It's day two of our countdown and I'm not even tired yet. Thank you, 5 Hour Energy™!
We've got just 98 days until a Bronco storm hits East Lansing, naturally, today we're highlighting #98 on the Bronco roster—Jeff(rey) Worthy
#98, Jeffrey Worthy, RS Freshman, DT
Stats
Height: 6'4"
Weight: 289 lbs.
High School: Whittier Christian High School, La Mirada, CA
How'd he get to The Blue™?
Worthy was an absolute beast for Whittier Christian High. He won four varsity letters in football and was named first team all-state and all-conference as both a junior and senior. As a senior, Worthy recorded 79 tackles, 10 sacks, and 2 forced fumbles—all in a season shortened by a knee injury. As a junior, with a healthy knee, Worthy piled up a staggering 137 tackles, 19 sacks, and 4 forced fumbles. In case you weren't sure...those are ridiculous numbers for a defensive tackle. Worthy at one point considered UCLA, which was virtually in his backyard, to be his dream school, but the Bronco coaches' sealed the deal with the big man and he chose Boise State over offers from UCLA, Arizona State, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, Oregon State, SDSU, and SMU. Take a look at Worthy's junior highlight tape and it's no mystery why he was so sought after:
Nickname
"Sponge"
I've watched entirely too much Seinfeld in my lifetime.
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Look-a-like
Buddy Lee.
Career highlights
Named first team all-state and all-conference as a junior and senior. Named team captain as a senior. Led team to runner-up finish in CIF Southern Section / Division 10 Championship in 2010.
Imaginary highlight
In the Broncos final home game last year, Worthy heroically intercepted a paper airplane on the sidelines just before it struck Coach Petersen in the back of the head. Had the airplane hit its mark, it would have rendered Coach Pete slightly annoyed.
2012 prospectus
As high as everyone was/is on Worthy, his only legitimate shot at seeing the field last year would've have been if injury had forced Coach Pete's hand. Thankfully, the interior D-line made it through the season relatively unscathed...the two-edged sword being that Worthy missed out on game experience that could really come in handy this year. Consider for a moment though that Boise State's 4-year phenom Billy Winn went the exact same route in his career, and Worthy was more highly rated out of high school and fielded more offers. Of course, Bronco fans have learned to take the ratings system with a grain of salt—but what I'm trying to illustrate is that DT is one of the LEAST likely positions to play a true freshman...and it wasn't a lack of talent or "game-readiness" that kept Worthy on the scout team in 2011.
Yesterday's highlightee (from my lips to Webster's dictionary), Michael Atkinson, will be the odds-on favorite to lock down one starting job at DT, with Ricky Tjong-A-Tjoe likely to land the other...behind them, however, things get muddier. My gut says that Greg Grimes will probably be at level 2 of the DT rotation leaving a vacant spot alongside for a redshirt freshman. Whether that spot will be filled by Jeff Worthy or Robert Ash remains to be seen, but I think the battle for minutes is probably between those two. If I had to throw out a completely uninformed guess, I'd say that Worthy will get more minutes in 2012, but honestly, we'll need all hands on deck this year with the front four...overwhelming the opponents with quality depth rather than quality experience. UK import Eliot Hoyte or junior Justin Jungblut would be the only other two factoring in on the interior, in my opinion, and thus far, I've seen next to nothing out of Jungblut and Hoyte may be a bit raw to see immediate playing time. You've gotta like Worthy's chances.
Completely made up fact
During an 8th grade cannonball competition at the local pool, Worthy displaced so much water that FEMA was called in to help clean up.