huff’s No. 7 in the spring and declaring he was coming for the Thorpe Award in the offseason might have literally spoken it into existence on his way to what will be a nice early-round payday via the 2025 NFL Draft.

Switching from nickel (called Star in Pete Kwiatkowski’s defense) to corner was met with skepticism, but Barron has blown that doubt to smithereens with his play. The switch has transformed the defense from weak in the secondary to all-around spectacular. Now, Guilbeau is a force at Barron’s old position, and Malik Muhammad has starred at the opposite corner spot. But Barron himself has become a true island, where opposing wide receivers are marooned and left for dead.

Case in point: last weekend in Fayetteville, SEC leader Andrew Armstrong recorded one catch for six yards when guarded by Barron. The moments in 2024 have been numerous—almost too many to list. Similar to TCU in 2022, Barron’s effort (and hundreds of water bottles) almost allowed Texas to storm back against Georgia. Kwiatkowski and his defensive staff have unchained Barron to simply make plays and wreck the opposition’s plans in such a way that it’s a clear callback to Thorpe Award winners past like Huff and Aaron Ross.

What’s more, Barron is one of the unquestioned leaders of the team, and the defense goes where he does. After the Arkansas victory, Barron was on air with Craig Way and said he was going to “cry his eyes out” this Saturday on Senior Day at DKR. Barron also told Way it had been his dream to play in Austin. That statement made me breathe an extra sigh of relief that he hadn’t ended up elsewhere once upon a time. If there’s any doubt that players still love their universities as much as the fans do, simply look to the Longhorns’ lockdown corner spot on Saturday when the Kentucky Wildcats come to Austin.

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Jahdae Barron is living out his dreams. He’s keeping mine and yours alive too.