'He's Mr. Everything': How Lipscomb Academy 4-star DB CJ Jimcoily created his own path

CJ Jimcoily's talents stretch far beyond what most can see on the football field.

"Football is what I do, but's it's not all that I am," The 6-foot-3, 205-pound Lipscomb Academy senior safety said.

But don't get the wrong idea.

Jimcoily is heavily invested in his future as a football player. He's a four-star recruit in the Class of 2025 , is the No. 12 prospect in Tennessee and No. 32 safety nationally, according to the 247Sports Composite. He holds offers from schools like Michigan, Colorado, Florida, Oklahoma, Ole Miss and Arkansas, among others. Jimcoily narrowed his list to four schools (Tennessee, Alabama, LSU and Stanford) in May.

He's also No. 8 on The Tennessean's 2024 Dandy Dozen list, a collection of the top college football prospects in the Nashville area from the 2025 class as selected by the newspaper.

His size matches the football profile, and he has the speed and instincts to match. Thirty Division I scholarship offers is proof enough that Jimcoily can play at the next level.

A snapshot into Jimcoily's mind

But this is a renaissance man. This is an athlete who spent time learning Japanese, devotes countless hours reading books, has an entrepreneurial spirit, but doesn't want to be reliant on working for someone else.

"I'm ambitious," Jimcoily said. "I'm striving for big things. Football is a means to a greater end. I have ambitions to do great things ... to change the world."

Jimcoily isn't an introvert, and Lipscomb Academy's first-year coach Jamie Graham knows why.

"He's Mr. Everything," Graham said. "He could really be president of the United States one day. For a kid that has a 4.3 GPA and is the class president, he's Mr. Lipscomb."

Personality traits run in the family

CJ's personality traits probably stem from his dad, Chris, who made his way to Nashville less than a year after Hurricane Katrina ravaged a portion of Chris' native New Orleans, including the 12th ward where he was from, in August of 2005.

"The day before the storm blew in, me and my brother, who I was living with at the time while I was going to college, drove to the gulf coast of Mississippi where my mom lived," Chris said. "And we ended up still being caught in the storm. We drove to get away from the storm and still ended up in it."

Thirty-two people crammed into a home in Pascagoula, Mississippi — a town about 110 miles east of New Orleans and just west of the Alabama border — watched as powerful winds punished the house and gulf water poured into the home. It left Chris and several family members unsure of what to do.

"The storm was going crazy," he recalled. "The water was chopping and raging inside the house like we're in the middle of the ocean."

Chris Jimcoily and his family managed to find safety in a nearby church in Pascagoula until the storm passed, but the damage to the town, and the gulf region was significant. Chris left Louisiana a few months after Katrina and moved to Nashville where he met CJ's mother, Faryn Blair.

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Jimcoily's path emerged early in life

CJ was born in 2007 and from an early age, his parents knew just how strong of an independent spirit he had.

"From kindergarten on, we never had any issues with him, and we never had to have a huge hands-on approach with him because he was always willing to take the lead," Blair said. "He's always been a leader."

Blair, who graduated from Antioch High in 2003, and from Middle Tennessee State in 2013, was able to juggle the responsibilities of work, going to school while being a single mother.

"There were times I had to take CJ with me to classes (at MTSU)," said Blair, who also had a daughter a few years younger than CJ at that time. "I was fighting to give my kids a better life, but I do think because CJ was exposed to that he had an understanding that there's a bigger world out there."

That curiosity has never left.

"What does it take to be a CEO," CJ asked. "What does it take to start your own business, or to market yourself and to brand yourself? I have a lot of questions like that, that I want to find the answers to. But I'm also trying to figure out my place in the world and how I can be of service."

Jimcoily arrived at Lipscomb Academy as an eighth grader, adapting quickly to his new environment. As a freshman and sophomore, he was a part of the Mustangs' back-to-back TSSAA Division II-AA state championship teams. He was named to the 2023 All Midstate Large Class team after finishing with 51 tackles, 3.5 for loss and an interception in 2023.

"I pour my heart and soul into football," he said. "I love the game. It's given me so much. But I know it's not just about me so I'm trying to learn to give back what I've been given. Football talent takes you only so far."

Reach sports writer George Robinson at georgerobinsontheleafchronicle.com and on the X platform (formerly Twitter) @Cville_Sports.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: 'He's Mr. Everything': How Lipscomb Academy 4-star DB CJ Jimcoily created his own path