Small-school players hope NFL dreams come true

By Jeff Legwold, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published April 16, 2008 at 9:15 p.m.

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Photo by Michael Conroy / Associated Press

Xavier Omon ran with his chance at Northwest Missouri State after being told by Nebraska to wait a year to receive a scholarship.

Photo by Joe Mahoney / The Rocky/2007

The Chargers' Vincent Jackson, who attended Northern Colorado, led the NFL in postseason receiving yards.

They are a small army of ones.

As in one here, one there, scattered well beyond the interstates on the football map. The ones chasing their NFL dreams, hoping someone, anyone, will just take a chance.

"But really, you only need one team, one person, really," San Diego Chargers and former University of Northern Colorado receiver Vincent Jackson said. "One coach, one scout, one general manager, just one person in one place who believes in what you did.

"I'm proof. I've always said it. I'm proof nobody really knows how things are going to turn out."

In a league that leans toward chasing glamour players from glamour teams in glamour conferences, there still is room in every draft for the NFL's other guys.

They're the ones who can remember the first time they passed an NFL scout in the hallway who had their name at the top of the list.

"It doesn't matter what level they start at," Kansas City Chiefs general manager Carl Peterson said. "It's like we say in the NFL, it's not where you begin, it's where you end up."

"Again, I'm the proof," said Jackson, who led all players during the postseason with 300 receiving yards. "A lot can happen in four years. You may not leave anything close to the player you came in as."

And those who once were shunned by the football factories, passed over, shoved aside for being too short, too slow, too big a problem, just too something, still can emerge four or five years later as somebody with professional football in his future.

Ability shows through

"I believe if you've got it, you've got it," said Xavier Omon, a 5-foot-11, 228-pound running back from Division II Northwest Missouri State. "If you have the ability to play, no matter where you are, the NFL is going to find you."

Omon's resume shows he rushed for at least 1,500 yards in four consecutive seasons and had 93 career rushing touchdowns. Nebraska wanted Omon to wait a year to get a scholarship, but he wanted to play, so that's how he ended up in Maryville, Mo.

There is Josh Johnson, a quarterback from the University of San Diego.

"No, not San Diego State; I get that a lot, so you say that right away -- just San Diego," he said.

San Diego plays nonscholarship football, which means Johnson has played do-whatever-you-need-to-do football -- applying for student loans, finding grants. He went 30-4 as a starter in college and last season threw 43 touchdown passes and one interception.

"And I don't care who you're playing against, buddy, you throw one interception and 43 touchdown passes, that's pretty good," Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Jon Gruden said.

But Johnson knows the whispers, and he knows the screams, too, that come in the baggage of those making an unexpected journey.

"It's always a what-if type with a small-school guy. I mean, we can produce a lot, but it's always going to be because you're playing against smaller competition," Johnson said. "But when you come out and look at the player as players, you can compare a little more, but most of all, you want to look at how he played with his team."

Finding a chance

Mount Union College receiver Pierre Garcon admits his transcript likely scared away some college football powerhouses from John I. Leonard High School in West Palm Beach, Fla., where he was academically ineligible for two seasons and was able to play only his senior year.

So after a year in a Vermont military prep school, he did his own legwork, e-mailed Mount Union coach Larry Kehres and offered himself to the program.

"I went to them, basically," Garcon said. "I mean, I Googled it a couple times before I went there."

And while Mount Union, with nine Division III football championships to go with 55- and 54-game winning streaks in its history, is no neophyte to winning football games, the Purple Raiders usually win them with players the NFL only gives a passing glance.

So, Garcon said he approached his pre-draft work with the idea "you can be a hero or you can be just another guy in a 40 time. It is a real big experience. You can become the talk of the town or just another bum who had a shot at it."

So here they come again, the ones, the hearty souls who were the big men on the smaller campuses.

"Nobody came in with a five-star tag on them," Johnson said. "No one was highly recruited. We were all paying for school, and we all just wanted to play football in college and we worked real hard for it."

Road less traveled

Some of the more highly rated players in the April 26-27 draft who played outside the bright lights of the Bowl Championship Series:

* Steve Allen, LB, West Texas A&M: Also played at two junior colleges. Former safety now is a 236-pound linebacker.

* Jamar Brittingham, RB, Bloomsburg: Finished career 14th all time in NCAA Division II with 5,689 career rushing yards.

* Michael Butterworth, T, Slippery Rock: Three-year starter at left tackle. Team surrendered only 10 sacks in 2007.

* Pierre Garcon, WR, Mount Union: Had 16 100-yard receiving games and is a quality returner.

* Curtis Johnson, DE, Clark Atlanta: Had 112 tackles, 27 tackles for loss and 131/2 sacks in 2007.

* Josh Johnson, QB, San Diego: Threw 113 career touchdown passes and only 15 interceptions.

* Kolo Kapanui, TE, West Texas A&M: Started career at Southern California but never played a game for the Trojans.

* Shane Longest, K, Saint Xavier: Made 27 field goals and averaged 43.2 yards a punt.

* Xavier Omon, RB, Northwest Missouri State: Had five 200-yard games in 2007 and seven games with at least three rushing touchdowns.

* Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, DB Tennessee State: Rarely challenged but took both his interceptions in 2007 for touchdowns.

* Jerome Simpson, WR, Coastal Carolina: Has high jumped 6-83/4 and was the Big South Conference's long jump champion.

* Bobby Tatum, S, Abilene Christian: Texas transfer also was a track All-American.

* Cary Williams, CB, Washburn: Fordham transfer had 11 interceptions in two seasons at Washburn.

* Danny Woodhead, RB, Chadron State: Set all-time, all-division career rushing record with 7,962 yards.

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