Southern Miss athletes face numerous challenges as they strive to meet the high expectations set by the media and community, and Jeramie Posey, a USM football player, understands this pressure firsthand.
Posey is a sophomore but in football is a red shirt freshman. He shared that last season, he grappled with the weight of perfectionism. Adding to the pressure, his father, Jeff Posey, a celebrated Southern Miss alum and former NFL player with a 10-year career, never experienced being redshirted. This made it difficult for him to accept the role of a redshirt freshman, knowing his father never faced that path.
“I feel that with my last name, and even with myself, excellence is a big thing with me and when I think I’ve fallen short of that,” Posey said. “I do get overwhelmed a lot.”
But over time, Posey has learned to manage that pressure. Maturity, he says, has been key.
“It’s not as overwhelming to perform because time has shown me that I can do the things I say and know I can do,” he said.
Posey isn’t just focused on the football field. As the only football player in the prestigious USM Honors College, he holds himself to a high standard academically as well. He sees how many athletes tie their self-worth entirely to football, something he strives to avoid. And he believes that anyone can tell when a player had a bad practice, and it can deeply affect their mental stability.
“When you underperform that means that as a person you aren’t worth as much as you thought; that can be crushing,” he said.
Head coach Will Hall recognizes this pressure and is determined to change the narrative.
“We want them to be good husbands, fathers, and leaders,” Hall said. “I think they know we care about them in more ways than just football. We tell them that in recruiting.”
Posey echoes this sentiment. He believes that football, while important, can’t be everything. Because the sport is glamorized and commercialized, it is common for players to fall into the mindset that the game is all they have. But Posey personally goes against this idea.
To maintain balance, he dedicates half of his day to football and the other half to academics. It’s not easy, especially when most people only ask him about his performance on the field. But he stays grounded and often offers advice to fellow college athletes.
Posey believes that it’s more pressure for him to succeed in football than in academics, especially since that is all people ask him about. His advice to college athletes is to understand who you are without the sport. He encourages athletes to attempt to make time for themselves outside of their sport, so it doesn’t affect their social life.
“Everyone wants to play football forever, but no one can play football forever,” he said.