Journalism 101 post

Jermon Bushrod, 2007 training camp

Off the beaten path

Interview with Towson Head Coach Gordy Combs

Recruiting in the Division I-AA Patriot League has never been very easy. Besides being a I-AA league, the Patriot League prohibits it's members schools from giving out athletic scholarships. That the Towson Tigers were planning to move to the toughest division in I-AA, the Atlantic 10, amongst teams full of scholarship players only made the quest for talent even more difficult.

So when head coach Gordy Combs recieved a call from his friend and former teammate, High School Head Coach Eddie Haynes, about a 6'4 260lb lineman, he knew he had an opportunity he couldn't pass up.

Jermon Bushrod comes from King George High School where he played baseball and basketball in addition to football. But being located "off the beaten path" in Virginia, and in the smallest classification for sports there, he never got a ton of recognition for his talents, something that would become a bit of a pattern in his life.

When head coach Gordy Combs arrived at Towson and saw Bushrod playing basketball he immediately gave him a spot on his roster. What he couldn't provide for Bushrod was a scholarship. Not able to qualify for financial aid, and with no schools offering an athletic scholarship Bushrod's collegiate prospects were in limbo. For two years he would have to pay his own way until Towson finally joined the Atlantic-10 and was able to give him a scholarship.

From the first moment, Combs knew that they had something special. Bushrod, given the nickname "Chunk", was from the first time he stepped on campus one of the largest and most athletic linemen in Towson history. Despite an ankle injury that forced him to redshirt his freshman year, Bushrod would go on to start 27 games in a row for a Tigers.

Despite that, some questions remain about how well you can project a Division I-AA athlete to a spot like Left Tackle. I asked Tigers head coach Gordy Combs about that and other things



Saintsreport: How do you project Bushrod in the NFL?

Gordy Combs: I think he can play left tackle. He has all of the physical tools, he's very quick, big, and has a lot of experience. His offensive line coach, George Major is excellent and Jermon is smart too. He graduated with a 3.0 GPA.

Saintsreport: There's the theory that you only have so many "elite" pass rushers in the world and they are all in the major conferences or the NFL. So I think one of the questions that might be posed is about the level of competition Bushrod faced and how well that experience translates.

Gordy Combs: I think there's something to that. I don't think the gap in talent between Division I-A and I-AA is as big as some people make it out to be, except in depth and marquee players. And there's no doubt all of the marquee players (like dominant pass rushers) go to the big schools. I think you have to just look at if the player was appropiately dominant for his level.

Saintsreport: How much more interest then usual did Bushrod generate?

Gordy Combs: A lot. We had I think 20 people here for his work-out. And they were all here to see Bushrod, but most of them were kind enough to also workout our other seniors. So it has a ripple effect. 5 of them were offensive line coaches including your own, Doug Marrone. Mike Berry of the Lions came back and worked out Bushrod multiple times and told me they planned to take him in the 4th or 5th rounds.

Saintsreport: Do you think you have any other NFL quality players on your roster?

Gordy Combs: For us, a player like Jermon is a once every 4 or 5 years type player. I truly believe if he had gone to a bigger school he would have been a first day draft pick. We've got two young tackles who look pretty good, our sophomore RT Danny Bridges (6'5 300lbs) and we recieved a freshman LT transfer from Penn St. who was the #5 recruit on rivals.com (Antonio Logan-El 6'6 310lbs). Hopefully the attention Bushrod is giving us will let us get better and better players. Having Jermon Bushrod played a big part in getting him into our program. But you don't get guys like Bushrod at our level every year.



For a player who wasn't even invited to the NFL combine (the 2nd of such type players we drafted, Usama Young being the first) it wasn't too bad a spot. The Saints seem to be making a trend out of doing some of the same things Division I-AA schools do for recruiting... going off the beaten path. It was linebacker coach Joe Vitt who was actually first tipped off about Bushrod by none other then Gordy Combs. In a manner similiar to how Combs found out about Bushrod, Combs called his former teammate Joe Vitt and let him in on the secret. Showing up to interviews dressed in a suit and tie, Bushrod would then go out and run a 4.9 40, securing his draft status.

Is this the wave of the future?

Said coach Combs "I think two things come into play here. First is the scholarship limitations for the big schools. There are just too many good high school kids coming out these days. Second, and we saw it with the tackle from Penn St., is the opportunity to play. As more of these Division I-AA school kids get drafted these big recruits that get stashed deep on the major school's depth charts will look at us as an opportunity to get starting time and a chance to get drafted. We'll never have the marquee players as the major Division I-A schools, the Reggie Bushes, but we've got starters in our league every bit as good as many of the starters in Division I-A."




Atlantic-10 players to watch out for next year
Ricky Santos QB New Hampshire (6-2 215) - Walter Payton Award winner his junior year
Joe Flacco QB Delaware (6-6 230) - Transfered from Pittsburgh after falling behind Palko on the depth chart.
Tony LeZotte FS James Madison (6-0 200)
Rob Zarrilli K Hofstra

Originally posted on Saintsreport.com

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