Three nights after Jalin Hyatt caught five touchdown passes against Alabama, T-shirts were getting printed with the Tennessee receiver’s face on them. An art print showing all five routes into the checkerboard end zones was commissioned. Agents blew up Hyatt’s phone asking whether the junior intended to enter the next NFL Draft.
Hyatt could have walked into any public space in Knoxville and been celebrated by everyone present. So where was he?
Hyatt was inside Tennessee’s indoor practice facility, catching balls from a Jugs machine.
Thunk.
Catch.
Thunk.
Catch.
Thunk.
Catch.
The Volunteers practice in the morning. Hyatt could have been anywhere else at 9 p.m. on a Tuesday. Certainly, he’d be able to run past UT-Martin defenders the next Saturday without extra work. Yet something told him he needed more. Catching five touchdowns against Alabama might be tough to top, but it didn’t have to be the highlight of his football life. It didn’t even have to be the highlight of Hyatt’s 2022 season.
“Expectations have changed,” Hyatt said. “Requirements have changed. You have to keep going. You don’t want to be a one-hit wonder.”
Perhaps he heard his mom’s voice in his head. As Jalin and his younger brother Devin grew up playing football, basketball and running track in Irmo, S.C., Enevelyn Hyatt would ask her boys how good they thought they were.
Are you Rec Team Good?
Are you YMCA Good?
As Jalin prepared to enter Dutch Fork High, the South Carolina high school football powerhouse where Enevlyn taught math and his dad, Jamie, taught English, the question changed.
Are you Dutch Fork Good?
