{"id":158092,"date":"2019-09-09T22:57:06","date_gmt":"2019-09-09T19:57:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ww-vb.mine.nu\/w108\/student-athlete-jared-pinkney-vanderbilt-news\/"},"modified":"2019-09-09T22:57:06","modified_gmt":"2019-09-09T19:57:06","slug":"student-athlete-jared-pinkney-vanderbilt-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hameed.nwar.uk\/sa\/student-athlete-jared-pinkney-vanderbilt-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Student-athlete: Jared Pinkney | Vanderbilt News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> [ad_1]<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><strong>Video by Zack Eagles<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Story by Max Schneider<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Jared Pinkney could have heard his name called on the second day of the NFL Draft.<\/p>\n<p>Graded as a \u201csecond- to fourth-round prospect,\u201d Vanderbilt\u2019s star tight end had a decision to make: turn pro or return to the university to finish out his senior season.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"795\" height=\"447\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/sZa6h1zAibY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Most players would relish the idea of leaving school early to just focus on football, but Pinkney wasn\u2019t going anywhere.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I see the degree and then I see the opportunities I\u2019m going to have in football, for me to have done that at the same time, I feel like that\u2019s a huge accomplishment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>For anyone who has met Pinkney, his decision comes as no surprise. He is spending his final semester relentlessly pursuing his main goals: get drafted in the first round and graduate in December. Departing from West End at the conclusion of last year\u2019s Texas Bowl wouldn\u2019t have helped him achieve either. This year, he\u2019s poised to accomplish both.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s an old soul in a young man\u2019s body,\u201d head coach Derek Mason says of Pinkney. \u201cHe\u2019s one of the hardest workers you\u2019ll find on and off the field.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pinkney concurs with his coach\u2019s assessment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOh definitely,\u201d says Pinkney of his \u201cold soul\u201d designation. \u201cIt\u2019s always been about football.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s evident in how Pinkney spends his free time. When he\u2019s not at practice or studying for his next communications exam, he\u2019s in his room watching film. Sometimes that film is of his next opponent. Other times it\u2019s film of some of the league\u2019s best tight ends, trying to dissect Zach Ertz\u2019s play to improve his own skillset, for example. He is, in every sense, a student of the game, and that bleeds through when he starts talking football.<\/p>\n<p>Pinkney understands his role in the offense, and he understands the dirty work of his job. He is just as insightful when discussing his front-side blocking assignments on outside zone as he is talking about a 30-yard touchdown catch over the middle. He knows that\u2019s what will separate him from the pack.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy goals have always been the same since I first started, and that\u2019s always just to be the best at what I do,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>That perfectionist approach and the strict attention to detail is what defines Jared Pinkney. It\u2019s why his fumble late in the third quarter of the Texas Bowl crushed him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you put in the amount of work that I do, seeing it not really come to fruition, it hurts,\u201d he says of that play. \u201cIt definitely played a part in my ultimate decision to come back.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Now, back on campus and with the opening weekend of college football season just days away, Pinkney is ready to elevate his game. With a new quarterback and new faces on the offensive line, he will be as vital as ever to Vanderbilt\u2019s offensive attack.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s seen a bunch of things, so really between the O-line and tight ends and the O-line and quarterback there\u2019s a ton of communication that goes on,\u201d says offensive coordinator Gerry Gdowski. \u201cSo for a guy like Jared who\u2019s seen it all, when you have a young tackle, he can help with some of that communication that goes on.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pinkney understands that role well, and attributes his ability to effectively communicate to his studies in the classroom. Classes like public speaking have helped him streamline chemistry with his quarterback and offensive line, tackle press conferences, and handle the chaos of SEC Media Day.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s been a busy offseason for Pinkney. He has already accumulated countless preseason All-America honors, including several first-team nods, a preseason nomination for the Biletnikoff Award, as well as a preseason nomination for the John Mackey Award, given to the best tight end in the country.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt shouldn\u2019t be there right now if we\u2019re being honest,\u201d Pinkney says of his name being uttered in the same sentence as Mackey\u2019s. \u201cI hope to one day earn the place to be able to be mentioned alongside his name and some other greats.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For Pinkney, hearing his name alongside John Mackey is secondary, because right now, Vanderbilt\u2019s leader only wants to hear his name called in two places: right before he walks across the stage to collect his diploma, and when the commissioner reads it off his draft card that first Thursday night in May.<\/p>\n<p>Until then, Jared Pinkney has work to do, and he\u2019s back for one more semester to make sure he finishes what he started.<\/p>\n<p><em>A version of this story originally appeared in the Vanderbilt Hustler.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<h3>More Student-Athlete Stories<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p>[ad_2]<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/feedproxy.google.com\/~r\/vanderbilt-video\/~3\/xnjXnMn36ms\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[ad_1] Video by Zack Eagles Story by Max Schneider Jared Pinkney could have heard his name called on the second day of the NFL Draft. Graded as a \u201csecond- to fourth-round prospect,\u201d Vanderbilt\u2019s star tight end had a decision to make: turn pro or return to the university to finish out his senior season. Most &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":158095,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[110834,110835,92254,24460,110836,33496,814,49091,92250,92258,5705,92251,92252],"class_list":["post-158092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tie-world","tag-communication-studies","tag-derek-mason","tag-featured-media","tag-football","tag-jared-pinkney","tag-nashville","tag-news","tag-research","tag-social-stories","tag-student-athlete-campaign","tag-university","tag-vanderbilt","tag-vanderbilt-university"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hameed.nwar.uk\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hameed.nwar.uk\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hameed.nwar.uk\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hameed.nwar.uk\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hameed.nwar.uk\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hameed.nwar.uk\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hameed.nwar.uk\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hameed.nwar.uk\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hameed.nwar.uk\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hameed.nwar.uk\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}