A player's perspective: Danny Anthrop, Week 2
Local product Danny Anthrop, who had about 1,400 receiving yards during his career, played for the Boilermakers from 2012-2015. Throughout the season, Anthrop will offer unique insight for GoldandBlack.com into Purdue, its program and players, and his experiences playing for the Boilermakers.
Every week, Gold and Black gives me some ideas as to what I could write about in this column. This week, the idea of writing about my brother Jackson (throws up in mouth) was presented to me. ...
When Jackson started making a name for himself at Central Catholic, the questions started getting shot my way.
"Is he big enough?”
“Is he fast enough?”
“Is he athletic enough?"
Before my senior season of high school football, I already had offers to play Division I football. Not a single one of them came easy, but I had them.
Jackson didn't have that situation.
He travelled across the Midwest, going to college football camps in search of a scholarship offer. None came that summer before his senior year, while he also played baseball for the Indiana Bulls. In fact, his only offer was a partial scholarship from the Purdue baseball program.
Jackson's biggest disadvantage wasn't his size, speed, ability or stats: It was that he was from a small school in Indiana. His 105 career touchdowns were discounted due to the 1A stigma that he was tagged with. (Contrary to Jackson's online Purdue bio, he does not hold the Central Catholic career touchdown record. Somebody else — I wonder who? — scored two more.) I could never understand how a kid who scored 55 touchdowns his senior year, was a 1,000-point scorer in basketball and an all-star baseball player wasn't good enough to earn a scholarship.
During that summer before his senior year, Jackson worked out for Coach Hazell and his staff during Purdue's camps and left a good impression. Coach Gerad Parker maintained contact through Jackson’s senior season and into late recruitment before signing day. That year, Purdue had a very small senior class with only 11 guys, resulting in a small number of scholarships for that season’s recruiting class. When I was considering redshirting after my knee injury, I thought about the opportunity to play with my little brother my senior year.
That was when I realized: If I redshirted, there would be one less scholarship for that recruiting class.
I won't say that was the main reason I decided not to redshirt, but the fact I'd be giving Jackson a better chance at living his dream was definitely in the back of my mind when I made that decision.
Without Coach Parker, I'm not sure we'd have an Anthrop wearing No. 33 for the black and gold. (Again.) Coach Parker believed in Jackson and kept pushing to get the offer. Finally, late in the recruiting process, Jackson got the opportunity of a lifetime.
Flash forward two years — and the kid has two touchdowns and 80-plus yards in his first game as a Boilermaker. I wasn't surprised in the least how he competed in his first college game. He's always had the talent, and he's worked hard to earn his coaches' and teammates' trust. Jackson is a competitor. It doesn't matter if it's running a corner route in the end zone in Lucas Oil against a highly ranked team in his first game or playing ping pong in the basement against family. It's all the same to him.
It was fitting that late in the fourth quarter on a fourth down, he gave the only team that gave him a chance a chance at a Week 1 upset. After the game in Lucas Oil, I expected him to be very excited about the game he had. Instead, when I saw him, he was really just disappointed about not finishing off Louisville in the final minutes. That's the kind of pure competitor he is.
I don't know what the rest of the season will hold for the little brother. The funny thing to me is that for the longest time, I had to convince people Jackson was good enough to play in the Big Ten. I guess from here on out, I'll have to convince people that I'm better than him.
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