Ole Miss football is now one week into fall camp and finally somebody is recognizing Rebels quarterback Jordan Ta’amu for the player he really is.
The 2018 Ole Miss football season is just a few weeks away and the preseason accolades, rankings and watch-lists are being handed out. So far nobody has given Jordan Ta’amu enough credit and his name has been absent until now. Thursday the senior Rebels play-caller was selected to the Polynesian Player of the Year watch-list. The watch-list is selected by the Polynesian Football Hall of Fame who also presents the award.
The watch-list consists of 50 Polynesian players representing 34 NCAA schools.Per Braden Huffman of 247Sports, “the award is presented annually to the most outstanding Polynesian college football play that epitomizes great ability and integrity.” This will be the fifth year the award has been presented to one of five finalists to be announced December 5.
This years winner will certainly be in good company as the award has gone to some very good players. Past recipients of the award include Marcus Mariota (Oregon) who won in the award’s inaugural year of 2014, Ronnie Stanley (Notre Dame) in 2015, Sefo Liufau (Colorado) in 2016 and Hercules Mataafa (Washington State) who won in 2017.
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Out of Pearl City, Hawaii senior Jordan Ta’amu came to Ole Miss via New Mexico Military where he was rated as a 3-star prospect. Jordan was also rated as the No.4 JUCO dual threat quarterback in the nation coming to Ole Miss. We were able to get glimpses of Ta’amu in few practice situations heading into the 2017 Grove Bowl where Ta’amu showed Rebel Nation what lay in wait.
Fast forward to the LSU game and when the starter went down a new starter stepped up and he was on fire. Jordan finished out a solid game against LSU and then started the next five games to get the Rebels to a 6-6 season which ended in the 31-28 2017 Egg Bowl win over Miss State. Jordan finished the season solid with 1,682 yards and 11 TDs while throwing only 4 INTs. Without Jordan Ta’amu there is no doubt the Rebels would have had major problems.
It takes a great team to win games but it works so much better with a great quarterback and the Rebels have a great one. This season the sky is the limit for Jordan Ta’amu and his offense. Congratulations to Jordan on being selected to the Polynesian Player of the Year Award watch-list. Good luck on the season and good luck with the selection. Hotty Toddy!