MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — T.J. Simmons showed his toughness on the third play of the Texas game when his helmet got knocked off, but he still made the catch before getting crunched again with a host of Longhorn defenders around him.
But it didn’t take long for West Virginia’s junior wide receiver to show his soft side during postgame interviews when he brought his 3-month-old daughter, Leilani, with him to the table.
It’s been a whirlwind three years for Simmons, who has been through a transfer, a coaching change, struggles and success on the field, and becoming a father. But it all seemed to come together last Saturday against Texas.
Other than taking a big hit without his helmet on, Simmons easily had his best game in a Mountaineer uniform. He caught seven passes for 135 yards and a touchdown, and going back to his days at Clay-Chalkville High School in Birmingham, Ala., that’s the type of performance many expected Simmons to have at the next level.
Simmons just took a windy road to get there.
He was a 4-star prospect according to Rivals.com, and like any kid who grew up in Alabama, when Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide came calling, there was no hesitation to accept Alabama’s offer.
“I committed to Alabama on the spot — whenever I found out I was getting the offer, I took the time to talk to my parents that night and talked to a couple of my coaches and they told me that if that’s what I wanted to do, then do it,” Simmons said. “It was ideal because my mom could come to all the games and my grandparents could come to all the games. It wasn’t far from home and I could come home any time. It felt like the right situation coming out of high school.”
The Crimson Tide was coming off its fourth national championship in seven years, and during Simmons’ freshman year, Alabama fell short of another when it lost to Clemson. That season, Simmons played sparingly and was mainly used on special teams.
Fellow wide receivers Calvin Ridley, who would eventually be a first round pick by the Atlanta Falcons, Jerry Jeudy, Henry Ruggs III and Cam Sims were coming back in 2017.
After spending spring camp is Tuscaloosa, Simmons decided he wanted to go elsewhere, even though it was a difficult decision.
“I made a lot of friends there and there’s a lot of people on that team that I’m really close with,” he said. “It was more like a personal decision — I saw myself being able to go somewhere to make more plays, have a bigger role and a bigger impact on another team. When I was in high school, I was ‘a guy,’ but when the whole team is ‘a guy,’ then it’s hard to really stand out.”
Alabama consistently has one of the best recruiting classes in the country and as a result, it churns out first-round NFL draft picks nearly every year. Simmons wanted to go somewhere where he could make his own name.
That’s where West Virginia came into play.
When Simmons announced he wanted to transfer, an old friend reached out. Doug Belk, who was a graduate assistant at Alabama while Simmons was there, became the cornerbacks coach at WVU in 2017. Simmons gave Belk — now at Houston with Dana Holgorsen — a call on a Sunday after entering the transfer portal, and by the next Friday, Simmons was in Morgantown for a visit.
“West Virginia was always a school that I’d like to go to with guys like Tavon Austin and the Air Raid offense,” Simmons said. “I thought the Big 12 was a great place for a receiver to go out and showcase his talents. I just fell in love with it when I came up here.”
Simmons had to sit out the 2017 season because of NCAA transfer rules, but he preferred that over taking the junior college route, wanting to get in and learn a new system right away.
In his first game with the Mountaineers last season against Tennessee, Simmons scored the first touchdown of the year, making a catch on a crossing pattern and sprinting down the sideline for a score.
“I knew I had potential to do big things after that catch, but then it was just working to do that,” he said.
However, that was the only touchdown he had the remainder of the season as the No. 4 receiver, finishing the year with 28 catches for 341 yards. The on-field struggles were minor, but he was also flagged for a critical personal foul against Oklahoma for blocking too far out of bounds that wiped out a long run by Kennedy McKoy. That drive ended in a Sooners’ defensive touchdown and also ended WVU’s shot at the Big 12 title game.
Labeled as the Mountaineers top returning starter in 2019, it was a slow start for Simmons this season. He did have five catches for 58 yards in the opener against JMU, but followed that up with eight catches for 67 yards combined over the next three games before finally breaking out against Texas.
Simmons also took blame for WVU struggles in the run game with his outside blocking, but coach Neal Brown credits his ability to put production issues aside to improve his blocking after the first two games.
“I’ve put him in a leadership role — he’s older, but he’s also a guy that you can coach and correct,” Brown said. “He doesn’t take it personal. He’s a guy that you can push and he understands that you have what’s best for him in mind. I was pleased with how he responded. He had some big plays there across the middle.”
But most important to Simmons, being a dad is like having a full-time job.
“It’s like being the head coach of a football team,” he said. “It’s a crazy experience. She’s growing in front of my eyes, just getting bigger every day. Like I said Saturday, even though we lost the game, it was good to come and see her. She’s smiling at me and laughing, so the loss didn’t really hurt that much.”
