Weight loss paying off for Rebels’ offensive lineman Jordan Sims

As a senior at Homewood High School (Alabama), Jordan Sims weighed close to 400-pounds, 380 to be exact, and couldn’t help but eat tons of food, not realizing it would eventually have an effect on his playmaking abilities on the football field.

Sims was part of the Rebels’ 2014 signing class but redshirted his initial season. He bluntly admits he needed to lose weight and, therefore, did not view sitting out a season as a negative. He knew he needed to gain more muscle to withstand the power of the defender on the opposing line of scrimmage.

The full year of training consisted of spring practices, conditioning and summer workouts, all of which helped Sims with his successful weight loss. He has dropped an astonishing 60 pounds–roughly the weight of an average second grader–and now weighs in at 334 pounds. With the weight loss, the 6-foot-4 offensive lineman finds himself in a starting role for the Ole Miss offensive line.

Now for Sims it’s all about taking the next positive step on his path as a collegiate football player.

“Since I have been here, all I wanted to do was work hard and Coach Matt Luke knows what he’s doing, so I knew he would put people in that’s best suited for the job,” Sims said.

I just have to keep working and there’s always things to improve on.

Ole Miss offensive lineman Jordan Sims

Flashback to high school

While watching video of himself in high school during his sophomore and junior seasons, Sims was amazed at how quickly he was able to get off the line of scrimmage. He decided he was ready to see how football life would be if he was quicker on his feet.

During his senior season of high school, Sims saw his weight skyrocket but wasn’t able to find balance to get back to his old self. Once he arrived at the University of Mississippi, he saw just how quick the offensive linemen were in the Southeastern Conference. But, Sims also knew he could be as quick as some of the players he watched.

He just wanted to be a freak of nature again.

“It’s a lot of different,” said Sims, who feels lighter on his feet each time he comes off the line. “I really didn’t realize how big I was until I got here and lost the weight. I just want to keep going and I don’t want to see myself back at that point.”

Weight loss helping Sims adjust to the speed of the game

This season has been a learning curve for Sims, but he has worked hard to learn to read defenses in blitz formations, something he has taken a joy in doing. “Like coach says, It’s one thing to know blitzes and reading the defenses, but it’s another thing to understand it and be able to apply it in a game,” Sims said. “Everything is going a 100 miles per hour, so that’s been the biggest adjustment for me.”

The quickened pace of the collegiate game is no problem for Sims. With his weight loss, he can now add the attribute of speed to his skill set.

Feature image credit: Bentley Breland, The Rebel Walk