UAB’s Jaylyn Ferguson is Picture of Persistence

By Steve Irvine

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - April 11, 2025

You never get a second chance at making a first impression.

So what was UAB secondary coach Brent Vieselmeyer’s impression when he first saw cornerback Jaylyn Ferguson walk in the UAB football building?

“I feel like I'm back in the NFL,” Vieselmeyer said of that initial meeting. “Ferg's got that kind of body.”

Now, don’t misunderstand. Vieselmeyer didn’t say Ferguson was ready for the NFL. He didn’t even say that was guaranteed in Ferguson’s future. What he did say is that Ferguson, who is 6-foot-3 and about 185 pounds with long arms, has the look of what the NFL is looking for in a cornerback.

“Obviously, in the NFL, there is more to (it than) that part,” said Vieselmeyer, who coached the secondary for seven seasons in the NFL.

Ferguson’s story is not about rolling out of bed and expecting something good to happen. His UAB story is about persistence. His UAB story is about working for his turn instead of waiting for his turn. His UAB story is using a move away from his natural position to his advantage when he moved back. His story is about sticking with his college choice instead of searching for a quicker way to the field.

“In this era of college football, you don’t hear these stories,” said UAB head coach Trent Dilfer. “I’m frustrated because I'm not playing early enough. I bolt. I want something easier. This kid took the hard road because ‘I know this is the place for me. I know it's gonna be hard, I know I got a long journey ahead.’ He didn't look for the way out, he looked for the way to stay, and it's really working out for him and us.”

Dilfer and his coaches thought they had a quality player when Ferguson signed in January of 2023. He was a standout two-way player  on the football field and also excelled at track and field at Southwest High in Fort Worth, Texas. But he also had a rollercoaster ride through his high school football career because of injuries that kept him off the field at times, including his junior season.

Recruiting was slow.

“You know, he was a kid that was underdeveloped (physically),” Dilfer said. “In high school, he had the length and traits, he just wasn't physically formed enough. But he had a high school coach who was an NFL player, another NFL player who had seen him play a lot, told me about him. We bet on character and traits.”

Ferguson said he showed up in Birmingham weighing “153 (pounds) on a good day.” He was content to settle in for the long run.

“I mean it's a big adjustment,” Ferguson said. “But back in Texas we ball, so whoever got that pride is going to go ahead and get it. But it's very different making the high school adjustment to college adjustments with the reps that we take on and the physical contact with the bigger bodies compared to a smaller body, especially playing DB. We have to go down and make plays and we're going to need that bigger body to come down, so I knew I had to go ahead and start eating.”

Ferguson played in two games during his first year and didn’t play a snap last season after switching to safety. Dilfer said Ferguson’s strengths didn’t fit into the previous defensive system at cornerback, so they switched him to safety to see if he fit there.

“I'm always on the look for a spot,” said Ferguson, a broadcast communications major. “In the world of football, especially with the football culture now, it's best that you try to absorb everything you can take in. When one door closes, another door opens. As soon as I got the call that I was moving to safety, I was like, let's get on the drawing board and let's get to learning about this position. I believe that it helped me this season. Now I got the mindset concept, knowing everything that's going on in the field like a safety.”

He is still a work in progress but Ferguson is definitely making a move this spring during his first chance to make an on-the-field impression on incoming defensive coordinator Steve Russ and a new defensive staff.

“He's incredible athlete,” Vieselmeyer said. “He's so strong, he squats over 500. You don’t expect that. His level of conditioning that he can maintain is like I've never seen. He's got a high motor, he's super strong, he's a good learner. He’s doing a good job.”

A big part of it is Ferguson fits well in the new defense at his old position.

“This year, the system fits perfectly for him to be a corner,” Dilfer said. “That's the great thing about having a new staff, you know, the clean slate. So they identified him right away as a kid with high character, high football IQ, very traity, and he's finally kind of coming out of a shell.”