Sports

BIG TALKER DORN TO BE MISSED AT UAPB

By Troy Schulte/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Tuesday, November 24, 2009 11:48 PM CST

A week from now, a 12-member senior class will have played its final game as members of the Arkansas-Pine Bluff football team. Chances are, when offseason workouts begin and spring practice rolls around in a few months, the practice field and meeting rooms will be a tad quieter.

Arkansas-Pine Bluff defensive end Jared Dorn will play his final game for the Golden Lions when they play Texas Southern on Saturday in Dallas. PINE BLUFF COMMERCIAL/RALPH FITZGERALD.

Among those seniors is Jared Dorn, a fifth-year player and Pine Bluff High School graduate who began his career as a linebacker and who he said teammates describe as “the most outspoken guy on the team.”

“The gift of gab,” Dorn laughed. “I was blessed.”

A big mouth, in a good way, though.

Dorn, a defensive end for the last 21/2 seasons, has been one of UAPB’s most productive defensive players over the last four seasons. He’ll finish his college career at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas on Saturday afternoon, trailing only free safety Kevin Thornton in number of tackles over the last four seasons.

Through it all, he’s been talking the whole time. Through meetings. Through practice. During the walk from the practice field to the locker room. Dorn always has something to say.

“You’ll be able to tell he’s not there,” defensive line coach Gary Harper said. “He’s always been a vocal guy. But, most of the time, it’s vocal in a good way.”

That has never been more apparent than this season. In his final year Dorn’s tackle numbers are about equal to the last two seasons — he has 44 through nine games, he had 46 last season and 42 in 2007 — but his sacks (1/2 this year after 11 through his first three seasons) and tackles for loss (51/2 after 26 through three seasons) are down a bit.

But Dorn said, while Harper and coach Monte Coleman agreed, his numbers don’t tell the whole story of his production. He’ll call ‘09 the best he’s played in his career. He’s consistently been graded by coaches at or above 93 percent after each game, higher than at any point in his career.

That improvement, he said, came thanks only to a maturation process that occurred over time.

Entering college as one of the more athletic guys on the team, even as a freshman — Coleman said, had he not had to sit out the 2005 season while trying to qualify academically, he may not have ended up at UAPB — he had a mindset that games in college would be similar to that in Arkansas’ Class 6A.

“I had to learn to get some tough skin,” Dorn said. “You feel like you can do a whole lot more from one position in high school than college. In college, you can only do your part, on the other end, guys have to do their part.”

That previous mentality helped spark a move from linebacker to defensive end, a position that requires less assigned tasks and relies more on instincts and athleticism. Coleman said he may have done a disservice to Dorn, moving his positions, because he was such a good linebacker. But, at the time, defensive end was the best fit for him.

“He was good enough in high school where he probably did what he wanted to,” Coleman said. “When he got here, it’s a little bit different. There’s a structure to it. It was like oil and water for a long time.”

Dorn understands that structure now. His willingness to rely on his instincts is still one of his best attributes, but his leadership skills and ability to make other players better has improved. This year, mostly in a Nov. 7 win over Grambling State, he’s even played a bit of linebacker again, this time, with a better understanding.

“(This year), I’ve played the best to my ability,” Dorn said. “Maxing out my potential on the field. I’m satisfied with it.”

Dorn added he won’t be overly emotional when the Golden Lions (5-4, 3-3 Southwestern Athletic Conference) play Texas Southern ((4-5, 3-2) in the Dallas Lonestar Classic on Saturday. He wasn’t on Senior Day against Southern Oct. 31, either.

But he said he will miss his teammates, a group of players and classmates with whom he’s been through so much.

Dorn is one of just three players who played in the 2006 SWAC Championship Game still on the team — tight end Remo Gay, who was also a linebacker then, and wide receiver Chris Barrett are the others — and the group has also been through two straight losing seasons, a coaching change and a season of progress in 2009 while they’re trying to exit the program on solid footing.

“I’ve done the good, the bad and the ugly,” Dorn said. “I’ve been at the highest of the highs, then the lowest of the lows. ... It’s been a great experience. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”

Dorn will graduate next month with a degree in agricultural business and, before entering the real world for good, he hopes to continue his football career. On Dec. 19 he, along with Thornton and Gay, will play in the inaugural HBCU Senior Bowl in Montgomery, Ala., then he’ll begin the process of trying to land in a professional camp.

Wherever he ends up, chances are, he’ll have something to say about it.

“(It’ll be) a lot quieter,” Coleman joked. “But we’ll miss the noise. We’ll miss it.”

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