EA, GSU product Demontrey Jacobs ready to bet on himself with South Florida commitment

Intro louisiana versus all y'all jared roser here today with de montre jacobs former east ascension standout uh finishing up this past year at grambling state or you're a you were redshirt sophomore correct and now and now you've entered your name into the transfer portal and it's it's been such a weird year in every aspect of of life pretty much um and for you i know some of the uncertainties have played a role in in how you end up here figure trying to figure out what some sense of stability is for the next steps but i guess just kind of generally man trey how have you been doing how is is life treating you in the fam y'all been able to stay healthy and safe and everything yeah it's been good we've been trying to social distance and but yeah we've been doing all right good deal what i guess with where you are right now How did you get here take me through i guess the last few years at grambling some of the things that have gone well and you've been pretty pleased with had a chance to watch some of your highlights and and watch you really kind of beating up on some people at times playing that left tackle spot and then ultimately how did you get where we are now having a conversation looking at what the next steps are going to be uh in terms of of making a potential move to another college uh well coming into grambling state i was a defensive end so after i got registered my freshman year coach bob sat me down and said it'll probably be a good decision if i try playing a little bit of offense so that spring we got out there and he tried me out at tackle and it kind of came natural but it was a little stuff we had to work on but as time went on i felt myself getting more comfortable in that position and our reached her freshman year i started right tackle out the whole season and then going into that spring my coach let me know that he'll probably need me to step up and play that left tackle spot so i was working on that continuously and as the season got around the corner i just knew i had to step up a little bit more and we were just we're just working we were just working and when whenever we got through the season i just looked back and i saw how far i came and i said i wonder why i could take this so i was really taking a chance on myself like a leap of faith i was really nervous to enter the portal initially but i was able to think about it and pray about it and things turned out well and you've had some i mean you've had some good early Reaction from other schools feedback there are some schools that have seen some of that progress that you've shown and and have really you've i mean you've popped on their radar in a pretty big way how have have you felt about some of the um the response you've seen as you've had a chance to start talking to some of these other schools including some some power five schools that are interested in what they've seen from you at that position i mean this is unbelievable because just a few years ago i wouldn't i wasn't even in the conversation with these guys so just that hard work that i put in man and like hearing these guys tell me this stuff it was just unreal in my head but i know that hard work pays off i got a chance to talk to some of those guys and it was it's just been a great experience i mean i'm currently committed to university of south florida but i've had a chance to talk with guys like fiu baylor um north texas nickel state west florida clark atlanta and i mean the list isn't too long but i had a chance to talk with those guys and get a little feedback they've been telling they really been telling me they like how i finished through the whistle i played with a lot of effort and like my natural athletic ability how i stay in front of defenders how i can move up to the second level so yeah what you you kind of alluded to it some when we first talked about how you Focal points came to this decision but when you started to try to look at some other schools look at south florida and some of these other schools that you've heard from what were some of the things that really were focal points in your mind of of what type of opportunity you were looking for what ways you were kind of um really looking into more of these programs and what they had to offer and what what aspects were most important to you um the most important thing was i want to find somewhere where i could have a chance to fairly compete for a starting job at a higher level because i want to see myself versus a higher level and um just uh that's really the main thing i wanted to see myself versus that competition Tackle position the tackle position it i don't think guys grow up seeing that the same way a lot of times people put their their eyes on the quarterback or running back or wide receive or even cornerback or maybe an edge rusher type position it doesn't necessarily come across as like one of the sexy positions that catches your attention right away but as you can tell by the financial numbers in the nfl it's one of the most important positions on the football field to protect those quarterbacks and and whatnot what is i guess your you kind of smiled as i as i mentioned that what is your development of the way you view that position and and how much have you started to enjoy being able to protect your quarterbacks um and and the role that that plays in letting the offense succeed uh honestly whenever coach files mentioned me playing tackle it was kind of like uh i wasn't ready for that type of role or whatever but as time went on i kind of fell in love with the position and i started learning more and more and taking pride in what i do because it was i realized how important it was so it gave me a chance to really see like it's more than just throwing the ball or catching the ball or running the ball you know you got to block people too so and you i guess as you started to make that transition what were some of the areas that you Skill set immediately felt some of your skill set that you already had translated well and kind of set you up for success and when you talked about some of those areas that you've continued to grow in and and really build upon that foundation would have been some of those areas that that you've felt you've taken the most strides in these past couple years um really just my natural athletic ability i had good feet i believe and just learning to use my hands and my length because everybody tells me i have long arms so i try to use them as much as i can because it really helps out a lot man just that natural those natural good feet help stay in front of defenders staying inside of a defender and just keeping them away from the ball basically so it's been yeah yeah that's i was asking you about Finetuning kind of the the basketball background where you had a chance to play a little bit for that really good ea basketball program and i think you see some of that mobility out there almost looking like you're moving around the paint a little bit and just kind of that that comfort moving around um and getting a quick jump uh at the snap and getting outside and you mentioned using the the length using your arms to to keep pass rushers inside not be able to get the corner on you would have been in terms of some of the the things that you focused on and and building the skills and fine-tuning what were some areas that you really picked up on on top of some of that natural ability or some things that you focused on as you tried to perfect your craft a little bit more over the last couple years i just try to be more specific with the position because just any false step could turn you bad you know you just gotta really be specific at that online position you can't just go out there all wild you gotta focus on the technical stuff like hand placement getting your hands inside you know finishing through the play using your hips driving through and just um keeping your head out of there in the past game because you don't want to be leaning over and defending just rip you through get past you kind of really just a lot of a lot of those things just trying to yeah yeah a lot of the stuff that gets overlooked they see they just see a big guy out there getting in front of people and putting them in the in the dirt but don't realize the uh kind of the technical aspect of footwork and balance and leverage and all those things yes so um for you this this past season the the grambling roster listed you at 66305 where are you right now um what's kind of what's this spring look like in terms of what work you've been able to do and where are you right now physically with everything um physically right now i'm at six six three hundred right now i've been trying to lean up a little bit and i just been really focusing on building my lower body my lower body i feel like i need to build some more strength right there especially moving up in conferences and i'm playing against a little better competition no offense to the swag and who i've been playing against but i feel like i need to work on more of that stuff more so so i don't risk injury and just working on my working more on my feet just trying to get better and better because you're never going to be perfect so you just try to keep working and working and be the best you can be Timeline obviously we're at such a a strange uncertain time in in every aspect and sports and particularly football we have so much up in the air trying to figure out what these these next steps look back look like as we try to get back towards some normalcy for you in terms of how things lay out and when you can can be somewhere and stuff stuff of that nature what does your timeline look like in terms of a an actual physical transfer and being at the the next stop hot as as as much as you can try to have some expectations for what the future uh in the next month or couple months looks like what does that look like for you uh i plan on moving up i mean moving up to school in like mid-july i've already committed i'm getting ready to start my application so i can get in school so it's not right around the corner honestly so yeah so you're you're locked into to being in in tampa basically in in the next month you just you're taking care of the the paperwork aspect before you you make your move yeah coach scott had me so we had a good we had a good conversation uh the Opportunity conversation was a lot of that similar to some of the stuff we we talked about in terms of the the opportunity that was in the feedback or what were some of the other things that stood out about usf that that made that a place that you felt like you could kind of maximize your potential first of all i think with them having a new coaching staff coming in this spring it's a fair opportunity for me to go out there because there's no favorites you know what i'm saying it's just just going out there and competing honestly with those guys who's been there and all the faces of are like new to them so i just feel like it's a good opportunity for me to go out there and compete when you look back to a couple years ago and you're at ea and EA battles y'all are having battles with justin harris who obviously goes on and and becomes a a power five signee cam wire who is now at lsu adrian ely who is at oklahoma and all these guys i mean were were other notable recruits and have had their successes what were some of those battles like on i mean monday through thursday just leading up to the point where you're out there competing together on friday and and how crazy is it to look back now and see where y'all have been able to get and um and just look at the talent that came out of those groups i mean as a whole y'all put some talent out there from ea but that group in particular with some of the the big men involved yeah i mean honestly just competing with those guys every week they helped me get better because i was kind of behind the ball not playing my junior year so competing with those guys they were just helping me get better because i was a lot smaller in high school i had a chance to bang around with adrian and cam at practice but they prepared me for fridays so i gotta say it's i i believe i came a long way how big were you when you were finishing up ea um i was six five two forty five cool so you you've really you've bulked up a lot the last couple of years yeah i had a chance to start working and putting some weight on awesome for folks that either ea folks Message to fans that haven't heard as much from you the last couple years and are seeing this this next step um kind of messages to them about continuing to watch your progress at this next level or for folks uh who are usf fans and want to know more about this guy joining their program what kind of messages would you have to the folks that have been with you for a while are now watching these next steps and and for some of the new fans that are are going to get a chance to see you over the next couple years i just i just want to say um you getting a hard worker out of me i'm gonna give 110 like i said i plan on like i say giving my everything and moving up as much as i can like i say it's all about working it's all about working you can't never stop working this position honestly i saw myself at grambling for all my years but i said i'm going to take a chance on myself because i believed in myself so um just just keep following up man see where this goes well trey man i certainly appreciate you uh taking a couple minutes and catching up and it it sounds like you got some some pretty big things ahead in these next couple years excited to see how things play out at at usf and congratulations on the news and good luck with this next move i appreciate it you got you he's the montre jacobs former ea star finishing up his time the first half his college career at grambling state and now looking to transition to south florida here in this next month and and really just kind of keep building on on what is still in an early part of his his work at at that tackle position but one that has shown a lot of reasons to be really excited about the future to come for louise universe all y'all jarrett rozer