UAB’s Isaiah Jacobs looks for break out season in 2024 in return from injury.

Photo by Ken Shepherd

By Steve Irvine

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - June 12, 2024

The run that shaped Isaiah Jacobs first season at UAB came early in a loss at Tulane.

On the play, Jacobs tried to elude a defender to get to the edge before feeling his leg buckle a bit. UAB running back coach Hindley Brigham saw it happen. He quickly worried that it could be something significant. Brigham brought Jacobs to the sideline to check on him. Jacobs said he felt no pain or discomfort.

Then Jacobs went back on the field and had his best game as a Division I college football player. He rushed for 95 yards on 15 carries with a pair of touchdowns and added three receptions for 11 yards. His first scoring run, which came just after the second quarter began, only covered two yards but it hardly came easy. The first hit came about the line of scrimmage and Jacobs used his legs to wedge his way into the end zone. His second touchdown came on a 17-yard burst when he went over left tackle, cut to the sideline and beat the defenders to the pylon.

He was fast. He was strong. He was determined.

He also was unaware that his 2023 season would soon end.

The discomfort began on the bus ride to Birmingham. On the walk to his apartment, after arriving at the UAB Football Operations building, he felt something was wrong. He turned around, headed back to the building and had tests run on his knee. He learned he had played the entire game with a torn ACL in one of his knees.

“Well, it's kind of crazy when I talked to the doctors, they actually said that I've been playing on (a partially torn ACL) for two years,” Jacobs said. “And I guess my body didn't necessarily tell my brain when I'm hurt. So I just thought it was just a normal ache. But in that first drive of the game, I definitely felt it. I never felt it before. But just that adrenaline and kind of that competitive drive and wanting to be out there with your brothers, I decided to just continue to play the entire game.”

Understanding that decision is easier when you understand the story of the childhood journey for Isaiah and his four siblings, which included NFL running back Josh Jacobs, in the northern section of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Jacobs sat down inside the UAB football building last week to candidly tell a story that ultimately is more about perseverance than it is about poverty. A story about a family living in a car while his father directed his children through childhood with love and a firm hand. A story about trusting God’s plan during times it would be easy to turn another way.

At one point, Jacobs was asked if he would change anything about his life to this point.

“If anything, I would ask if it could have been harder,” Jacobs said. “Because the more that I continue to see God, you know, he said ‘I would never leave you. I would never forsake you. You will go through trials and tribulations, but I'll be there with you.’ When you realize that, it kind of makes things easier and you kind of become grateful for going through those things. Everything that I went through allowed me to help someone else who's going through it, for sure.” ‘

Isaiah was young – he doesn’t remember his exact age but says he’s pretty sure he was from “seven to nine” – when his parents divorced. The kids stayed with their mom at the time but eventually moved to be with their father. He lived with his father, Marty, and four siblings in an apartment with no furniture. Circumstances with his father’s job led them to living in, Jacobs said, “I believe a 2003, 204 Ford Taurus, burgundy.” They would park the car in front of gas stations, motels or other businesses overnight. Eventually, they moved into a hotel rooms that had “roaches, rats, bedbugs, all that.”

Fast food meals were generally not part of the routine. When they did get fast food, it was shared amongst the kids.

“You know, I never seen him sleep or eat,” Isaiah said of his father. “It was actually very interesting. Everything he did was for us. You know, things like McDonald's or Pizza Hut, those things were like a luxury for us. And I would never see him eat.”

Isaiah said the first time he had his own bed came when he was a high school sophomore. Frozen or cold food was often eaten frozen or cold if they didn’t have a way to heat it up.

Ultimately, though, all of those were simply obstacles to be cleared, not roadblocks.

“Our father definitely kept a good head on our shoulders, kept us disciplined and kept our morals intact,” Jacobs said. “He definitely was God fearing, you know, and he kind of put on those principles of what God talked about in the Bible, both our father and our mother. We never really was intrigued by those (bad) things. We understand that we were taught at a young age to do hard things consistently. So, you know, while it may not be the easier route, it's like, okay, we're going to go through it until we get to the other side.”

For Josh and Isaiah, the path began in the classroom and on the football field.  

“Well, (football) definitely impacted us on a large scale because it took us away from our environment, you know, things that were going on around us and things that we had to see growing up,” Isaiah said. “It allowed us to be able to express our feelings on the field. You know, my father always told us, like, ‘Hey, you angry? Take it out on somebody over there, OK. But when you get off the field, you better not have any of those emotions.’ It allowed us kind of like a coping mechanism.”

Josh, who is two years older, became somewhat of a Tulsa legend in his time at McLain High. As a junior he rushed for 948 yards and 13 touchdowns in four games before an injury ended his season. As a senior, he rushed for 2,704 yards and 31 touchdowns while averaging 245 yards per game and 15 yards per carry.

The recruiting interest, however, didn’t match his productions. Most of his offers came from smaller schools, including Missouri State, Northern Iowa and New Mexico State. Bill Blankenship, who is one of the most successful Oklahoma high school coaches and a former C-USA Coach of the Year at the University of Tulsa, was working for Justin Fuentes at Memphis at the time.

“I had been in college for a while,” Blankenship said. “Because I was a Tulsa guy, they kept asking what do you think about this guy. I mean, his film was incredible. McLain High School, it’s not known for having kids. It’s probably the roughest one in the community. I think a lot of people just didn’t believe what they were seeing. I had called the people I knew and they all validated who he was and what he was about.”

Further validation came on signing day when a late offer from Alabama turned into a new home for Josh. He rushed for 1,491 yards and 16 touchdowns over three seasons in Tuscaloosa and was a first round NFL draft choice in 2019, chosen 24th overall by the Oakland Raiders. In 2022, he led the NFL in rushing. This past March, he signed a four-year $48 million deal with the Green Bay Packers.

Isaiah said that his brother’s journey not only opened recruiting doors for him but also had a similar effect for other high school players in the community. Isaiah began at McLain High but the family moved before his sophomore year. He enrolled at Owasso High, where Blankenship had taken over the football program, and was a key part of a state championship team in 2017.  He rushed for over 1,000 yards in seven games the following season and went to work in the offseason before his final year.

“He really devoted himself in the weight room,” said Blankenship, whose team also won the 2019 state championship. “The guy was a poster child for our strength coach. He put on about 20-25 pounds and got faster. I’m probably exaggerating a little bit, but I don’t think so. He was an absolute beast by the time his senior year rolled around.”

Oklahoma State pushed hard to keep Jacobs in the state. Overall, he had more than 15 offers. Ultimately, he chose to attend Maryland, largely because of the relationship Terrapins head coach Mike Locksley had with Josh Jacobs while coaching him at Alabama. He saw limited time in two seasons, rushing for 177 yards on 47 carries, before deciding to enter the transfer portal. Jacobs said he had interest from several P5 programs, including Tennessee and Oregon, but was forced to attend a junior college because of a “transcript issue” at Maryland.

After experiencing life in FBS football, moving to a junior college, in this case Independence Community College in Kansas, can be shocking. However, Jacobs spent no time feeling sorry for himself. He had been through much worse in his life, obviously, and fought through. He did the same thing this time, rushing for 514 yards and a pair of touchdowns while sharing carries in the backfield.

UAB was one of about eight teams recruiting him out of junior college.

“He was on top of his business from day one,” Brigham said. “He came in and was taking notes in every meeting on his recruiting visit. He just asked really good questions, really thorough questions, thoughtful questions. He stood out from the first day we ever met him, before he was even a UAB football player.”

That continued once he got on campus, not because of what he said. He quickly became a leader, largely because of the way he carries himself and the way he works. Jacobs moved to the top of the running back depth chart by the start of the season and had 37 carries for 154 yards with a touchdown in the first four games of the season. Then everything halted after the Tulane game.

“I don’t know if he’d want me to share this,” Brigham said. “After the surgery, again the pain is probably more significant than most realize, he had probably like three days where the cloud of gloom hung over him. He was wearing it around with his body language and facial expressions. The discouragement was tangible. We talked about and he knew about it at the time.”

After that short time, he went to work.

“I’ve never seen anything like it my entire life,” said Brigham, who has been on the UAB staff since 2016. “Not any other UAB player since I’ve been at UAB, that’s been a minute now, has attacked and ultimately defeated rehab like Isaiah did.”

In January, he unsuccessfully tried to talk his way into running the Protective Stadium stairs with his teammates. He sat out during spring practice, while continuing his diligent rehab. Last week, he squatted 650 pounds.

“He’s also, if my memory serves, was in the range of 218 at the time of the injury and was up to 222,” Brigham said. “Now, he’s wavering between 211-13. Again, he hasn’t lost strength. He’s not officially cleared, in terms of full action, but he’s doing everything we’re doing right now. And I’m not having to hold him back. I would say, Isaiah, come the first game of the season this fall, will be the best version of Isaiah Jacobs that we’ve ever seen.”