A letter, DeSean Jackson and track: Porter is confident heading into 2020

The letter’s body is 14 lines of such neat penmanship from an eighth-grade boy, that surely he took his time.

The prompt was simple: Write a letter to someone you admire. It’s easy to galvanize elementary-school kids into writing to the people they most look up to. Especially if they never think that person will see it.

The boy -- we’ll call him Jacob (withholding his name for consent reasons) -- turned the assignment to his teacher. Jacob’s subject was only four years older than him but already doing everything he envisioned just years later. He was a star football player at the local high school, Etiwanda, setting records and drawing interest from big-time colleges.

Months earlier, Jacob went to Etiwanda’s 59-55 loss to Redlands East Valley. There, a 6-foot-2, 172-pound senior with 14 scholarship offers set a school record with seven catches for 256 yards and four touchdowns.

From then on, Jacob looked up to Geordon Porter. He became a fan -- and made Porter the recipient of his school paper. Little did he know that the teacher he turned the paper into at Heritage Intermediate School in Fontana, Calif. had known Porter since he was 6. Or that the school’s assistant principal had known him since he was born.

Kim Porter, Geordon’s mom, was shown the letter from the class’ teacher. A former track athlete at Cal, she tries to almost disassociate her children’s athletic achievements from who they are because, to her, they are her children first and foremost.

But she was taken aback by the note. It was the clearest indication that her 17-year old son was having an impact on a young student. He was now a role model, one with a platform to inspire and do good.

“I think it’s important for athletes -- I hear people always say they shouldn’t be role models but I totally disagree with that,” Kim Porter said. “You have so many people watching you and if you have an opportunity to make an impact in a kid’s life, that to me is priceless.”

A few days later, Porter surprised Jacob, strolling into his classroom on a random afternoon. Just his presence sent the eighth-grader into a frenzy of emotion. He started to tear up as he walked around the room in shock and disbelief. Porter hugged him, spoke to him about football, about Etiwanda and then signed gloves for him.

“You’re like, ‘Dang, a kid is actually looking up to me. I’ve got to set a good example,’” Porter said. “That means a lot, really. In that community, you just grow up inspiring others. That’s really what it’s about.”

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Kim Porter had to be very slow as she explained it just to make sure the other person could understand the connection.

“You’ve got to kind of follow it,” she noted. “My brother-in-law’s (Her sister’s husband) -- because they are all Long Beach Poly alums -- his brother is actually kind of DeSean Jackson’s assistant.”

Porter first met the three-time Pro Bowl wide receiver at a barbecue a little less than a decade ago. And even then, Porter, as a teenager was almost at eye-level with the 5-foot-10 Jackson. Every so often over the years, the Porters would get an invite to a charity event Jackson was a part of.

Last summer, Porter attended a charity basketball game put on by Cincinnati Bengals’ receiver John Ross, which included, among others, L.A. Chargers’ wideout Keenan Allen and Jackson. It was a chance for Porter, who already had a year of college football under his belt, to pick their brains.

It helped, too, that Porter shares at least one trait with the NFL trio. He has speed.

“I was just asking them like, ‘How is it at the next level? How did you do so well in college?’ Porter said. “Keenan Allen, personally, I think he’s one of the best route runners in the league, so I was just asking him how he runs his routes so well. And he just said, ‘Reading safeties.’”

Porter actually took the advice into his redshirt freshman season at ASU. He was hampered through fall camp and didn’t see much playing time behind ASU’s starters Brandon Aiyuk, Kyle Williams and Frank Darby, managing six catches for just 75 yards.

Above all else, he worked on keeping his eyes up and reading defenses pre-snap. Regardless, his name still somewhat floats around as only a deep-ball threat. In the same sense, Darby is going through a similar perception as a speedster who can only take the top of the defense.

That’s true. But, as both quick to note, if they use their speed correctly and combine it with quick feet and crisp routes, there should be immediate improvements in their short and intermediate routes.

“(My strength is) speed, obviously,” Porter said. “One thing I feel like is my speed has helped me open up my underneath game because people are so scared about the deep routes.”

By sheer genes, Porter was going to be fast. Kim ran track at Cal before transferring to USC to pursue her education while Porter’s father, George, was an elite hurdler at USC who held the United States high-school record in the 300m intermediate hurdles for more than 20 years.

“My dad always says, ‘No matter what, you have to know what type of receiver you are, know what type of player you are. Use your speed. That always has to be your game no matter what,’” Porter said.”

Despite their track background, Kim and George didn’t push Porter into track as a young kid. It wasn’t until high school that he decided to join the Etiwanda track team as, mostly, a way to improve his speed during football’s offseason.

It turned into a little more than that. At 16-years old, Porter clocked in at 4.32-seconds in the 40-yard dash and recorded a personal best 100-meter time of 10.61 seconds.

“I think that if he was more passionate (about track) and (put in the same time towards that as) he does with football, he would have really clocked in a time lower than 10.6,” Kim Porter said.

“It’s just that when you run 10.4, you run 10.6 – not that many people at the college level (or) the pros run that fast,” George Porter told Devils Digest in 2018. “It’s a weapon that you’ve got to use.”

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Geordon Porter’s decision to choose ASU came down to one phone call. He was a Notre Dame commit for the longest time. Sure, the Sun Devils were his clear No. 2 choice but with the instability of then-head coach Todd Graham, he was hesitant to join a program on the precipice of a staff overhaul.

A little more than a month after he pledged his services to the Fighting Irish, Rob Likens -- then the ASU wide receivers coach who would turn into the Devils’ offensive coordinator -- told Porter that the energetic personality he was watching on ESPN, yeah, he was the new ASU coach.

Soon after Herm Edwards accepted the position, he phoned the three-star wide receiver from Southern California. The newly-minted coach understood Porter was still a Notre Dame commit but pitched him on something even a program with 11 National Championships couldn’t offer.

“He was just saying, ‘Come here, man. We’ve got to get ready to win the Pac-12. We’ve got to beat USC,’” Porter remembered Edwards telling him. “That fired me up … When your parents come from USC and you’re not going there, it’s like, ‘Oh yeah, we have to beat them.’

“After that phone call, my whole mindset flipped.”

Porter would, of course, head to Tempe. He’s only recorded 11 catches in two years, a spot that would cause some frustration. He sees it as Edwards’ keeping his promise from that phone call two years ago. He told Porter he was going to play the best players and, as Porter mentioned, so far he has.

In the last signing class, the Sun Devils signed four four-star wide receivers, a noteworthy haul that seems to put Porter’s spot on the depth chart in question. It reaffirms ASU’s emphasis on competition but forces guys like Porter into a state of urgency.

For now, he seems just fine with that.

“ASU hasn’t really seen the real Geordon Porter and what he’s able to do,” Kim Porter said.

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