St. Louis BattleHawks quarterback establishing himself as playmaker early in XFL season
In less than two seasons as the starting quarterback at the University of Mississippi, Jordan Ta’amu threw for over 5,600 yards and as a college senior led the powerful Southeastern Conference in passing yards per game and total offense.
Yet, despite being one of eight players assigned by the refurbished XFL to lead its franchises during the opening day of its draft in October, not much was known about the 6-3, 218-pound Ta’amu who attended New Mexico Military Academy before starring at Ole Miss.
But St. Louis BattleHawks head coach Jonathan Hayes knew early on Ta’amu was the one he wanted to run his offense. Through the first two weeks of the season, Ta’amu has been every bit as impressive as Hayes envisioned.
Heading into the BattleHawks home debut Sunday at the Dome at America’s Center, Ta’amu is among the XFL leaders in most of the major offensive categories.
The Pearl City, Hawaii, native leads the league with 602 total yards and pass completion percentage (50-of-64, 78.1%). He is second in passing yards (493) and quarterback rating (106.6) and tied for second with Cardele Jones of the DC Defenders and Brandon Silvers of Seattle with four touchdown passes each.
PJ Walker of the Houston Roughnecks leads the league with seven scoring passes. Ta’amu is also third in the league in rushing yards with 109.
“Am I surprised at what Jordan is doing? No, not at all,” Hayes said before practice Wednesday. “He keeps growing with the team. He does a great job with (offensive coordinator) Chuck Long and the rest of the offensive coaches do a great job with him in making sure he understands where his strengths are on the field.
“Jordan also does a great job in studying and with his preparation each week. I see that continuing.”
On Sunday, Ta’amu, who spent time in the NFL’s Houston Texans camp last summer, will lead the BattleHawks into the Dome at America’s Center to play the first professional football game in St. Louis since the St. Louis Rams finale in 2015.
The Rams then bolted to Los Angeles in early 2016.
An expected crowd of more than 28,000 pro football starved fans is expected to create a playoff type atmosphere when the BattleHawks (1-1) take on the New York Guardians (1-1) in an East Division game beginning at 2 p.m.
The game will be shown on ESPN.
“I’m excited. In the dome. Sold out game. I’m ready to play at home,” Ta’amu said. “It’s the best feeling ever. We’ve got to prepare and give our fans a show.
“It’s been really nice. Everywhere you go, the fans are really excited and supportive. They are really excited about this football team and pro football coming back to St. Louis. We’re giving them a reason to be excited.”
Ta’amu is coming off the best performance of his young career a week ago in the BattleHawks 28-24 loss to Houston. Throwing for 284 yards and three touchdowns, Ta’amu also ran for 32 yards and added a fourth score.
But two Ta’amu interceptions, both of which led to points for the Roughnecks, proved costly to the BattleHawks chances for a second straight road win.
The second interception was both controversial and the difference in the game. With the ball in Roughnecks territory, Ta’amu had a pass picked off by Houston defensive back JJ Johnson who returned it 66 yards to the St. Louis 2-yard line.
Two plays later, Houston scored to increase the lead to 28-18. But for Ta’amu, BattleHawks coaches and fans, the interception came on a play where the Roughnecks were offsides.
“I’m 100% positive it was offsides. I threw it up there hoping to give my receiver a chance to catch the football, to make a play. Looking back now, I shouldn’t have thrown the pass,” Ta’amu said. “It was tough for us. But you just have to go out there, play football and leave it in the referees hands
“When interceptions happen you just have to leave it behind you, be a great leader and lead your team down the field for another scoring drive. That’s kind of my job.”
Folkerts’ Dome memory
St. Louis native Brian Folkerts play high school football at Hazelwood Central and after a standout collegiate career at tiny Washburn University he went on to play for five NFL teams from 2012-17.
Now the BattleHawks starting center, Folkerts was a member of the final St. Louis Rams team which played its last game at the Dome at America’s Center on Dec. 17, 2015.
A few weeks after the ‘15 season finale, the Rams announced the move to Los Angeles.
“A lot of us (Rams) didn’t see it coming. We heard all the outside noise with (Stan) Kroenke on all those guys, but none of us ever thought we would leave St. Louis,” Folkerts said this week. “St. Louis, being a great sports town, a great football town ... we were all kind of blindsided by it.
“I was really personally hurt by it because the Rams were my team growing up. I’m just glad to be part of the team which brought pro football back to St. Louis.”
Hayes wants chaos from fans, improvement from the ‘Hawks
Hayes knows his football team will be challenged this week when they take on a big and physical New York team in their home opener.
But like most XFL coaches, Hayes wants to see improvement. One area of concern is on extra point conversions. St. Louis failed to convert on any of its four PAT’s a week ago in a 28-24 loss at Houston.
“We have to eliminate the mistakes. We have to play more sound and we have to come out early and play well early in the game,” Hayes said. “We scored 24 points last week but we were 0-for-4 on our two point conversions. That’s what it is really killing us to be quite honest about it.
“As we continue to look at it and analyze it, the whole league is down on its conversion attempts. I just told our players that there are no magic words or magic pills to fix it. We just have to go out and execute.”
Hayes, like all of his players, is looking forward to playing in the Dome at America’s Center on Sunday. He also has one request of the hometown fans.
“I’m hoping the atmosphere Sunday will be chaotic. I really do. I’m very excited about playing our first game at home,” Hayes said. “These guys and this football team have been on the road for two weeks and we’re all looking forward to a little home support. I think we’ll get that.”
