Friday Features: Jacob Tucker sits, then stars as UNA’s quarterback
By Mike Perrin
Although Jacob Tucker’s hometown is a mere hour and a half away from the University of North Alabama and he was a prep standout at Perry County High, he had no idea about UNA’s stellar football history.
While Linden, Tenn., is about 70 miles from Florence, Ala., Tucker’s trip to a starting job at quarterback headed into this weekend’s Division II quarterfinal playoff game against North Greenville (S.C.) seems much farther. Tucker joined the Lions in 2012 and battled for a roster spot with fellow freshman Luke Wingo. Tucker’s performance convinced the coaches to redshirt Wingo – but fate intervened. A bulging disk led to Tucker sitting out the season.
In 2013, Tucker found himself in a back-up role as Wingo, who started the last three games of 2012, started all 13 games that season. Not a customary spot for a guy who had been Mr. Football in Tennessee as a senior and was a three-time All-State performer – at three different spots.
“It was tough. I’m not going to sugarcoat it,” Tucker said. “I wanted to transfer early my redshirt freshman season when the rotation at QB didn’t come out like we planned through the first three games of the 2013 season. I was frustrated. I wanted to be on the field. We started out that year 1-2 and I just wanted to help the team.”
Tucker did play in 12 games in 2013 as Wingo’s backup. The Lions finished 10-3 with a trip to the playoff quarterfinals, and Tucker had 457 yards passing and 403 rushing. The following season, again coming off the bench as Wingo earned the starting nod, the 6-foot, 195-pounder played in the first five games, including a start vs. Western Oregon, before an injury cost him the rest of the year.
“As that (2012) season concluded and the next two seasons came along, I realized that this whole situation had taught me something bigger than the game of football,” Tucker said. “It taught me that things aren’t always going to go the way that you plan and it’s not going to always be easy, but when you work hard and persevere then things will work out for the best.”
Wingo wrapped up his 2015 senior season as the Gulf South Conference’s Offensive Player of the Year as the Lions earned a third straight league title and playoff spot, while Tucker played in 10 games with 303 yards rushing and earned the first of two straight berths on the Academic All-GSC team.
“The main reason I was able to persevere was the relationship that I had with Luke and how good of friends we were outside of the locker room,” Tucker said. “We both understood that it was going to take both of us to get done what our team needed on the field and so for us to approach practice and games with the mindset of ‘I want to win’ while not wanting the other to fail is what ultimately brought our unit together. We were both able to succeed in the ways that we did.”
Tucker had to do more than adjust to time on the pine. As a quarterback, he was accustomed to being the leader on the squad.
“It was a different role and a different type of leadership style I had to develop,” he said. “I wasn’t in the middle of the huddle, but what I could do is help guys when they came to the sideline if I saw something that they missed. It also gave Luke and I a two-headed monster approach because he was able to be the ‘cool, calm and collected’ leader and I got to embrace the role of the head case who gets everyone fired up when I went into games.”
When Tucker came into fall camp this season as the favorite to earn the starting job, he said he still felt some apprehension. “It was a bittersweet feeling,” he said. “On the one hand, I finally get to do what I’ve been longing to do since 2012 and on the other, I’ve only got one shot to make it happen.
“As far as personal goals this season, I really just wanted to win. I didn’t want to be the backup that got the starting job and was a letdown. I love this team, this program and this university and I just wanted to carry on the tradition that was laid down before me. Stats were not something I thought about coming into the season. I just wanted to win.”
UNA’s winning tradition continues with Tucker at the helm. After a season-opening setback at Jacksonville State (10-1 this year and the second-ranked team in the Football Championship Subdivision), the Lions have rolled to nine consecutive wins and another GSC title. Tucker’s 1,698 career rushing yards puts him at No. 2 on UNA’s all-time list for quarterbacks. He has 719 so far this year. He has thrown for 3,051 yards and 25 touchdowns at UNA, with another 31 on the ground. This year he has 2,257 passing yards with 18 TDs through the air and 14 rushing scores – good enough to be voted the GSC Offensive Player of the Year and a Harlon Hill Trophy finalist.
Once Tucker found UNA – guided there for a visit by some high school coaches in Tennessee who did know all about the Lions’ football history – and he found his way onto the field, his skills meshed with the coaches’ philosophy.
“It was really just a good match,” he said. “In high school, I threw it a little more but that was mostly due to the lesser average athletic ability of the defensive backs. When I got to college, I realized that running the ball was what was going to get my foot in the door. I ran with what I had, bettered my passing skills, and developed into a better overall QB than I was in high school.”
Headed into this season’s playoffs – a first-round matchup with UNC Pembroke ended with the Lions on the winning side of a 41-17 rout – UNA had a roster with lots of playoff experience, and one of the most successful D2 playoff coaches ever in Bobby Wallace.
“It has made the process a lot more laid back,” Tucker said. “Most guys aren’t uptight and the ones who are, we have older guys who can help them cope. We know what we have to do. We’ve been here before. We know what it takes. It is just a matter of going out to the field every practice and treating every rep like it is the play to win the national championship – and we know that. It also helps our off-the-field actions. We know what we can do and when and where we can do it, so we haven’t had any issues there.
“Coach Wallace has so much experience and that is comforting as a player to play for a guy that has ‘been there, done that.’ He does a good job of iterating how important every game is and how each week you have to treat that opponent just like you would the top-tier programs.
“He challenges us,” Tucker said, “which I think is great. He tells us that it is our team and we can finish how we want to. That puts it on our shoulders as to how we want to handle it because at the end of the day, he always reminds us that we are the ones on the field playing the game, not the coaches.”
Tucker, who will graduate in May and plans to attend Physical Therapy graduate school on his way to a doctorate, said coming to UNA has made for countless memories.
“It has made me a better man and I believe that’s what happens to committed players in a prestigious program,” he said. “It has taught me more than I could ever have imagined coming into this five years ago. I’ve learned things that are going to make me a better employee, husband and father one day and those are the things that you can’t put a price on.
“The championship rings are something that I’ll always have to show to my kids and grandkids. The memories and laughs in the locker room, bus trips, hotel stays and sideline jokes are the things that I won’t be able to replace. I’ll forget the scores to games but not the times I had with the guys.”
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