You know when you realize you shoulda done something? I had that moment with regards to a post series I totally coulda done this summer last night while writing this post (yeah, I wrote this post last night, for indeed, I have become unstuck in time, this is all just a predecessor to my next wildly popular blog about the Tralfamadorean Blurnsball League, if you'll allow me to fail to decide which time-confused work of fiction I feel like referencing). Anyway, I plan on doing it next summer. But I might as well write it now, right, y'know, time travel and all.
No. 17, Rashad Lawrence, junior, wide receiver
Who he be: Damn, Rashad is a junior? Anyway, Rashad is a wide receiver from Orlando where he played alongside backup QB Trevor Siemien in high school and had offers to Stanford, USF AND UCF, as well as Purdue. Rashad, not to be confused with "Rashard", "Rasheed", or any other variant on the Arabic name "Rashid", played as a true freshman, which to be honest, was probably a waste. He only made 12 catches on the year, notably a 44-yarder against Michigan State. NU could probably have sat him and eked another year out of him down the line, but whatevs. He started five games this year and his numbers had a slight uptick: he had 19 catches, including a really pretty 35-yard touchdown toss in a failed comeback bid against Iowa.
From the YouTube search annals: We have a video of a party DJ'ed by DJ Rashad at Sarah Lawrence College
There sure seem to be a lot more Lawrences"than Sarahs at that party tho!
Dearly Departed: Brad Phillips, whose primary passion was going way out of his way to hit people and secondary passion was, you know, playing safety. Sometimes this was unfortunate, like when guys bounced off tackles when he should've tried to wrap them up, other times, this was awesome, like when he forced a game-changing fumble with a highly illegal hit against Shonn Greene against Iowa. Eight forced fumbles on the career, drop something out of fear on the ground in his honor today.
Lookin' forward: Shaddy is probably a starter at one WR spot: he's 6-foot-2 with speed, and although he's played a bunch for two years, I get the sense we haven't seen the best out of Lawrence. I already done said it, but this is an exciting wide receiver group that I get the sense is really gonna thrive over the next couple of seasons.