Texas wide receiver and world class long jumper Marquise Goodwin is coming back to the Texas football team. Goodwin was originally going to sit out and redshirt this season to focus on his Olympic dreams, but after watching the Rice game Saturday he texted Coach Mack Brown and told him he wanted to come back to the team. He’ll back on the practice field tomorrow with the rest of the team.
Goodwin’s return is a huge boost to a very young (but talented) receiving corps. Goodwin probably slots behind Mike Davis and freshman Jaxon Shipley but he’ll bring gamebreaking speed and good hands to a team that can never get enough of either. He’ll look great running the jet sweep.
Quotes from the official MBTF press release:
“Words can’t even explain how I excited I am right now to be getting back on the football field,” Goodwin said. “When I was overseas, I was missing football, the guys and being a part of the team so much. I thought about how they were getting ready for the season, working hard and pulling together, but it really hit me when I was in the airport on my way back from Seoul. People were texting and tweeting me with updates from the game. I don’t know how anybody could feel what I was feeling at that time. I just was missing being there terribly and didn’t want to wait a year to play again. I just wanted to get back out there and didn’t want to be saying ‘what if’ after the season.”
“When Marquise talked to me and our coaches about coming back and playing this year we were 100 percent in support if that was what he wanted to do,” Brown said. “He had decided earlier to redshirt and focus on track and field, and we backed him then just as we are now. He’s a tremendous young man who is blessed with a lot of ability in both football and track and field. Marquise has had great success in both sports and will continue to, but at the end of the day, what I heard from him was that he really missed football and wanted to play this year. We want what’s best for him and know he’s in great shape, is a fast learner and can help us, so we’re glad to have him back.”
Goodwin’s junior season in track and field was a stellar one as he won the U.S. Outdoor National title, set the UT indoor school record in the event, earned three First Team All-America honors and swept the Big 12 long jump titles.
Goodwin leaped 27-4 to claim the U.S. title in the long jump and earn a spot in the World Championships. Competing at that meet in Daegu, Korea last week, he finished 13th in the qualifying rounds with a leap of 26-3.75 (8.02m). The top 12 finishers advanced to the final round, but despite being tied with the 11th and 12th-place jumpers, he did not advance due to a tiebreaker based on next best jump.
“I really appreciate coach Brown, (men’s track and field head) coach (Bubba) Thornton and all of my coaches for being so supportive of me through all of this,” Goodwin said. “They stood behind me when I decided to redshirt and couldn’t have been more understanding and agreeable when I wanted to come back. It’s a wonderful feeling knowing that you have those kinds of people — my family here at UT — believing in and standing behind you.”
“We’re really happy Marquise is going to come back and play football this year,” Thornton said. “We’re excited about the experiences he had this summer with track and field and are going to support him 100 percent in anything he does. He still has a dream of winning a medal at the Olympics and being part of the U.S. Olympic team, and we’ll be there to help him work to achieve that, but right now he wants to make the most of this time and we couldn’t be happier for him.”
Prior to the World Championships, Goodwin captured the silver medal on the final day of the 2011 World University Games with a jump of 26-4.25 (8.03m) in Shenzhen, China in August.
“I texted Coach Brown after the game on Saturday and told him how much I missed football,” Goodwin said. “I said was having second thoughts about redshirting and he said, ‘We miss you and need you, so come out if you want.’ That was so nice to hear so I called Coach Thornton to clear it with him first. He was very supportive, as he always is. We had a really nice talk and he just made it clear that he wants whatever is best for me. So, after that, I decided to make the move and get back on the football field.”
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