By Marcus R. Fuller
St. Paul Pioneer Press
MINNEAPOLIS - It was at the Golden South Classic, one of the nation’s premiere postseason track and field meets, where Jalen Myrick realized that his fastest was nowhere near fast enough.
Then a junior at Christian Prep High School in Georgia, Myrick was state runner-up in the 100-meter dash with one of the country’s top times for his age, 10.69.
His track coach, Deedee Colter, sent him to Orlando, Fla., to see what it was like to run against the best. He finished 11th.
“It was humbling just to see people faster than you,” Myrick recalled this week.
The top two finishers were Lavonte Whitfield and Tyreek Hill.
Whitfield returned a 100-yard kickoff for a touchdown in Florida State’s BCS title win against Auburn last year. Saturday, Hill had a game-winning, 99-yard kickoff return touchdown for Oklahoma State against Kansas.
Myrick had a good weekend, too. The sophomore cornerback ran a kick back 100 yards for the winning score in the Gophers’ 24-17 victory over Northwestern. In his postgame news conference, he thanked his old track coach.
“You can tell he’s just matured so much in his running as far as his arms and just the way he moves,” Colter said Tuesday. “But Jalen’s just a natural talent, anyway.”
But it took more than talent for Myrick to get here, and watching Hill run 10.19 in their national heat two years ago in Orlando provided motivation to work harder and get even faster.
“It was just amazing to see him run like that,” Myrick said.
After suffering a hamstring injury during his senior year, Myrick wasn’t able to win a state track title, but the fundamentals he learned made him even more of a blur on the football field. That was obvious to Colter, who smiled as she watched highlights of her former student flying down the sideline.
“He was smooth, very smooth,” said Colter, who ran track at Auburn. “My husband and I, we both coached him. We just watched it over and over.”
Myrick’s first high school touchdown came on a punt return, and Colter, who taught Myrick in a computer class, encouraged him and teammate Will Austin to come out to the track one day.
They did. Austin won the first race, Myrick the second and the school bell rang before they could race a tiebreaker. They were hooked.
When told that Colter relayed the story of him losing to his teammate, Myrick said: “She don’t need to be telling people that ever again. I don’t think he beat me. It was close.”
But, he added, “After that, it made me not ever want to lose.”
“My very first track meet, I ran like 10.7,” he said. “That was outrageous. That fired me up then. (Running track) put more competitiveness in me, honestly.”
That carried over to his freshman year with the Gophers last season.
Myrick jumped at the chance to contribute even if it was mostly on special teams. He eventually saw action in the secondary throughout the Big Ten season, cracking the two-deep for wins against Nebraska, Indiana and Penn State.
Defensive coordinator Tracy Claeys said Myrick still needs to improve on his preparation and focus in practice, but added that the light usually comes on the closer it gets to game day.
“By the time you get to Thursday, he’s got it figured out,” Claeys said. “He likes to play the game. We get to Thursday, you won’t have very many mistakes at all. Saturday, he’s a whole different kid.”
Myrick has 16 tackles with four pass breakups this season and an interception that he returned 31 yards for a touchdown in a victory over Middle Tennessee State.
Despite getting burned on two touchdown passes in his first career start Sept. 13 at Texas Christian, the Gophers’ only loss, Myrick continues to carry the belief that he can’t be beat into each game.
Whether he’ll ever test that swagger on the track again is up in the air.
Myrick and redshirt freshman running back Berkley Edwards, his roommate, talk about it sometimes. Why not? They each ran track in high school and are the two fastest players on the football team.
Purdue running back Raheem Mostert, who comes to TCF Bank Stadium for an 11 a.m. kickoff Saturday, is the Big Ten 100-meter and 200-meter indoor champion and one of the nation’s top kick returners.
For now, though, Myrick has his mind set on using that speed to return another kickoff for a touchdown.
“I want to get another one,” he said. “I want more.”
The Pioneer Press is a media partner with the Forum News Service
