University of Colorado Athletics
Not Little Dough Anymore: Jayvon McFadden Is Growing Into Himself at Colorado
August 12, 2026 | Football
BOULDER — Before Jayvon McFadden was Dough, his dad was.
"The nickname Dough comes from our pops," McFadden said. "Back in the day, they would call him Dough Papa, so I was kind of Little Dough growing up."
Then the inevitable happened to a kid built to play offensive line.
"I got big, and now I outgrew my dad, so I'm kind of just regular Dough now," he said.
Outgrowing things has become something of a habit. The 6-foot-3, 295-pound second-year lineman arrived in Boulder in January, a former blue-chip recruit from Upper Marlboro, Md., who spent a year at Ohio State before entering the transfer portal in search of a place to grow into himself. Seven months later, the coaches who recruited him can't stop talking about how much bigger he's become — and they don't mean the weight room.
"He's grown a lot since he first got here with us in January," offensive line coach Gunnar White said. "I am very proud of the strides that he's made on the field, and off the field, too. He's a phenomenal kid."
What sold him on Colorado was the room itself: four offensive line coaches — White, Andre Gurode, George Hegamin and Grant Hammer — all speaking with one voice.
"This offensive line unit and coaches and staff, they speak the same thing in the same language," McFadden said. "And it don't matter what time of the day it is or how I'm feeling — I can always go talk to every single one of those guys."
That mattered more than most people knew. McFadden admits he was carrying some things when he got to campus last winter.
"When I first got here in the winter, I was dealing with a couple of things," he said. "What they really did was — what was important to me was important to them — and they told me exactly what I was doing wrong. They wasn't beating around the bush about it."
That included White pulling him aside, one on one.
"Gunnar's gonna tell me that it's wrong. He's gonna bring me to the side and be like, 'Listen, Jayvon, you're doing this X, Y and Z. I need you to improve on that,'" McFadden said. "I want them to tell me the God-honest truth. When you shoot it straight to somebody, you got no choice but to push forward."
Push forward he has. Gurode sees a player on a mission.
"What I see from him is he has a lot of hunger," Gurode said. "He wants to prove something to himself, and the way that he approaches work every day is that he wants to find something to get better at."
On the field, the growth shows up the way everything does in this room: violently.
"He's violent, physical, and it doesn't matter if it's run or pass," White said. "Once he gets his eyes locked in on his target, it's game over. His growth on the field and off the field has been phenomenal — I mean, night and day since the time that he walked in."
Off the field, nobody vouches for him louder than Yahya Attia, the third-year lineman who adopted the newcomer in January and now lives five minutes from him.
"That's my brother," Attia said. "He's very real to me; I'm very real to him. He's a guy that will shout you in the face if you do something wrong. But he's not gonna shout you in the face because you're stupid or dumb. He's gonna do it because he expect better from you. Really love that guy, and so glad he here."
Ask McFadden what he's trying to prove in a crowded, competitive offensive line room, and the answer has nothing to do with the recruiting rankings that once followed him.
"I want to prove myself to my teammates — that they could trust me to be out there," he said. "Trust is a very, very important thing. If you're not out there giving what you got in practice, knowing your assignment and executing your assignment to the best of your ability, the coaches won't trust you to put you in, and the players won't trust you, either."
The name will always be his father's. The rest, he's grown into on his own.
"It's still all respect," McFadden said. "But it's kind of like, when you see me, it's not Little Dough anymore."
"The nickname Dough comes from our pops," McFadden said. "Back in the day, they would call him Dough Papa, so I was kind of Little Dough growing up."
Then the inevitable happened to a kid built to play offensive line.
"I got big, and now I outgrew my dad, so I'm kind of just regular Dough now," he said.
Outgrowing things has become something of a habit. The 6-foot-3, 295-pound second-year lineman arrived in Boulder in January, a former blue-chip recruit from Upper Marlboro, Md., who spent a year at Ohio State before entering the transfer portal in search of a place to grow into himself. Seven months later, the coaches who recruited him can't stop talking about how much bigger he's become — and they don't mean the weight room.
"He's grown a lot since he first got here with us in January," offensive line coach Gunnar White said. "I am very proud of the strides that he's made on the field, and off the field, too. He's a phenomenal kid."
What sold him on Colorado was the room itself: four offensive line coaches — White, Andre Gurode, George Hegamin and Grant Hammer — all speaking with one voice.
"This offensive line unit and coaches and staff, they speak the same thing in the same language," McFadden said. "And it don't matter what time of the day it is or how I'm feeling — I can always go talk to every single one of those guys."
That mattered more than most people knew. McFadden admits he was carrying some things when he got to campus last winter.
"When I first got here in the winter, I was dealing with a couple of things," he said. "What they really did was — what was important to me was important to them — and they told me exactly what I was doing wrong. They wasn't beating around the bush about it."
That included White pulling him aside, one on one.
"Gunnar's gonna tell me that it's wrong. He's gonna bring me to the side and be like, 'Listen, Jayvon, you're doing this X, Y and Z. I need you to improve on that,'" McFadden said. "I want them to tell me the God-honest truth. When you shoot it straight to somebody, you got no choice but to push forward."
Push forward he has. Gurode sees a player on a mission.
"What I see from him is he has a lot of hunger," Gurode said. "He wants to prove something to himself, and the way that he approaches work every day is that he wants to find something to get better at."
On the field, the growth shows up the way everything does in this room: violently.
"He's violent, physical, and it doesn't matter if it's run or pass," White said. "Once he gets his eyes locked in on his target, it's game over. His growth on the field and off the field has been phenomenal — I mean, night and day since the time that he walked in."
Off the field, nobody vouches for him louder than Yahya Attia, the third-year lineman who adopted the newcomer in January and now lives five minutes from him.
"That's my brother," Attia said. "He's very real to me; I'm very real to him. He's a guy that will shout you in the face if you do something wrong. But he's not gonna shout you in the face because you're stupid or dumb. He's gonna do it because he expect better from you. Really love that guy, and so glad he here."
Ask McFadden what he's trying to prove in a crowded, competitive offensive line room, and the answer has nothing to do with the recruiting rankings that once followed him.
"I want to prove myself to my teammates — that they could trust me to be out there," he said. "Trust is a very, very important thing. If you're not out there giving what you got in practice, knowing your assignment and executing your assignment to the best of your ability, the coaches won't trust you to put you in, and the players won't trust you, either."
The name will always be his father's. The rest, he's grown into on his own.
"It's still all respect," McFadden said. "But it's kind of like, when you see me, it's not Little Dough anymore."
Players Mentioned
OG
/ Football
OL
/ FootballTuesday, August 11
Thursday, August 06
Thursday, August 06
Thursday, August 06