SE: Awards and NFL Can Wait, Willis Wired for One More K-State Win
Dec 26, 2016 | Football
Jordan Willis tries to reflect on his ample accomplishments — the unanimous First Team All-Big 12 selections, the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year awards, the All-America nods — but it’s not easy for him.
This isn’t because Willis’ list of recognitions seems to grow daily and he can’t keep track of it all, either. Instead, he can’t keep his mind off of what’s next: Texas A&M in the 2016 AdvoCare V100 Texas Bowl in Houston, Texas.
“I’ve tried to take this time slow and think about that stuff, but every time I think about it, I think about Texas A&M,” Willis said in the Wildcats’ pre-bowl press conference last Tuesday. “You try to take it in, but, for instance, when we get out to practice and we run 20 sprints at the end for conditioning, I’m going to forget about all that stuff.”
Willis, it’s safe to say, is wired a little bit differently than most.
He’s relentless on the field, yet shy off of it. He spends about as much time in the weight room as the equipment, and his film study habits reflect that of a certain 77-year-old head coach.
“I will probably watch four or five hours of film by myself, daily,” Willis, one of K-State’s captains, said. “That’s just something I do because I want to make sure I know every single thing I can about my opponent.”
In these solo film sessions, Willis said he keys in on three players in particular: the center, guard and quarterback. He looks for something a little different in each position, but tendencies and weaknesses are what he’s mainly trying to find.
“I watch the center to see what’s going on with the snap, and then the tackle I also watch for his steps and stuff like that. Then the quarterback, if he’s a mobile guy, I look for where he’s going to try to set up, is he going to move to the right or to the left. Obviously you study the formations,” said Willis, named a Third Team All-American by the Associated Press, the first Wildcat defensive end to be honored by the AP since Darren Howard in 1999. “Then you get deeper and try to study their body language and see if they’re giving something away.”
Willis doesn’t stop at studying K-State’s opponents, either. The senior defensive end said he’s watched every single defensive end in the NFL and at the Division I level at some point.
“That’s how much film that I watch,” he said. “I just try to take away as much as I can from other guys.”
Throughout his life, Willis has absorbed great qualities from other people.
Willis credits his parents for his work ethic, which has helped him earn high praise from K-State head coach Bill Snyder all season.
“Numerous times I have shared with our players that Jordan is the epitome of what our program is all about, somebody who invests himself,” Snyder said. “He comes to practice exactly the same way he goes to the ballgame. If you were unaware of the setting, you couldn’t tell the difference between what he does on the practice field and what he does on the game field. As I’ve said so many times, he’s a young guy who gives you his very best every second of every minute of every hour of every day of every week.”
At different points in his football career, Willis has worked with Hall of Fame offensive guard Will Shields and former Wildcat All-American linebacker Mark Simoneau, who played 10 years in the NFL before opening a gym in the Kansas City area.
“Being able to go up against (Shields), a 12-time Pro Bowler, that gives you confidence to know that I can go up against anybody. I’m not saying I was beating him, because I wasn’t, but to be able to learn some stuff from him and take it over into my college game really was beneficial,” said Willis, who worked with Shields while at Rockhurst High School in Kansas City, Missouri. “Mark had the same type of demeanor that Will Shields had. Both of those guys, they’re guys who are going to show up to work, they’re going to outwork you and they’re going to be aggressive, physical players on the field, and that’s some of the stuff I’ve taken from them.”
For all Willis learned before K-State, he said the Wildcats’ training program instilled a new level of toughness in him and opened his eyes to what it would take to elevate his game.
“I’ve learned through our training program in the offseason to give everything that I’ve got,” he said. “If you don’t gain anything from it, obviously you’re not doing anything right.”
As time has shown, Willis has been doing more right than wrong.
He now sits in third in K-State history for sacks (26.0), tied for fifth in forced fumbles (7) and ninth in tackles for loss (39.5). Entering the 2016 AdvoCare V100 Texas Bowl against Texas A&M, Willis has tied K-State’s single-season sacks record (11.5) to move him into seventh on the Big 12’s career sacks list.
His performances have brought increased attention, not only from opposing teams trying to slow him down but also from NFL scouts and national media. Willis, projected as a high-round draft pick, was also invited to play in the 68th Annual Reese’s Senior Bowl, held on January 28, when even more scouts will be paying attention.
“They would be hard pressed to find somebody who will invest themselves like that,” Snyder said of his message to prospective NFL teams. “He’s going to be a highly-successful young guy in a lot of ways just because he’s that committed to doing the best that he can.”
Watching the NFL as much as Willis does, he said it’s easy to daydream about his future as a professional. Like his time of personal reflection, this also doesn’t last long.
“Honestly, that’s my dream, so it’s easy to (think about it), but then again you think about what’s in front of you and you try to bring yourself back to the present,” Willis said. “I’m excited for what the future holds for me to continue to keep doing what I’m doing, but I just try to bring myself back to the present.”
At the present, he’s motivated to replicate the end of K-State’s 2013 season, when the Wildcats handled Michigan in the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl.
“Just to see all the seniors around the hotel, I still remember that vividly, how excited that they were,” he said. “That’s the feeling I want to feel more than anything.”
K-State will face Texas A&M (8-4, 4-4 SEC) in Houston, Texas, at NRG Stadium on Wednesday. It is the 20th bowl game in school history and the 18th under head coach Bill Snyder. The game kicks off at 8 p.m., and will be shown to a national audience on ESPN, while it can be heard across the K-State Sports Network and on ESPN Radio.
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