Sirmons Don't Let Family Get in the Way of Practice or the Upcoming Opener
They have the same last name, birth year and college football team.
Yet each guy's success at the University of Washington is determined partly by making the other fail in practice.
Jackson and Jacob Sirmon.
Huskies, sophomores, cousins, maybe more than that.
"Jacob is the closest thing I've got to a brother," Jackson said. "We talk all the time."
As the California-Washington game fast approaches, the two Sirmons are in competition for starting jobs on each side of the ball.
Practicing directly against each other, they try to disrupt the other's game.
Jackson Sirmon seems to have gained a foothold on a first-unit inside linebacker job.
Jacob is one four players still seeking the No. 1 quarterback job, which means he hardly has any job security.
A buttoned-down approach is recommended for and followed by these two.
"When we're on the field, the defense, me and the other guys, we don't focus on who's at quarterback," Jackson Sirmon said. "We're trying to play defense. All the [quarterbacks] are doing well. It'll be fun to see what happens there."
Ironically, Sirmon the quarterback is bigger than Sirmon the linebacker.
Jacob measures 6-foot-5 and 240 pounds; Jackson fills out to 6-3 and 230.
They're both smart guys, each landing on the Pac-12 Academic Honor Roll in 2019.
While they think alike, they look different.
Jackson, with his thin mustache and distinctive soul patch, resembles Val Kilmer's Doc Holliday in the movies.
Jacob's bearded, hair-to-his-shoulders appearance reminds of any one of a number of lead singers.
Adding more family complexity to the upcoming Husky football opener, the Sirmons are preparing to go against Peter Sirmon.
He's the Cal defensive coordinator, former NFL linebacker, ex-Huskies assistant coach from Sarkisian years, 2012 and 2013.
Peter Sirmon is Jackson's father and Jacob's uncle.
Jacob is the son of a UW business school professor, David Sirmon. Another former linebacker.
The dinner-table discussions should always be interesting with this family.
"We don't talk too much about Washington-Cal ever," Jackson said of his dad. "We talk football, but we don't talk about our teams. I'm excited for the game. This game, it should be fun. Yeah."
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