Arkansas WR is big time

Fort Smith (Ark.) Southside wide receiver Slick Shelley is one of the best players in the South that no one is talking about. He has already picked up seven scholarship offers and has done it an interesting way.

“I don’t have a highlight tape and I haven’t really been sending game tape out, but I’m still getting offers.” Shelley said. “Right now I have offers from Arkansas, LSU, Tennessee, Tulsa, Oklahoma State and two more from smaller schools.”

Last season, Shelley caught 62 passes for 873 yards and 16 touchdowns. He also returned 21 kickoffs for 611 yards (29.1 yard average) and one touchdown. As a sophomore, he caught 56 passes for 1,019 yards and 15 touchdowns, as he helped lead his team to the Class 5A Championship.

“I don’t really have a certain set five or eight schools or whatever that I am looking at,” Shelley said. “I am just trying to stay open until school starts and not think a lot about it until then. I just trying to relax and enjoy my summer until then. With so many schools recruiting me it is hard to narrow it down.”

Shelley has won numerous honors, having been named to the Jonesboro Sun’s AP Arkansas Super Team as a sophomore. Last season, the Orlando Sentinel named him an honorable mention wide receiver on their 2003 All-Southern Football Team.

“I’m looking school that runs a good alignment for their wide receivers in their offense,” Shelley said. “That and early playing time are the main things I’m looking for. I want to go somewhere that I will have the opportunity to start, even if it means going to a little bit smaller school.”

Shelley’s coach will tell you exactly why the wide receiver is wide open. He has no loyalties to any one school because his father is in the military and Shelley has moved around frequently.

“Slick is a different type of young man,” stated Southside head coach Barry Lunney, Sr. “I don’t mean that in a negative way. He was born in Germany, and his mother is German, and he is from a military family. He moved to Arkansas when he was in the seventh grade and did not even start playing football until he was in the ninth grade. Spending so much time in Germany and not being exposed to football, he is not necessarily hung up on the tradition and publicity given to the bigger college football programs.”