Savannah State needed a gamebreaker at QB. Tigers found one deep on their depth chart.
Red-shirt freshman quarterback Jadon Adams patiently waited for his opportunity at Savannah State.
Well, not that patiently.
Adams was a third wheel on the depth chart as the Tigers prepared to change offenses in the preseason. That's when he approached first-year coach Aaron Kelton.
“Coach, I’m going to fight to be the starting quarterback,” Adams proclaimed.
Kelton told the story after a recent practice ahead of Sunday’s game against Kentucky State. Kickoff is 3 p.m. at T.A. Wright Stadium.
Kelton said he liked Adams’ boldness. Better yet, the coach liked the dual threat the 6-foot-3, 195-pound Islands High grad brought to the work-in-progress spread attack.
“Most young guys, with two upperclassmen ahead of him, wouldn’t have said that,” Kelton said. “I’m proud of him for that and we’re seeing him grow up right before our eyes.
“Each week he’s getting a little better. He adds a spark and a dynamic to the run that we haven’t had. I think all of our quarterbacks can run to get us a first down. But he can run to get us a touchdown. That’s the difference.”
In four games, Adams has accounted for 479 yards - 253 passing, 226 rushing - and seven touchdowns. He was the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference’s Offensive Player of the Week in Week 2 after coming off the bench and throwing two touchdowns passes and leading a 31-28 win over Edward Waters.
He ran for a score, passed for another and produced 204 offensive yards in his irst start last Saturday – a 15-3 win over Morehouse College.
“I just wanted to control what I could control and play to the best of my abilities. Leave it in God’s hands,” Adams said. “I think we all just came together as a team. We know we’re all we’ve got. It’s really (about) how you want to be remembered – do you want to have a good season or a bad season?”
Adams' SSU surge familiar to Islands High School fans
Adams took a similar approach as a senior at Islands in 2020. The Sharks never had a winning football season since starting a varsity program in 2014. But Adams led his team to a 6-0 start and a 7-2 mark overall.
Along the way, he proved to be a multiple threat – throwing for 1,039 yards and 12 touchdowns and running for 390 and nine scores.
He passed for two touchdowns and ran for two in a season-opening upset of sixth-ranked Jenkins, passed for four TDs against Beach, had 202 yards through the air to beat high-powered New Hampstead and he had two TD passes in another first at Islands – beating Hardaway for the school’s first state playoff win.
“The offense we ran at Islands was very similar to Savannah State,” Adams said. “(Offensive coach Jaeggar) Graham ran a lot of similar plays that got me ready for this moment in college.”
As a mass communications major with a concentration on journalism, Adams should be able to appreciate his story unfolding.
His moment at SSU came in a mop-up role in the season-opener against Southeastern University. The Tigers trailed 34-0, but in the final 11 minutes, Adams directed two scoring drives.
“I had never taken a college snap but as the game went on I was able to gain confidence,” he said. “Being thrown out there, I was able to test the waters and have fun.”
Adams continued to come off the bench against Edward Waters and Benedict. Then his first start against Morehouse.
“It was a great feeling and I just want to thank God for putting me in this position,” Adams said. “We’re feeling pretty good right now. We just want to build off the Morehouse game and go from there.”
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Former Islands star giving Savannah State football offense a spark
