Could DB fall to Missouri soon

Junior to Watch: Steve Redmond

School: Kansas City (Mo.) Rockhurst

Position: Cornerback

Size and speed: Redmond is 6-foot, 200 pounds and has been timed at 4.4-seconds in the 40-yard dash. He has a 285-pound bench press, a 320-pound squat and has a 31-inch vertical leap.

Honors: Redmond earned all area honors as a junior and was an honorable mention all-metro pick.

Favorite Schools: Redmond has scholarship offers from Missouri and Michigan State. He also mentioned that Kansas State is expected to offer him this week while visiting school.

Skinny: All of the attention has surrounded star running back Tony Temple at Rockhurst High School in Kansas City, Mo., for more than three years now. But along the way other players have worked their way into talented Division-I prospects. One such player is Steve Redmond, a physical cornerback that already has two scholarships sitting on the table.

“I used to play linebacker,” Redmond said. “So learning to cover receivers was something new that I really have had to work on. I still really keep that linebacker mentality, though. Coverage can get boring some times. I like being aggressive. I like hitting. I like to come up and make the big tackle.”

With his size which continues to sprout and expand - he added 20 pounds in this past year and grew almost two inches – he could present college coaches with a number of different options to play him at.

“I’d be fine with playing safety or even outside linebacker in college,” Redmond said. “I want to play corner, but I’ll be Ok with anything.”

Anything is something that Redmond said he thought he would never get a chance to do.

After struggling off the field with a rough home life, Redmond believed that he would never get this opportunity to play college football.

“I’ve had a lot of family problems,” he said. “And I’m a family man. If something goes wrong at home, then something is going to affect me at school. I’ve been hit with bump after bump. But I’m now getting it together. I let that bother me some when it came to classes and things like that, but now I’ve worked hard to not let it be a distraction.”

What could also be a distraction is that Redmond is Temple’s cousin. It’s something that could be hard to deal with, but Redmond said it’s been nothing but a pleasure to play with his cousin.

“A lot of people say Tony’s arrogant,” Redmond said. “I’ve never seen Tony be arrogant to people. He’s just how he is. I think the two of us might be dangerous together in college.”

And that’s the plan. Redmond said both would like to attend the same school together, but it’s not a plan that’s set in stone either, though.

“That’s the plan and our dream,” he said. “Tony got a bigger jump on me when we got to Rockhurst, and he’s got a lot more scholarship offers than I do. It’s definitely an option. We’d love to play together and that’s our initial plan. But we also understand that we have to make our own decisions and make the right picks for ourselves. So if we end up at different places, then that’s going to be all right still.

“But I think both of us would like to be at the same school.”

And if he had to pick that school today, it would likely be Missouri, Redmond said. When the Tigers offered him a scholarship early in the process, he said he was very tempted to jump on it.

“I was tempted,” he said. “But then after talking to coach (Tony) Severino, he advised me to at least wait until I get my ACT scores and go through the May calls to see what happens. I think I might still commit early after I get my ACT results back.”

Those results are due back at any time. Redmond said he thought he blew the test out of the water and will be disappointed with anything but a 26 or a 27.