“Getting one of your star players to believe there’s a ceiling much higher at one position than another can be hard to see.”
That’s the intro, narrated by Snoop Dogg, for the section of a documentary on Jackson State football that features Lions draft pick James Houston. The “Coach Prime” series follows Tigers head coach Deion Sanders as he traverses his first season as a college football coach.
Houston transferred from Florida to Jackson State for his final collegiate season. The speedy Houston was an off-ball linebacker for the Gators, but Sanders had a different vision for how the 6-1, 240-pounder could help his new school.
Houston tried to sell himself as a linebacker to Sanders, but the Hall of Famer saw a different path for Houston. Sanders turned Houston loose as an EDGE rusher and both reaped the benefits.
In the clip, Houston is with his position coach and Sanders in a meeting room. Houston opens up,
“I know the talent that I have. And y’all have put a cap on my talent, here. I know exactly what I can do.”
Coach Sanders is blunt in his response to his eager new pupil.
“James, let me tell you something,” Sanders retorted. “If you were able to do that, you would have done that, and you would have never came here. If you was that dude that you think you are at linebacker, you would have never been here.”
In a cutaway, Houston explains how “it feels like poetry when I’m inside (at LB), reading blocks and getting through traffic.” He’s clearly got the mindset of an off-ball backer. Houston tells Sanders he feels “disrespected” that he was being moved, though not in a confrontational tone. It’s a very business-like approach from all the men involved. Sanders reiterated that Houston “wasn’t going to start” at linebacker.
“Often times these young men see what they want instead of what we want,” Sanders explained.
Houston’s competitive nature shows when he tells Sanders, “I feel like I want to do more. I want to play inside, I want to help inside, I want to help outside. If I could go on offense, to help the offense, I’d play fullback and help y’all run the ball.”
He found his home as a pass rusher, however.
Houston bagged 16.5 sacks in his one season under Sanders with the Tigers. His ability to play both off-ball and rush LB elevated his draft profile enough for the Lions to have interest.
The full episode of “Coach Prime” streams on YouTube. The segment on Houston begins around the 18:45 mark:
