Rivals Rewind: Chiles searching for a spot

John Chiles has seen a lot in his time as a football player.

He's gone rom a high-profile national recruit who committed to Texas as a quarterback, to an undrafted wide receiver who had to fight for a job in the Arena Football League and the Canadian Football League. He has earned an invitation to the Chicago Bears training camp this summer, where he will do his best to fulfill his dream of playing in the NFL.

"It's definitely been a journey and it's definitely tough mentally," Chiles said. "Coming out of high school and being such a highly talented player, everybody looked at me and said, 'You're going to make it.' Nobody tells you what to do when that doesn't happen."

Chiles was an early commit to the Longhorns back in Mack Brown's heyday in 2007, when the best in the state almost always headed to Austin. Stanford, LSU and Florida made some inroads with Chiles, but playing for the state school was an easy choice.

"My dad just kept pulling for Stanford," Chiles said. "He wanted me to go out to California. I was definitely mindful of playing in Texas, just because I felt my parents and my grandmother were getting to be that age where they wouldn't really be able to see me play. I was one of the few, as far as the athletes in my family go, to go to a big university. I wanted the big university and I kind of wanted to share that experience with my grandmother and with my dad, my mom, my sisters and stuff like that. I knew if I would go off and play for Notre Dame they wouldn't be able to come and support me."

Only a couple of weeks after Chiles committed to Texas as a quarterback, the Longhorns pulled in another four-star quarterback commitment from Florida's John Brantley. While Brantley did flip his commitment to Florida in late December, Chiles never thought about re-opening his recruiting process.

"I just felt like I was one of the better quarterbacks," he said. "I knew there was going to be competition, even if I went to a different school there were other guys there, so that never really bothered me. I never really thought too much about it."

Rivals National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell remembers a little differently.

"There were definitely a few whispers behind the scenes and close to those who knew him who thought he might at least look around after Brantley committed," Farrell said. "Chiles wanted to be a quarterback. We all knew there was a chance he could end up elsewhere, that's why we had him ranked so high at athlete (No. 2 athlete in the country, No. 31 overall) because he could end up being an exceptional receiver or even defensive back."

Chiles was an amazing athlete coming out of high school, a two-time district 4-5A MVP who played quarterback and wide receiver at times and was also the best rushing threat for the most part. In his last two years of high school football he threw for 2,036 yards, rushed for 1,248 and caught passes for 694 yards. And he did it all being a four-time honor roll student.

"This was a really good kid, high athletic ability, high character, almost a can't miss type aside from the positional issue," said Farrell. "He was only two spots away from that coveted fifth star and it was mainly because we didn't exactly know where to project him. He was a physical runner and physical as a receiver as well so defense was a thought also - he would have been a heck of a safety, I think. He was fun to watch and he changed that Summit team immediately after transferring from Ranchview."

After experiencing mixed results at quarterback in Austin during his first two seasons, mainly as Colt McCoy's backup, Chiles made the transition to wide receiver prior to his junior season.

"Originally it was a decision I was kind of fighting because I wanted to play quarterback," Chiles said. "At the time I was thinking about playing time. I was talking about it with my cousins and my brothers and that if I wanted to play in the NFL, I might play receiver in the league. If I made the switch now, people would look at you as a receiver, so I went in that direction. It was tough at first. Once it got to the season and I started playing and I started doing well, it was OK. I kind of handled it."

Chiles quickly became a reliable threat as a receiver in the Texas offense during his final two seasons, finishing with 63 receptions for 737 yards and five touchdowns. Despite this production, he went undrafted.

"After college, I was kind of left on my own not really knowing how to go about the work ethic. Stuff that I took for granted, that I didn't necessarily have to work on in high school. I almost had to start over. To be teaching myself how to work and how to go about things. I've definitely seen myself face adversity, pick myself back up and be able to keep going."

Farrell has seen many players unable to recover when their college career doesn't pan out as expected.

"Things come very easy to great athletes like Chiles at the high school level and even in college he can go from being a quarterback one season to one of the better wide outs on a big-time team like Texas the next," said Farrell. "But when you really have to work at it, when you really need to dig deep and show people who didn't recruit you, who don't care who you were or what you did back in the day that you deserve a shot, that's when many fail. Going from top 30 high school athlete to undrafted is a big blow."

Waiting out the NFL lockout during 2011, Chiles finally signed with the New Orleans Saints in August. After a short stint with the Saints, Chiles had stops with the St. Louis Rams and the Arena Football League, before landing with the Toronto Argonauts prior to the 2013 season. In Canada, Chiles began to flourish as a wide receiver, finishing his two seasons with 73 receptions for 1,200 yards and nine touchdowns. He now realizes that his time at quarterback has benefitted him as a wideout.

"It definitely helps me from a mental aspect," Chiles said. "I have to know how everything works. I still have the quarterback mentality, so I understand that they work on this play because they're trying to set this up. I know that's one thing my coaches are always trying to teach me. I kind of have that instinct of what we're trying to accomplish on the plays that we're working on. Even when I'm out there playing receiver, I still think about what the quarterback is thinking."

As a player, Chiles also believes that he is better prepared for the NFL this time around.

"I definitely have learned a lot," he said. "I've been around different receivers and I've actually had to go and do it. Run a route. Protect the ball. I've definitely been able to focus and hone in on one position and work on my craft. I think that definitely makes a big difference."

Now almost five years removed from Texas, Chiles is still keeping a close eye on the Longhorn program.

"I definitely stay in touch," said Chiles. "All of the players, if something happens everybody talks about it. I think they're going to be all right. I think Coach [Charlie] Strong gets the program. Recruiting is different now with Baylor and TCU. It's definitely made it tougher for the recruits. We have a lot of great players come from the state of Texas. People that normally would have went to UT are going to smaller schools and that's OK, but I think ultimately in a few more years we'll be back. "

Farrell thinks the perspective of a former player like Chiles is an interesting one for Texas fans to see.

"Back in 2007 Baylor, TCU and others were not even considered a choice for kids with a Texas offer," said Farrell. "It was Texas first for most, Texas A&M if they decided to stay in state and go in another direction or Oklahoma if they went out of state. Now I would say the Longhorns are behind the Aggies and Texas and OU are battling head-to-head in bitter recruiting battles with Baylor, TCU and sometimes Texas Tech and Houston when it comes to in-state kids. It's a different world and winning is the key - you win and win big, kids will come. It's all about who's hot in recruiting these days when back in Chiles day it wasn't quite as much of a debate."

And for these recruits who are currently going through their process, Chiles has a few words of advice.

"I'd tell them to go where they're needed," said Chiles. "Back then, everyone wasn't going to play at Alabama, everyone wasn't going to TCU, and everyone wasn't going to these different schools. Everybody was kind of piling up at one school, at a Texas or Oklahoma, stuff like that. I would definitely say go where you feel like you'll have the opportunity to play."

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