If you’ve been subscribed to Articles From the Office for over a year, you remember that I counted down the days to college football season by highlighting a different player. If you’re new here, well you’re in for a thrilling ride because I’m bringing that countdown back. And we are only 99 days away from the opening kickoff of college football season where Nevada and New Mexico State will square off.
Today for day 99, I’ll be highlighting former Notre Dame defensive tackle Jerry Tillery, or as those who watched “A Season With Notre Dame Football” know him as Terry Jillery.
Tillery, a Shreveport, Louisiana native, played high school ball at Evangel Christian Academy where he was rated a 4 star recruit. He held offers from Arkansas, Ole Miss, and Stanford, but committed to play college football at Notre Dame for (the now disgraced) Brian Kelly.
An interesting tidbit about Tillerys recruitment was that when he landed in South Bend, he was set to play offensive tackle, but the Irish coaching staff moved him to defensive tackle. He saw time almost immediately. As a freshman, Tillery played in all 12 games with 3 starts as he tallied 12 tackles and 1 sack.
The following three seasons as a golden domer, Tillery played in 36 games with a total of 121 tackles, 11.5 sacks, and forced 3 fumbles. It’s a damn shame that Tillery never received any All American accolades for his elite junior year when he made 56 tackles and 4.5 sacks. Damn shame.
Tillery would go onto be drafted in the first round of the 2019 NFL Draft by the Chargers. Unfortunately his career hasn’t been fruitful thus far as the Chargers declined his fifth year option.
Tomorrow for day 98 I think we’ll stay on the theme of defensive linemen…or maybe a quarterback…or maybe a kicker. Who knows, because I don’t?