This is how the FIU Panthers ‘Mr. Pick Six’ got his nickname. And he is only a freshman
Rapper Pitbull is known as Mr. 305, but FIU freshman outside linebacker Rocky Jacques-Louis has his own cool nickname.
“My teammates,” Jacques-Louis said, “have been calling me ‘Mr. Pick Six.’”
Mr. P-6 earned his moniker by returning two interceptions for touchdowns over the past two months, running 59 yards against Massachusetts on Sept. 15 and 32 yards this past Saturday at Texas-San Antonio.
Jacques-Louis will go for more big plays on Saturday when FIU (7-3, 5-1), which leads Conference USA’s East Division, visits Charlotte (4-6, 3-3). Even so, FIU defensive coordinator Brent Guy did his best to keep Jacques-Louis grounded this week.
“He stumbled into it,” Guy joked of Jacques-Louis’ latest interception. “[UTSA] should’ve just handed it to him in the end zone.”
Guy was obviously exaggerating, but Jacques-Louis is the first to admit that his defensive linemen played major roles in his interceptions. Noah Curtis provided the pressure on the first play, and Jordan Woods did the same against UTSA.
Still, credit Jacques-Louis for making the transition from a 6-3, 205-pound defensive end in high school at Fort Myers Dunbar to a 6-3, 230-pounder at FIU, playing linebacker for the first time in his career.
He was in zone coverage against U-Mass, when he spotted the tight end coming across, beating him on a “50-50 ball.” Then, against UTSA, he was again in zone when the quarterback threw the ball before the running back turned around.
Said Jacques-Louis: “I took it to the crib.”
ROCKY AND SHOCKY
Mr. Pick Six was born Rahkeem Jacques-Louis, and he was followed into the world 45 minutes later by his twin brother, Shyheem.
Their maternal grandmother, Ernestean Church, gave them nicknames that have stuck — Rocky and Shocky.
“Rocky is going to rock the world,” she said, “and Shocky is going to shock the world.”
The twins grew up in a violent neighborhood — the Sabal Palms projects in the Dunbar area of Fort Myers.
Rocky said a couple of his friends were murdered while he was living in Sabal Palms.
“There’s nothing good down there,” he said. “But that’s what raised me. That’s what made me the man I am today.
“I thank God we dodged all types of adversity — shootings, poverty. My family, we fought through it, and we took school seriously. I used football as my way to go to college.”
The twins have Haitian blood on their father’s side, but when their parents split up seven years ago, it was their uncles and great uncles on the Church side of the family who helped fill the role-model void.
Calvin, Johnie, Jermaine, Corie and Leon all stepped up as did a cousin, Sam Brown, who coached them at Dunbar, and the twins kept busy with football, basketball and track.
When it came down to college scholarship offers for football, Shocky — a 6-0, 180-pound wide receiver — was the better prospect, committing to Kentucky and then to Tennessee before ultimately signing with Pittsburgh.
Rocky, who used his 4.7 speed to record a Lee County-record 26 sacks as a junior, dropped the QB 10 more times as a senior. Still, he was seen as undersized for a defensive end, and no “Power Five” school was willing to take a chance on him. He was rated a two-star prospect by 247Sports.
“I created the slogan, ‘They still asleep,’” Rocky said of his recruitment. “At least I woke FIU up.”
FIU coach Butch Davis had a plan, of course, betting on Rocky’s athleticism to convert to linebacker and projecting his weight gain and physical maturity.
So far, the plan is working perfectly.
“He’s an unbelievably good athlete,” Davis said of Jacques-Louis, who also got his first career sack against UTSA.
TWIN JEOPARDY
When the twins announced their college selections, they wore matching outfits — all in white except for blue vests and bow ties.
Little by little, the rest of the country is finding out about this stylish duo.
Rocky woke up last week to so many calls and texts that he thought there was an emergency.
But instead of some catastrophe, he had celebrity. He went to Twitter and found that he and his brother had been mentioned on Jeopardy!
“Oh snap,” Rocky thought, “I’m famous!”
The category was College Football for $400, and the answer was:
“Rocky Jacques-Louis is a Panther at FIU; Shocky Jacques-Louis is a Panther at this university in the Steel City.”
A contestant correctly responded: “What is Pittsburgh?,” and Rocky, clearly delighted, tweeted to his brother @ShockyMVP: “We blowing up, bro!”
There could be more fireworks in store on Nov. 24, when the twins will celebrate their 19th birthday, and — due to cosmic good fortune — both will be in Miami playing college football.
FIU will host Marshall at noon with the possible chance of clinching a berth in the Conference USA title game for the first time in school history.
Pitt will visit the Miami Hurricanes at 3:30 p.m. with the Panthers also likely to win its division and head to the ACC title game for the first time in school history.
Valerie Church, the twins’ mother, will go to the FIU game to watch Rocky and then they make a strategic exit, perhaps in the third quarter, so she can also arrive at Hard Rock Stadium in time to watch Shocky.
After the game, the twins will drive to their mom’s house in Fort Myers where a feast awaits. Barbeque chicken and ribs, baked beans, macaroni and cheese, Haitian rice and beans and banana pudding are all on the menu, and a DJ has been hired.
“We have invited 25 guests, but our house parties usually become block parties with 80 people,” Church said with a laugh. “It will be great because this will be the first time we’ve seen Rocky and Shocky together since they went off to college.”
Who knows? Maybe Rocky will shock the college football world with another pick six, and the family will have something extra special to celebrate.