Despite being one of the youngest players on the football team, Jamaal Payton goes by the nickname “Pops” because of his maturity and old-school spirit.

The 18-year-old true freshman outside linebacker has proven he’s capable of making an impact for the Huskies. In his first season out of Proviso West High School, Payton has demonstrated that age is just a number and preparation can pay off in unexpected ways.

“He’s a very intellectual player,” said Kevin Kane, linebacker and special teams coach. “He’s really smart, and he’s able to take what’s on the film and on the practice field onto the game field. He’s a young guy, and for a lot of young guys it’s hard to do that. So, he’s got that mental game down.”

Payton played in the last five games for the Huskies and started at outside linebacker against the Akron Zips and the Central Michigan Chippewas, filling in for injured linebacker Michael Santacaterina. In five games Payton recorded 23 total tackles, two passes breakups and one forced fumble.

“His mental prep, I would say, is really good,” said redshirt sophomore linebacker Boomer Mays. “He applies that to the field. We’ll go in [the film room] and we have meetings and stuff, and he’ll be focused and knows the calls and adjustments, and he’ll know the plays. When we line up that mental stuff just comes second nature to him.”

At Proviso West, Payton played on the varsity squad for three seasons as a running back and linebacker. He was a two-time all-state selection and was named the team’s MVP following his junior and senior campaigns. He said he owes a lot of his success on the defensive side of the ball to also playing offense in high school.

“…I know offensive schemes,” Payton said. “When I first came in a lot of people told me I was knowledgeable about the game, and that’s because I know offenses; I know what they try to do. I played the position; I know what a running back’s thinking in his pre-snap read. I can look at it all, so it helps me a lot.”

Payton said he received a lot of offers coming out of high school but chose NIU because it has a strong football program, it made him feel at home and the coaches offered him a scholarship as a linebacker — which is the position he wanted play — while other schools offered him scholarships solely as a running back. For Payton, the biggest difference between high school football and college football is the pace of the game.

“That’s the No. 1 thing,” Payton said. “It’s so much faster. … Watching high school now it seems like it’s moving in slow motion. It’s so much faster. [The] pace of the game, it’s fast, and people execute.”

Since coming to NIU he has received several nicknames from his teammates and coaches but is referred to mostly as “Pops.”

“I’ve come here and gotten so many different nicknames,” Payton said. “I’ve got ‘Speedster,’ ‘Pops.’ I got ‘Payton,’ obviously, my last name. But ‘Pops,’ that’s the No. 1. And ‘the Rev,’ that’s the first nickname I got.

“I come here, I’m a very spiritual guy, I wouldn’t say religious, but spiritual guy, so I’m more mature than most freshman, and they noticed that a lot. I like a lot of old school stuff. … I’m old school, so I like it.”

Head coach Rod Carey said Payton has the mental side of the game done, but at 6-foot, 210 pounds, he’s still coming along on the physical side of the game.

“He’s playing good for a true freshman that’s coming in, stepping in,” Carey said. “I think he’s really picked it up pretty well. The mental side of it he’s really strong in. It’s putting the mental with the physical that he’s starting to get.”