It’s been an interesting few years in the recruitment process for Jordan Kitna, son of former 16-year NFL veteran quarterback Jon Kitna.
But on national signing day on Feb. 3, it all came to an end, as the senior quarterback from Waxahachie, Texas chose to go the preferred walk-on route at MSU.
Jordan Kitna didn’t receive a ton of recruiting attention in high school. Even after a junior year of throwing for 3,722 yards and 55 touchdowns and leading his team to an 11-1 record at Lincoln High School in Tacoma, Wash. — where his father was the head football coach and a part-time math teacher — schools were too fixated on size.
By the end of his junior season, Kitna stood just 6 feet tall, weighed about 200 pounds and had yet to receive a Division I offer.
In January 2015, Jon Kitna accepted an offer to be the head coach at Waxahachie High School in Texas, meaning the Kitna family would move to Texas for Jordan’s senior year.
The following fall, Kitna fought through injury to throw for 2,100 yards and 21 touchdowns in seven games, helping Waxahachie High School to a 6-4 record. Parts of the move were tough, he’ll admit, but by playing in the football-crazed state of Texas, Jordan Kitna was able to prove to himself and college coaches that he could play at a high level.
“It’s definitely been a benefit more than a burden,” Jordan Kitna said. “The recruiting is way better down here than up there and it’s a bigger spotlight down here. ... I’m playing at the highest level of high school football there is and it proved in my mind I could play at the Division I level at a power five conference school.”
Still, even though his recruitment began to pick up his senior year, besides a lone Division I offer from Connecticut, the offers didn’t come.
“They just kind of felt he was caught in this weird environment of where he was at developmentally,” Jon Kitna said. “He’s a late bloomer, just like I was. ... Also, moving from Washington, he got kind of caught in a recruiting no man’s land.”
Jon Kitna also said while there were a lot of schools recruiting his son, in watching tapes of Jordan, a lot of the smaller schools told Jon they’d love to have him, but told the Kitnas he was a power-five quarterback, and didn’t want to waste their time recruiting him.
This only further confirmed to the Kitnas that Jordan belonged at a big-time school.
At some point in the recruiting process, Jordan Kitna came into contact with the coaching staff at MSU, and credits the relationships he was able to build with those coaches for why he chose to walk on at MSU, even though they didn’t have a scholarship available for him.
“I really love the coaches and the players and the environment there,” Jordan Kitna said. “It’s like a family environment where they’re more concerned about the player and how he develops as a person than the progress on the field. I think that kind of helps mentally when the players and coaches care about each other. They want to have a relationship with the players throughout their whole life. That’s part of their philosophy and that’s something that’s important to me.”
Jordan Kitna’s story as an underrated and unheralded recruit is a familiar one for his family. His father was a seldom heard of recruit in the early 1990s and eventually played college football for Central Washington University, an NAIA school in Ellensburg, Wash.
And after going undrafted in the 1996 NFL Draft and spending a season with the Barcelona Dragons in NFL Europe, Jon Kitna went on to a 16-year NFL career with the Seattle Seahawks, Cincinnati Bengals, Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys.
It’s because of his own journey Jon Kitna reiterates to his son that everyone’s path is different. Jon Kitna also said there is a part of him that wishes he would have taken a shot at walking on at a larger program out of college, and is happy his son is taking that shot.
“God’s got a specific journey and path for him, and his job is to be obedient in the path,” Jon Kitna said. “My journey is rare, obviously, and the one thing that we kept coming back to with him was, we’re going to support you whatever decision you make.”
In the meantime, Jordan Kitna is looking forward to charting his own path in college, and doing whatever he can to help his team.
“Whether that’s being on the scout team or starting at MSU or whatever, I just want to be able to help the team,” Jordan Kitna said. “Whatever my role is, I respect the coaches a lot. I understand that I could come in and never play a down of football in a game, but that’s ultimately where I want to go to school. I think that’s where I’ll enjoy my four years of college. ... I’d really love to earn a scholarship. That’s one of my goals. ... It’s going to be a long road and it’s going to be a lot of hard work, but I’m up to it.”
