Coming Home: Jaxon Player commits to Baylor over Arkansas, OU, OSU & TCU

Baylor’s defense — specifically the defensive line — got better for the 2022 football season with some big news on Sunday evening.

After playing four seasons at Tulsa University, former Waco (TX) Midway High School defensive lineman Jaxon Player announced that he would play his final season of college football in his home city, giving Dave Aranda and the Baylor coaching staff his commitment.

Player will enroll in time to start the spring semester which begins on Tuesday at Baylor.

Player was a hot commodity in the transfer portal as the the All-American Athletic Conference prospect received attention from around the country. Ultimately, Player focused his recruitment on Arkansas Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and TCU before choosing Baylor.

After taking a visit to TCU two weeks ago, Player took a mid-week official visit to Baylor last week, finished with an official visit to Arkansas over the weekend.

The 6-foot-0, 294-pounder piled up 87 tackles, 23.5 for loss, and eight sacks in 22 games over the past two seasons at Tulsa including 15.0 tackles for loss, 5.0 sacks and 50 tackles as a senior in 2021. In his four-year collegiate, Player finished 138 tackles, 31.0 tackles for loss and 8.0 sacks. 

Player will utilize his additional year of eligibility allowed by the NCAA from the 2020 season which was impacted by multiple COVID interruptions across the country. 

As a three-star high school recruit in the 2018 class, Player finished his high school career with 274 tackles, 50.0 for loss, 18.0 sacks and seven forced fumbles.