Jalen Guyton has dedicated his life to football. He grew up in a town where state champions are the closest thing to royalty and played multiple games in an NFL stadium.

“I have a new type of respect for football,” Guyton said. “I kind of look at life in terms of football. Today is a football game that I got to overcome. This week is a football game. It’s a metaphor for life.”

Currently at North Texas (2-2, 1-0 Conference USA), his third college in three years, Guyton is trying to hang onto his NFL dream. A four-star recruit out of Allen (Texas) High school, Guyton committed to Notre Dame and redshirted his first season. On Dec. 18, 2015, two weeks before the Irish faced Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl, Guyton was suspended for disciplinary reasons and left the program.

After a one-year stint at Trinity Valley (Texas) Community College, Guyton returned to Division I football and enrolled at North Texas. Guyton has started all four games and is second on the team with four touchdowns.

“I don’t see (North Texas) as an endgame,” Guyton said. “Right now, I’m focused on being the best football player, student, teammate I can be.”

As a child, he spent Sundays either watching the Dallas Cowboys at home or driving an hour south to AT&T Stadium to experience it live.

Entering high school, he was greeted with a $60 million, 18,000-seat stadium and the aura of being one of the best players in Texas. The pinnacle of Guyton’s high school career came in 2014, when he led the Allen Eagles to its third-straight Class 6A state title and played in front more than 50,000 people in AT&T Stadium.

“When you’re in the stands, it’s great,” Guyton said. “When you’re on the field you’re the apex of everybody’s attention.”

On Feb. 4, 2015, Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly tweeted a photo with his arm around Guyton with the caption, “Had to pull out all stops to get my man from Texas, including a boat, jet skis and floaties. Haha! Welcome, J!”

Less than a year later, Guyton was prohibited from attending the Irish’s annual awards dinner and started looking for a new school.

His dad, Jeff, likened the transfer process to starting over. No longer a blue-chip recruit, Guyton went to Trinity Valley. The expansive stadiums and sleek locker rooms were left behind and traded for Bruce Field a stadium with a capacity of 4,000, one-fourth of Allen’s stadium. For Guyton, this was like being down late in the fourth quarter with the game, and his career, on the line.

“(Playing at Trinity Valley) opened my eyes,” Guyton said. “It makes you want to love football more. I learned at Trinity Valley. I appreciate it, I think I needed that experience.”

In 12 games for the Cardinals, Guyton caught 45 passes for 968 yards and 12 touchdowns. He was rated as the third best JUCO wide receiver in the 2017 class, per 247sports.com. Texas was where his career began and leaving for Notre Dame almost ruined it. Returning saved it.

Courtesy of North Texas Athletics Department

After rejecting offers from Marshall, Bowling Green and West Virginia, Guyton opted to stay close to home and chose North Texas — an hour away from his hometown — and became a part of the football team’s leadership council.

During the Mean Green’s fourth contest of the season on Sept. 23, Guyton lined up on the right side of the formation and ran a go-route. He battled with the cornerback down the sideline, located the ball and grabbed it over the top of the defender. Twenty yards from the end zone, he juked past the safety and carried another defender over the goal line for a touchdown in an eventual 46-43 win.

“You can always battle back,” Guyton said. “It’s not really about what happens to you, it’s about how you react.”

Published on September 26, 2017 at 10:24 pm

Contact Nick: [email protected] | @nick_a_alvarez