Never Willing to Stay Down, For Himself or the Team
Mitchell turns past adversity into positives
Mike Brohard
Circumstances have never mattered.
He’s been a walk-on, on scholarship and back and forth in six seasons at Colorado State. He’s been part of the plan, moved up in line only to fall back again.
Didn’t matter. Knock Jaseim Mitchell down, he bounces back up. Change his position, OK. He’s played with three different uniform numbers for three varied head coaches as part of the football team as well as a list of coordinators and position coaches.
A tough day is still a day to feel blessed, a reason to smile, and at the end, he’s going to put in a bit more work.
“You just gotta put in the reps, do some push-ups at night, do whatever it takes,” the sixth-year linebacker said. “Do 100. Every night.”
One doesn’t have to be around him long to understand what Mitchell, who walked on from Harrison High School in Colorado Springs, is all about. He’s definitely motivated and internally driven, but he’s not about him.
He’s never considered leaving. He's discarded any doubt as if it were an approaching blocker. He loves wearing green and being a Ram, representing his team. Representing the family name has always been important and so is personal pride. Quitting is never an option, not even when an ACL injury curtails his plans and slows the momentum.
He does everything with a purpose.
“He's changed his body immensely. He's put on about 15 pounds of muscle, lost about eight pounds of fat. So just the way he works, the way he comes to work every single day, again, Coach (Jim) Mora talks about working with intent and he definitely brings that every day,” said linebackers coach Jordan Frost-Dixon, who has known Mitchell about a month. “In this day and age of transfer, it's easy for people to leave. But I think he takes pride in where he is and where he comes from. And he definitely plays that role.
“I think it's the drive and toughness, you know what I mean? I think he has his mind made up on what he wants to do. He has a vision for himself and it's very clear. Again, he puts the work in every day, and he has a process and a routine. I see him every day. He's on the same spot every day. I think he's very clear and, again, intentional. I keep using that word, but that's what we do. That's what we talk about, and he shows it.”
The basics of it all is quite simple: “I just love football,” Mitchell said.
Consider he played a little on the defensive side in high school, but truth be told, he didn’t like it. When he was first asked to move to the defensive side, he politely pleaded with the staff to reconsider. When it was pitched to him it could be his clearest path to playing time, he relented.
And absorbed. Information, technique, mindset.
“I had to look deep in myself, look myself in the mirror, just do what's best for the team, and ultimately it helped me out in the long run,” Mitchell said. “You seize it all. We're out here all year. So I imagine being out here for six years, you learn a lot.”
Jump back to the end of the 2025 season. Mitchell was sidelined the first half with an injury, again taking him from the plan of being a key part of the defensive makeup to a wait-and-see approach of when he’d be able to play again and how much he’d be able to deliver.
By that time, the changes were starting to unfold, a season on the brink of change and an aura of uncertainty in the locker room. Just not for Mitchell. When he was cleared, he was ready to go.
Actually, raring to go. He used that time to post 32 tackles, finishing in the team’s top 10 for the season. Among them, 2.5 tackles for loss and his first career sack. Against UNLV, he notched a career-best 10 tackles.
It was what he and the team had been waiting for, even his teammates. There aren’t many Rams who have been around as long as Mitchell, but Mukendi Wa-Kalonji has walked those same steps.
“I was ecstatic for Jaseim, you know, because like you said at the beginning, he had the injury bug, so he kept on getting hurt. Every single time he got the shot, he'd play, then get hurt, play, then get hurt,” Wa-Kalonji said. “But then last year when he finally got to play, he balled out; it showed that he can play anytime. Once he's healthy, when he's healthy, he's one of the best players in the country. So I feel like seeing him out there playing and staying healthy and producing, it was amazing to watch.”
Adversity, man. That's the thing in life. You gotta deal with it. It matters how you get back up. That's all that matters.Jaseim Mitchell
Always intent. To put himself into a position to play. To rehab his way back from injury. To move up the depth chart and then move back up again.
Defensive coordinator Tyson Summers had seen some of it, and he’d also heard the rumors and experienced the waiting aspect. Mitchell’s purpose has always put on display another admirable personality trait.
“No question. He is resilient,” Summers said. “He is resilient, he's been energetic, he's never pouted, not one day he's never felt sorry for himself. He's taken whatever challenge he had ahead of him, he got a blueprint and a plan for what he needed to do to be successful next, and he followed through with it. And I think he continues to do that, and I think he'll continue to do that in life.”
When Mitchell did return in 2025, he played a handful of roles, moving around in a defense which craved healthy bodies in a season where guys who started third on the depth chart were thrust into starting roles.
Play on the edge? Sure. In the middle? You bet. Help in coverage? No questions asked.
He doesn’t see woe through any of it. What he gained was life lessons.
“It’s helped me develop as a man. Being in high school, I just wanted to play quarterback,” he said. “I’ve changed a lot. Being more disciplined off the field too, doing my homework more, no procrastination, it’s all just helped me.
“Football helped me in a big way.”
That’s the guy they’re counting on this year. The one who gets knocked down and refuses to stay there. Mitchell is the first one who hopes it doesn’t happen again for the simple reason he’d like to have a linear route to his final season in college. He’d prefer to stack reps on the field, not in rehab.
The Rams want it too, as Summers sees him as one of the top defenders on the roster, a versatile performer in a system which is designed to take advantage of players who can perform multiple tasks, pair them together and create havoc.
“I think his motivation's only gotten stronger. I think he's played enough football and played enough snaps to know how good he can be, to know that his ceiling is extremely high,” Summers said. “Whether that's extremely high at CSU, whether that's extremely high in the NFL one day, and those possible opportunities, but I think he knows what his ceiling can be, and I think that's why you continue to see the motivation.”
They see it in his smile every day. The one which expresses that just being in a meeting room, in the weight room or on the practice field fills him with gratitude. Wa-Kalonji said if he didn’t see Mitchell smiling, he would think the world was ending soon.
Every day is a green and golden opportunity to him. One where he can grow as a player and as a person. He’s chalked up the lessons as positives, understanding they were worthless if he doesn’t grow from each one.
The program as a whole could learn a bit from him. Change is abound once again, the team has been knocked down but the opportunity is there to stand back up. And stand tall.
“Adversity, man. That's the thing in life,” Mitchell said, a knowing sparkle in his eye. “You gotta deal with it. It matters how you get back up. That's all that matters.
“If we can get everybody on that same level, we'll be unstoppable.”
He knows. Nothing has come close to stopping him yet.
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