Steve Gann
Sandra 1Antonio Brown:Walk-On All-American
April 11th 2010 19:02
:
Antonio Brown:Walk-On All-American
I can almost assuredly predict that will not be the case after the upcoming NFL draft.
Antonio Brown attended high school in football rich Miami where he was a two sport athlete at Norland High School. In his high school career he would earn All-State honors and be awarded Miami-Dade's 2005 Athlete of the Year.
Many big time football programs offered full ride scholarships but unfortunately Antonio did not have a qualifying test score.
As a big follower of football recruiting, I see this happen every year. Great athletes who are unwilling or just not able to get into college and fade off into obscurity.
Antonio was determined to realize his dream of playing college football and enrolled at North Carolina Prep school to help gain eligibility. During his one year at the school, Brown ran for 451 yards and 13 touchdowns and threw for 1,247 yards and 11 scores in just five games also returned 11 punts and six kickoffs for touchdowns. He would also become eligible to play D-I football but unfortunately the results came to late in the recruiting year to sign with colleges.
Coach Butch Jones, who had recruited Antonio at Rutgers and West Virginia, had recently accepted the head coaching position at Central Michigan and invited Brown to walk-on. It only took Antonio one week to earn a scholarship and the rest is history.
During his three year career at CMU, Antonio would earn All-American honors as well as rank second in MAC history with 305 career receptions. Brown would catch at least one pass in 41 consecutive games and accounted for touchdowns receiving, rushing, passing and on both a punt return and kickoff return during career.
After Coach Jones agreed to take the open coaching position at Cincinnati, Antonio decided to forego his senior season and declared for the NFL draft.
Many experts have compared Brown's playing style to DeSean Jackson, Devin Hester and Santana Moss.
He has quietly moved up the NFL mock draft lists into a 2nd or early 3rd rounds.
Whichever team drafts Antonio will get a combination kick/punt returner and slot receiver but even better also a fierce competitor and a great role model.
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