Season recap: Quinton Jefferson
The way Woodland Hills (Pa.) defensive coordinator Bill Morton remembers it, Quinton Jefferson was just your average ninth-grader going out for the football team in the fall of 2007.
“When I first met Quinton he was a little skinny,” Morton recalled. “I used to call him Lollipop because he was so skinny and he had a big head.”
By the end of Jefferson’s high school career, the Maryland-bound defensive end had filled out his 6-foot-4, 230-pound frame to the point where Morton felt compelled to change his nickname to The Stork – an homage to former Baltimore Colts, Green Bay Packers and Oakland Raiders defensive end Ted Hendricks. Jefferson’s stark transformation from lanky freshman to dominant senior was not exactly something Morton had foreseen.
“He just got confidence in himself and did the things necessary,” Morton said. “He was coming off the edge. He reads [defenses] well. He has extremely great speed for a kid his size. He runs like a 4.59, somewhere in that range. He’s extremely fast for his size. [Wolverines coach George] Novak moved him to tight end this year. He’s a really good athlete.”
In a 4-3 front, Jefferson put his hand down and rushed the passer off the edge. In a 3-4, Jefferson dropped back to outside linebacker, demonstrating all season long a versatility that Morton said colleges “loved about him.”
Morton knew that Jefferson and three other Division I-caliber seniors on defense would be charged with leading the Wolverines to the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League championship game at Pittsburgh’s Heinz Field. Jefferson, Morton said, was up to the task.
“I think he knew when he had to step it up,” Morton said. “He stepped up during the playoffs. He really started to shine. … He gets his hands up and knocks passes down, he can read the screens, he can read the reverse. He was pretty good staying home. He didn’t take off for the ball on fakes. He has real good instincts for where the ball was going and where to stay.”
Jefferson, who was named to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Fabulous 22 team, finished third on the Wolverines in tackles, in addition to batting down seven balls. An often-dominant defense, led in part by Jefferson, propelled Woodland Hills to the WPIAL title game, where it suffered a 21-14 defeat to North Allegheny.
“In the second half he came on real strong,” Morton said. “He had three sacks and he had a couple of tackles for loss and he caused a fumble. I’d say it’s pretty good. … Of course, everybody’s going to feel bad after that [loss]. But we won it the year before and were hoping to win it two years in a row. We just fell short.”
Before Jefferson heads to College Park for his freshman season, he’ll play for Pennsylvania in the Big 33 Classic against Ohio this summer. While his on-field accolades will always stick out in Morton’s mind, the longtime defensive coordinator will also remember Jefferson for his “gentleness.”
“He’s a real kind, family kid,” Morton said. “He’s well spoken, never has anything bad to say about people. I’ve never seen him get mad or say anything bad about anybody. But you hang around [the field], and he puts another cape on.”
