A Tale Of Two Videos: How Colzie, Thomas Committed To Notre Dame
Suiting as bookends to the workweek, Notre Dame nabbed two Rivals250 wide receivers from the Atlanta region on Monday and Friday.
As receivers, both possess different skill sets. Deion Colzie is 6-4 with legitimate 4.5-second speed and the raw athleticism to dominate almost any high school defender.
On the other hand, Jayden Thomas is 6-1 and a sturdy 205 pounds. He may be slightly slower than Colzie, but he makes up for it with routes so crisp that it’d be easy to confuse him with a collegiate upperclassman.
Yet for all of their differences, they’re also defined by their similarities. At least, that’s what makes them such great fits at Notre Dame.
Colzie and Thomas carry a similar Jekyll and Hyde-like demeanor (in a good way) as they balance the academics of a student worthy of a Notre Dame acceptance letter and the prestige of being a four-star prospect on the gridiron.
“They fit Notre Dame perfectly,” said Atlanta videographer Rodney Cofield Jr. (aka iSmooth). “JT and Deion, they're the same person off the field: really soft-spoken, cool and laid back. But when they get on the field they turn into a dog. So I don’t know if Notre Dame is pushing for players like that or something, but those are two guys that seem to fit that system.”
Cofield has known both high school prospects for some time now and actually shot and edited the 2:20 video (the longest a video can be on Twitter) Colzie used to announce his most recent commitment to Notre Dame.
But unlike a large portion of commitment videos — a trend brought on by the social media era — Colzie’s video centered around storytelling as opposed to simply presenting a string of highlight clips or suped-up special effects.
“I’m not in it for the highlights,” Cofield said. “I want the viewer to feel like they were there. If I’m doing a commitment video, I want to tell a story. I want them to know why this player is committing here? What made him come to this decision? How hard was it to get to this decision? His trials. His tribulations.”
Of course, Colzie’s decision is unique since he’s one of the few Notre Dame decommits to later reaffirm his pledge to the Fighting Irish.
Colzie contacted Cofield on social media and the two scheduled a time to talk. Cofield then did his research on the nation’s 107th-ranked player and saw he had a final three of Tennessee, Florida and Notre Dame, which immediately signified to him that Colzie was picking Notre Dame, and Cofield immediately wanted to know why the Fighting Irish again?
“I didn’t get to figure out where I really wanted to be,” Colzie said in his commitment video. “I feel like I rushed that decision, so I wanted to back off on my commitment. I wanted to weigh my options a little bit more and see where my heart really wants to take me.”
Clearly, all his absence from Notre Dame did was make his heart grow fonder because, by the end of the video, he unzipped his jacket to reveal a green “Irish” T-shirt with the interlocking Notre Dame logo.
“Go Irish” Colzie proclaimed.
Another storytelling aspect of the video comes from Colzie's mother, Yolanda Jackson, who has always been a big advocated for Notre Dame and its coaching staff. She touched on how her son was always a reserved child. Humble. Someone who loved sports, hardly ever got in trouble and maintained a positive outlook on life.
“He’s always been one to try and find the best in every situation,” Jackson said. “Even when he was little.”
Shortly after Colzie’s video was released, Thomas took to Twitter to announce he was committing on Friday, Oct. 2. His grandmother’s birthday.
So on Tuesday, he got to work on his video after talking with his videographer, Joel Joseph, who also happens to be a freshman and Kennesaw State University.
Joseph had worked in the recruiting industry for more than three years but this was his first commitment video. As a fellow Atlanta videographer, he’s known Cofield for a number of years and, when shooting Thomas’ video, he also wanted to tell a story.
“It adds a more personal touch, and the viewer just gets a different feeling from it then if you just throw a bunch of clips in and have someone talking in the background,” Joseph said. “You get more of an emotional feeling as well. You get to see the players, especially for a commitment video, you get an introduction to their parents, people who are important to them.”
From talking with Thomas, Joseph knew that an important aspect of the video would be to show the four-star wide receiver playing both football and baseball, the sport he fell in love with first.
That’s why his commitment video kicks off with him sitting in the Pace High School baseball field dugout, mitt on his left hand and an intense look on his face.
“I wanted to show that he plays both sports,” Joseph said. “People need to know that. He’s not just a football player. He can do both.”
Thomas’ video also features interviews with his family and coaches, but the most significant moment comes at the end when he FaceTimes with his grandma and wishes her happy birthday and then proceeds to the video’s finale.
“Where are we going to college?” Thomas asks his grandmother.
Instead of revealing a Fighting Irish T-shirt or hat, his grandmother grabs a garment fit for 2020: a green face mask embroidered with the Notre Dame logo.
“That was actually Jayden's idea,” Joseph said. “They bought a pack of Notre Dame masks. I wasn’t able to go there in person. So while we were at the stadium, we just decided to do it over FaceTime, so it worked out.”
After spending ample time separately with Colzie and Thomas, both Cofield and Joseph felt they had a better understanding of the type of prospect Notre Dame wants: someone who is humble and reserved, a tireless worker off the field but can then flip a switch and become ultra-competitive as soon as they lace up their cleats.
“I can see the type of guy they want,” Cofield said. “I can see it. If you meet Deion and JT, they’re that guy.”
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