SMU adds former MLB player Jordyn Adams, turning a 2018 five-star wide receiver into a college football scholarship option

SMU’s football program has signed former MLB player Jordyn Adams to a scholarship, a move that blends recent pro experience with blue-chip recruiting pedigree. Adams is 26 years old and, according to the recruiting rankings cited in the announcement coverage, was regarded as one of the nation’s premier wide receiver prospects in 2018.

Adams’ path to football came with an extended detour through baseball. Coverage of the signing notes that Adams previously reached the professional ranks in MLB before returning to the college game. That background changes how teams might think about maturity and readiness, even if his on-field production in this new chapter is still unknown.

The football recruiting angle was central to how Adams was evaluated coming out of high school. He was listed as the No. 3 wide receiver in the 2018 class, positioned just behind Amon-Ra St. Brown in that recruiting tier. For SMU, that kind of ranking matters because it indicates the caliber of receiver talent the program is attempting to keep in its pipeline.

While the signing places Adams on SMU’s scholarship list, the details of how quickly he will factor into the Mustangs’ offense are not something that can be confirmed from the information provided here. In-season roles for transfers and older recruits can vary based on practice-time opportunities, position competition, and how quickly a player adjusts to a new playbook and college workload.

SMU’s receiver room will now carry more intrigue. Adams arrives with the label of an elite prospect and the credibility of having competed as an athlete at the professional level, but college coaches still decide weekly based on current performance in training, route execution, and reliability in the offense’s timing window.

From a program-building perspective, the move also highlights how teams can use scholarship signings to reshape depth and develop specific skill sets. Wide receivers are often developed over time in college football, and a player with Adams’ profile can potentially change summer camp expectations and spring evaluation priorities for SMU.

The next things to watch are straightforward: whether Adams is positioned for meaningful reps early in the offseason, how he performs in practice against established defensive matchups, and what role coaches envision for him in the Mustangs’ passing attack as the new season approaches.