The Pierce College football legacy went head to head on Saturday when two former Brahmas met to face each other in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Both players came from South Philadelphia and played for the Brahmas at the point. Yet while one star was already made, a legend was born.
That legend is former Pierce College wide receiver Jaelen Strong who plays for the Arizona State Sun Devils. Strong caught the game winning Hail Mary touchdown to bring the No. 16 ranked USC Trojans and roughly 90,000 fans in attendance to their knees. The player he caught the ball against was former Brahmas safety, Gerald Bowman, who’s also been having a good season but still couldn’t manage to stop the kid whose legacy continues to grow.
For Strong the secret is officially out. It was only two years ago that he was running rampant on teams in the Western State Conference and tearing up defenses. It was only two years ago that he was making the same plays for Pierce when the Brahmas needed it the most.
Down by 17 points against Santa Barbara City College going into halftime Pierce was down to its third string and current quarterback Mike Adens. With the last play in the half Adens heaved the ball down field hoping the one man that would lead them to the Patriotic Bowl that 2012 season would make a play. In typical Strong fashion he made the miraculous play on three defenders for a 70 yard touchdown and soon rumors of a talented six foot three wide receiver from Philadelphia was born.
Adens was at the Coliseum to see his former teammate decimate the Trojans defense.
“Just watching his growth and maturity has been amazing,” Adens said.
Fast forward to October 4, 2014 and Strong would rise again when and make nearly the exact same play he had made two years ago in Santa Barbara and with much higher stakes on one of college football’s hollowed grounds. With a backup quarterback, Mike Bercovici connected with Strong who yet again would go up and grab it no matter who was throwing the ball.
“He’s definitely now the best wide receiver in college football,” Adens said. “The same level of speed, strength and power that Strong had at the JUCO level is now on display for the NCAA.”
For Strong, it is not about the numbers which should make him a contender for the Blietnikoff Trophy given out to the best wide receiver in all of college football. In the USC game, a team that is considered to have one of the greatest defensive traditions in football could not touch Jaelen. He had 10 catches 201 yards and three touchdowns and has five touchdowns in five games. Last year he only had seven total, but what makes Strong ultimately such a problem for defenses is playmaking ability.
“He has shown throughout his whole career what he is capable of,” 57 year-old USC fan Bart Hollander of Huntington Beach said of Strong. “He is big time and he’s clutch. He is capable of doing whatever he wants. That last play, everyone knew what he was about to do. He should have never been allowed to go down the field but he did it anyway and he made it happen.”
Pierce College defensive backs coach Torry Hughes remembers the day when he first met Strong and was with Jaelen’s mother who had to sign a waiver for her 17-year-old son. The waiver allowed Strong to come to Woodland Hills where he would grayshirt in his first year with the Brahmas after being recruited by Hughes and former coach Ty Greenwood who is now the quality control coach on defense for the University of Kansas.
“We had a camp every Sunday for wide receivers,” Hughes said. “Even when he was a young kid I knew we had something because I would play against him as a defensive back to guard the corners and I had problems. We knew we had something and there is no doubt that not only will Jaelen be a first round pick but he will be a top 10 pick in this year’s draft.”
Pierce College cornerback Jay’Onn Myles who also was on hand to witness Strong’s game says he provides a lot of inspiration to junior college football players who want to make it to the big stage.
“Right now he is at the pinnacle of his career and provides the rest of us guys still at the junior college level hope,” Myles said. “His performance was absolutely legendary. When they say he is a beast, people can’t really say that. Because Jaelen Strong is not a beast, he is the beast.”
Coming into the game against USC, he was only a target a player known in the Pac-12. In just one play at the very end, Strong changed all that. He became an icon of Arizona St. and a force that the rest of the country is now aware of. After the game coming out of the players tunnel the only name fans were chanting was his name.
For Strong this was more than a game, it was the opportunity to finally let the world know who he truly is and a name to not be forgotten. If there were any questions of who Jaelen Strong was they were answered.
The legacy he left at Pierce College is now being carried on at Arizona State and perhaps someday in the NFL. He is Strong and he’s only about to get stronger.
