Saw this in Silver's newsletter this morning:
Handley's Devontae Houston says yes to UConn
>>That profile on 247sports.com describes a player who is 5-10 and 163 lbs. He’s a 2-star recruit, the 3,584th-ranked player in the country, the 236th-best running back and the 129th best player in Alabama. The profile doesn’t even have Houston’s picture, just a faceless digital image of a generic football player to serve as a placeholder where his picture should be. That’s not the typical description of a player who receives a full scholarship offer from a school that plays at the highest level of college football.
But Houston defied the odds on national signing day Wednesday when he accepted just such an offer, to play running back and slot receiver for the University of Connecticut.
You see, there’s a number that’s not on that recruiting profile that is probably the most important number in the low-key recruitment of Devontae Houston. That number is 4.4 – the number under which Devontae Houston has been consistently timed in the 40-yard dash.<<
>>“I got discouraged a lot through this process because I was working every day trying to get better. Colleges weren’t reaching out to me, and I was really fixing to give up,” he said. “But I just kept going. All of my teammates were like, brother, keep going, you’re going to be great. I just went to the field every day, kept working and UConn popped up. They believed in me. That’s all I needed was somebody to believe in me.”
Houston has left his mark on Handley after he set the school record for single-season rushing yards (2,494) and touchdowns (29) and earned first-team all-state honors for his efforts following his just-completed senior season.
And with that sub-4.4 speed and an intense determination to succeed, Houston’s coach thinks his new school will be pleasantly surprised. “Devontae got a great deal,” Strain said. “But I think UConn’s the one that got the deal by signing him.”<<