Heads up for anyone who has the unfortunate pleasure of sitting across Jarett Dillard in a courtroom. You’re about to get dunked on.

Hypothetically speaking, of course. But test him outside of his litigation attorney digs for Houston-based law firm, Husch Blackwell, LLP, and you might just get the real thing.

Mossing the opposition has been Dillard’s calling card since he was a 5-foot-7 eighth grader from San Antonio. Kids might have written him off because of his size, but they quickly changed tune when he was rocking the rim over much taller opponents.

His 43.5-inch vertical became appointment viewing during his record-setting career for the Rice Owls football team from 2005-08.

“One of the things he would always say before games, and this was kind of his confidence but also as a leader of the team, he would say, ‘Hey, I might be 5-11 but I play like I’m 11-5,’” former Rice quarterback Chase Clement said. “It was true. With his vertical and how high he can jump, he was 11-feet tall on the field.”

Clement would know better than anyone. The two set an NCAA record for most career touchdowns by a passing duo with 52 back in 2008. Dillard also set NCAA career records for most touchdown receptions (60) and games with a touchdown catch (38) as well as the single-season record for games with a TD reception and consecutive games with a TD reception (13) in 2006, a record previously held by Randy Moss and Larry Fitzgerald.

For as unbelievable as those numbers are, they become simply otherworldly considering his path to South Main and the state of the football program at the time of his arrival.

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Dillard had some familiarity with Rice’s campus from his time running track for San Antonio Sam Houston High School. Thing is, he didn’t realize it in the moment.

“I went to Rice every year for a track meet because I ran track at Sam Houston,” Dillard said. “I thought that was Texas Southern because they held the TSU Relays at Rice for a number of years.”

It wasn’t until former Owls offensive coordinator Scott Wachenheim stopped by Sam Houston in the fall of 2003 and ran into Dillard as he was on attendance duty that his interest in the Owls started to materialize.

“I took him to the coach’s office. When he came back out, he saw me and said, ‘Hey, we’re not looking for a receiver but you’re a good receiver,’” Dillard said. “He came back the following year and said that they’d lost a receiver and would like to bring me in.”

Dillard hadn’t exactly lit the recruiting world on fire up to that point. He was a two-time all-district selection at wide receiver as a junior and senior who had some walk-on opportunities at Texas, Texas A&M, Purdue and a few other places. He had scholarship opportunities at West Point, Wabash and Texas Lutheran, and a basketball ride to Colgate.

But when the chance to play Division I ball in-state arose at such a prestigious academic institution as Rice, Dillard, who graduated as the salutatorian from Sam Houston in 2004, couldn’t pass it up.

“It was an easy decision for me,” he said.

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The state of Rice’s program at the time left something to be desired. The Owls hadn’t had a winning season since 2001 (8-4) and ran the triple-option; not exactly the type of offense that gets your blood flowing as a receiver.

On top of that, Dillard arrived on campus “160 pounds soaking wet.”

“I remember some of the soccer and volleyball players who were in training camp saying, ‘Who is that guy? Can he play?’” Dillard said.

All he knew to do was work his ass off and wait for his opportunity. So that’s what he did during his first year on campus, right alongside fellow San Antonio native Chase Clement, who graduated from Alamo Heights.

“I’m on the field just balling as a redshirt, so was Chase,” Dillard said. “We had the best time of our lives because we were picking our own team apart. That’s when I knew we were good; we were a good combo. That’s where the transition occurred.

“At first I was just thinking, ‘Let’s get through four years and you can go work at whatever company.’ Then it was like, ‘No, we can do this. We can ball, Chase. We can turn this program around.’ And that’s what we did.”

Rice went 3-8 during his redshirt season and then 1-10 in his redshirt freshman campaign, when he caught 35 passes for 524 yards and five touchdowns to earn All-Conference USA Freshman honors. Those 35 catches were the most by any Owl during Ken Hatfield’s 12 seasons as Rice’s head coach.

The Owls transitioned away from Hatfield after 2005 in favor of Todd Graham, who brought in Major Applewhite as the offensive coordinator. In 2006, Rice went from 210 passing attempts from the previous season for 1,136 yards and nine TDs to 435 attempts for 2,783 yards and 29 TDs.

All Dillard did that season – his first as a full-time starter – was lead the nation with 21 touchdown receptions, which was six more than the second-closest WR, shattered the previous school record of nine, and set a Conference USA record. Those TD numbers, along with his 91 receptions for 1,247 yards, become even more impressive when you consider he missed a few games with injury and had three different quarterbacks throwing to him (Clement, who threw him 14 TDs that season, Joel Armstrong and John Shepherd).

Dillard went on to catch 20 more TDs as a senior, becoming the only player in NCAA history to twice catch at least 20 touchdowns in a season.

“It wasn’t luck. It was more preparation met the opportunity,” said Dillard, who was named a Biletnikoff Award finalist in 2006. “I didn’t go to Rice thinking I was going to be a two-time All-American. I didn’t do it for that. I did it mainly for the education and to take the burden off my parents.”

Dillard did that and then some. He was the first Owl named to the Football Writers All-America team in 50 years in 2008. He was the first player from Rice to earn first-team All-Conference USA three times and set conference career marks for touchdown receptions and receiving yards (4,138). He was the 10th receiver in NCAA history to pass 4,000 yards receiving and the 13th player with four 1,000-yard seasons.

More important than any of the individual accolades to Dillard was seeing the team succeed. The Owls went 10-3 his senior season, which was highlighted by a win in the Texas Bowl, Rice’s first bowl win since 1954. It was Rice’s first 10-win season since 1949.

“It was not just myself,” Dillard said. “There are so many guys. You’ve got Andrew Sendejo, James Casey, Chase Clement, Brian Raines.”

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Making it to the NFL was never a place Dillard let his mind wander until his record-setting sophomore season.

“It just wasn’t something I thought about,” he said. “My goal wasn’t to get to the NFL. That’s not what my parents instilled in me.”

But he did have proof from within his own household that playing professionally was absolutely something that was possible. His sister, Tai Dillard, was a Miss Texas Basketball recipient from Sam Houston High who played at Texas before a WNBA career with the San Antonio Silver Stars. She’s the current head women’s basketball coach at Prairie View A&M.

“I never thought for a second that’s what I was going to be doing,” said Jarett, who combined with his brother, four-year Rice letterman Darik, to set the career TD record for siblings at 86.

But that’s precisely what Dillard found himself doing after the Jacksonville Jaguars selected him in the fifth round (144th overall) of the 2009 NFL Draft. He went on to record 35 receptions for 398 yards and a touchdown over three professional seasons.

When he realized his NFL playing days might be numbered, he met a teammate with the Detroit Lions who would take college courses in the offseason. That led to Dillard applying and getting accepted to the South Texas College of Law where he earned his Juris Doctor degree. He’s now Senior Counsel at Husch Blackwell where the courtroom has replaced the gridiron.

The vertical is still there, though, so heads up.