How Kansas’ Jordan Shelley-Smith gained 50 pounds and earned look at left tackle

The alarm clock was set for 3 a.m., every night, no exceptions.

When it sounded, Jordan Shelley-Smith would pop awake in the middle of the night, still groggy as he pawed his way through the darkness of his apartment. He was tired, but functional. Sometimes he would even forget that he had woken up in the first place. His body, though, did not forget, and neither did his waistline.

Each night, when the alarm performed its duty, Shelley-Smith would chug a large protein shake and then return to bed. This was the nightly path to the offensive line.

“I was that guy,” Shelley-Smith says.

On a Monday afternoon in April, Shelley-Smith is sitting in the Anderson Family Football Complex, waiting for another day of Kansas spring football practice. In the last eight months, Shelley-Smith has transformed from a 248-pound sophomore tight end to a 297-pound offensive lineman. In eight months, he has gone from offensive afterthought to potential starter at a premium position (left tackle).

“To watch what he’s done with his body,” Kansas offensive line coach Zach Yenser says, “that’s just one thing (that shows) how much the kid cares.”

For Shelley-Smith, a junior from Waco, Texas, the weight gain was substantial, and it was well-planned. It’s not easy to layer on 50 pounds of good weight in under 250 days. As Shelley-Smith sits in a chair in the football facility, he pulls up his left sleeve to reveal a dark tattoo. If you look closer, he says, you can see the stretch marks from all the added weight.

“I didn’t really realize it until I tried to go put on a pair of old jeans,” Shelley-Smith says.

Aside from the stretch marks and useless jeans, the transition to offensive line has mostly been seamless. Shelley-Smith arrived at Kansas in 2012 as a tight end, but even then, there were signs that he might be destined for the offensive line. For one, his father, Dennis, was an NFL lineman for the New York Jets and Washington. Shelley-Smith also stood 6 feet 5, with the kind of sturdy frame that was well-suited for adding weight.

Shelley-Smith redshirted during his freshman year, and then spent his next season as a reserve tight end. By last year, then Kansas coach Charlie Weis wanted to move Shelley-Smith to the offensive line. Without complaint, he accepted the role and set out to remake his body.

“It was a process,” Shelley-Smith says. “Sticking with the routine, consuming the amount of calories I needed.”

In some ways, of course, putting on weight can be a pretty simple exercise. How do you gain 50 pounds in eight months? Well, you eat a ton, Shelley-Smith says. You ramp up the caloric intake. You slam protein shakes in the middle of the night. You never pass on dessert. But for a football player burning hundreds of calories per day, it can be a grind. Putting on weight is one thing; putting on muscle and good weight is another beast.

“Its not fun at first,” Shelley-Smith says. “But sometimes I would get up and not even remember waking up and drinking a shake because you get so into routine.”

After eight months of body transformation, Shelley-Smith is now focused on mastering his new position. The Kansas offensive line is once again a patchwork unit, with a collection of junior college transfers and other holdovers in the mix. The offensive line, coaches say, likely won’t be settled until the fall. Former juco transfer Larry Mazyck is also in the mix at offensive tackle, but Shelley-Smith has impressed the coaching staff with a consistent attitude and work ethic.

“I would take five of him — 10 of him — kids with his type of attitude,” Yenser says. “Because I think you could win a lot of football games.”

Yenser, in his first season as Kansas’ offensive line coach, likes to call offensive line the “most unnatural” position in sports. There is awkward footwork. You play with your back to the ball. You spend your time in a three-point stance.

“You grow up throwing the football and catching the football and running around,” Yenser says. “I don’t think you grow up punching people in the face and bending your knees and all that stuff.”

Yenser, though, believes that offensive line is a position where technique can be taught over time, which means that a gifted athlete like Shelley-Smith can grow into a capable left tackle. He just needs time, a wide frame, solid feet and a ton of protein shakes.

“I think it’s a position of development, and I think he’s done a really job of developing into a tackle that can play in the Big 12,” Yenser said. “There’s no doubt about it.”

For now, entering the KU spring game on Saturday, Shelley-Smith is focused on maintaining his weight. But a funny thing has happened in the last few weeks. At his peak, he says, he weighed close to 302 pounds. Now he’s down to 297, and Yenser says he might be faster and more effective playing at 290. So after eight months, Shelley-Smith finds himself in an odd position: He might need to drop some pounds.

“I didn’t know what I’d look like,” Shelley-Smith says, adding: “I’ve never really felt heavy. When I step on the scale, I’m like: ‘Is that right?’”

This story was originally published April 23, 2015 at 11:49 AM with the headline "How Kansas’ Jordan Shelley-Smith gained 50 pounds and earned look at left tackle."