It wasn’t the game winning goal in overtime at Oregon in 2012, and it wasn’t even the game winner against Utah during the team’s last home game of the season, but Jordan Williamson’s 51-yard field goal — his longest career kick — was quite the way for the psychology major to walk out of Stanford Stadium on his Senior Day. The fifth-year senior kicker will end his career on the Farm as the point leader and field goal leader for Stanford football and as the nation’s active leader in field goals made. The Austin, Texas native met with The Stanford Daily’s Ashley Westhem after practice leading up to Big Game to discuss his time on the Farm and plans for the future.
The Stanford Daily (TSD): Your senior year, in your Senior Day game you kick your longest career field goal. It wasn’t the game-winning field goal, but still, what was going through your mind?
Jordan Williamson (JW): It was really nice, but honestly, you’ve got to treat every kick the same. It is exciting to hit that and especially the last time on that field, but for the most part, it felt like any other kick that you would hit. Now, it was a little bit different having it be in overtime and in an emotional part of the game, but really, it was just pretty much the same as any other kick.
TSD: Being a fifth-year senior, you’ve been around the team a lot. You’ve obviously had your ups and downs and you’ve seen many faces and stages of Stanford football. Can you just talk about the changes you went through personally and also team changes throughout your five years?
JW: Yeah, honestly, personally when I got here I was young, I didn’t know a lot. I was probably a little immature, and over the course of the four and a half, five years that I’ve been here, things have become better. I’ve learned my role, my position, and kind of just grown up over the course of my career. And then kicking-wise and physically, over four or five years you learn a lot. You know your tendencies, you know how you need to perform, the small things that affect you but maybe not other people. And so you really just find your own groove. Pretty much, that’s what I’ve done. Is everything perfected? Not even close. There’s so much that I can work on and I can improve on. But you find more and more every day and you just try to continue and get better.
TSD: What’s been the high point of your football career?
JW: High point of my football career — I think it’s kind of two-sided. Hitting the game-winner at Oregon was phenomenal, was excellent, but just also being able to go with the team to the Rose Bowl, win that two years ago, that was, on a team level, phenomenal. I wouldn’t trade those experiences for anything.
TSD: You probably always planned on playing football in college, but if you weren’t a full-time athlete and student, how do you think you would’ve spent your time at Stanford? Or what else would you have liked to have done?
JW: You know, it’s hard to say. I’d probably be playing a lot of recreational, intramural sports, like soccer and stuff like that. Probably training a lot, doing a lot of running and lifting. Not quite as much time as I do now, but I’d probably do a decent amount of athletic stuff. Other than that, I don’t know if my academics would’ve really changed other than I would’ve had a little bit more time to study for things and put a little bit more effort into some of the stuff that I was doing. My biggest regret would probably be not getting to really venture out and see all that the Bay Area had to offer. So if I wasn’t playing sports, I probably would’ve ventured out and seen a little more of the Bay Area and gone and done some of the touristy stuff.
TSD: What are your plans for after graduation, or even after football season?
JW: I’m going to train and see if I can go to the NFL, give it a shot, just to try it out and see how it goes. So I’ll be doing that still and taking classes here for the rest of the year. But then I have a job lined up with Cisco Systems, which is awesome, so if things don’t work out for the NFL I’d probably take that offer, go join Cisco and their family there.
TSD: What is one thing that people don’t really know about you, or something that people would be really surprised to know? A fun thing, a hidden talent or something like that.
JW: My personal endeavor has been working on my ’71 Cutlass Convertible that my dad handed down to me in high school. I don’t know if that counts as a fun fact. I used to tie my own ties from fly-fishing. I do a lot of fly-fishing, but other than that I would just spend all my time doing soccer [in high school].
Contact Ashley Westhem at awesthem ‘at’ stanford.edu.