University of Georgia Athletics
Holloman Rising By Leaps And Bounds
December 30, 2018 | Football, The Frierson Files
By John Frierson
Staff Writer
NEW ORLEANS — The legs tell part of the story but certainly not all of it.
Stand next to Georgia sophomore receiver Jeremiah Holloman, all 6-foot-2 (he seems a little taller) and 200 pounds (he seems a little more loaded with muscle) of him, and it feels like his legs reach all the way up to your shoulders — and that they're capable of leaping over the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.
"That guy, he can jump out the gym," quarterback Jake Fromm said of Holloman, one of the top athletes on the roster. "We're working out and doing box jumps or something, it's one thing to watch a guy jump up high and it's another thing to watch a guy like J.J. jump that high and it looks like he's suspended up there in the air.
"It's like he's jumping but he gets to this point where it's like slow motion — it's unreal."
Holloman has the legs of a stud track and field athlete, which is exactly what he once was. His build and the way he moves on the football field, they both scream track and field — maybe the 400 meters or the high jump.
Actually, it was the triple jump, one of the sport's most physically challenging and awkward events, in which he really excelled. At Newton County High School in Covington, Ga., Holloman reached the Class AAAAAA state finals as a freshman and then won back to back triple jump state titles as a sophomore and junior — and almost certainly would have made it three in a row with a win his senior season except he opted to finish high school early and enroll at Georgia in January 2017.
"Track and triple jump just allowed me to be explosive," Holloman said after the fifth-ranked Bulldogs' Friday practice in preparation for the New Year's Day Sugar Bowl against No. 15 Texas.
Holloman did a lot more than the triple jump, posting a personal best of 6-4 in the high jump, 22-8 in the long jump, 11.0 seconds in the 100 meters and 22.54 in the 200. His best in the triple jump came in his final competitive jump, at the state meet his junior year, when he covered 49 feet, 5.5 inches. It was his only jump of the meet, passing on the rest of his opportunities because he knew he wouldn't be caught and he wanted to save his energy for other events.
"The other ones, I honestly didn't train for too much," he said. "The 100, I just went out and ran, just having fun. I'm most proud of the triple jump, that was my bread and butter, right there."
Georgia has a lot of former track stars on its roster, including receiver and return man Mecole Hardman.
"We used to compete in triple jump but he was in 6A and I was in 3A, so we would look across at each other like, 'What'd you jump?' 'I jump this, I jump that, I'm going to go beat you,'" said Hardman, who recalled that his best mark in the triple was just shy of 49 feet.
"Yeah, that's impressive, 49-5," Hardman said when told of Holloman's personal best.
There are plenty of parallels between excelling at the triple jump and at wide receiver, the most obvious being the importance of both speed and body control.
"The body control, that's what it comes down to," Holloman said. "On the sideline, I just feel comfortable controlling my body and making catches like that. It's just naturally being explosive off each leg and being able to balance myself and jumping off each leg."
From the moment he got to Georgia, Holloman has drawn praise. Going through spring practice in 2017 as an early enrollee, coach Kirby Smart commended Holloman for the consistency with which he worked.
"He's not like most of these freshmen who come in and are up and down, emotional, really good one day, really bad the next," Smart said back in 2017. "He just stays level-headed and doesn't get affected by criticism. He's had some days where he might be inconsistent catching the ball, but he's never inconsistent with how hard he practices."
That work ethic, that consistency, it remains at the core of who Holloman is. As a freshman last season, Holloman only caught one pass all season — but he kept working. Now, at the tail end of a sophomore season in which he's caught 23 passes for 387 yards and five touchdowns, the man keeps working.
"He's a guy that comes in and practices like he's playing a game, every day," sophomore running back D'Andre Swift said of Holloman. "He's real consistent and always competing, and working on being a vocal leader, as well. He just brings his 'A' game every day."
Said offensive coordinator Jim Chaney: "I think J.J.'s a very hard-working kid with a good brain. He's got a good soul and a good brain, and anytime you mix those together with hard work, good things are going to come your way. You could see him making a little move in spring ball and he continues to work, work, work."
Holloman started out with one catch in the opener against Austin Peay and one in the win at South Carolina, but then he caught three for 90 yards against Middle Tennessee State, highlighted by a 65-yarder and an 11-yard touchdown catch, the first of his career.
The following week, at Missouri, he had just one catch, for 61 yards and a touchdown. A couple of weeks later, against Florida, Holloman caught four passes, two of them for touchdowns. One was a back-shoulder throw in the front-left corner of the end zone and Holloman simply went up over the defender and plucked the ball away.
"The back-shoulder throw against Florida, he showed great body control there," Fromm said.
"To make the plays that he's done this year, I'm really happy for him," Chaney said. "He's done it on the football field and he does it through hard work, and I think he'll continue to develop as a football player for us. ...
"I think the sky's the limit for Jeremiah. I think he's done everything we want him to do and I look for him to continue to develop into a really good football player next year."
One more, from Hardman: "He's a great person, he's fun, he brings energy to the room, he brings that presence to the outside that you need, that big, physical presence, so we know we can count on him in any situation: blocking, jump ball, routes over the middle, we know he's going to come through for us in the clutch. He's a great guy, great athlete, he can do things that, you know, for his size, you're like, 'Dang, he can do that?'"
Yes, he very much can.
John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files. He's also on Twitter: @FriersonFiles and @ITAHallofFame.
