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Super Bowl LIII: JUCO look back on their tough, rewarding path

CLASS OF 2019 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | State | Position | Team

CLASS OF 2020 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | State | Position

Julian Edelman
Julian Edelman (AP Images)

SUPER BOWL LIII: Where players ranked as prospects | From five-stars to the Super Bowl |Two-stars that slipped through the cracks | Breaking down former three-stars

Much has been made of life in the junior college ranks, and even before the hit Netflix show “Last Chance U” debuted a few years ago, stories spread about the less-than-glamorous life away from major college football. But for all the talk of remote locales and bare bones facilities, there are still plenty of players that emerge from the junior college ranks to become stars at the college level and beyond.

This year’s Super Bowl is no exception as both teams feature former junior college players, with Patriots wide receivers Julian Edelman and Cordarrelle Patterson among them. So how did the long road from JUCO impact the careers of players?

“I think junior college made a man out of me,” said Patriots linebacker Brandon King, an Alabama native that played his junior college ball at Highland Community College in Kansas. “You go through a lot when you’re there. I was 800 miles from home, no family there. It will grow you as a man and make you love the game.”

King had no offers out of high school and ended up back in Alabama at Auburn after a successful stint in JUCO. Despite his success story, King said his time at JUCO made him realize how fragile his football career was.

“You have to earn everything that you get and you have to understand that if you don’t produce there then your career is over as a football player,” he said.

Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Josh Reynolds, who ended up at JUCO after losing a scholarship offer to Oregon State unexpectedly, said he went into his situation at Tyler Junior College in Texas hyper focused.

“I was either on the football field, in my dorm or in the classroom,” said Reynolds, who spent one year at the school before transferring to Texas A&M. “Even when the team wasn’t on the field I was on the field. It didn’t matter if it was eight or nine o'clock. If the lights were still on, I was on the field. I was just working and getting better. I was locked in during JUCO because I was trying to get out of there.”

New England defensive lineman Ufomba Kamalu, who had played just three years of organized football prior to enrolling at Butler Community College in Kansas, said his year at the school helped vault him to the Power Five level at Miami.

“It was hard but I really liked it because it made me a better player,” Kamalu said. “I learned a lot from going to JUCO. In Kansas there was nothing there at all. I just went to practice every day, went to class and did my homework and that was pretty much it.”

Each of the players said they had talented teammates who didn’t make it out of JUCO and King said the stories of those players who can’t play the game they love anymore continues to stick with him years later.

“Some people I played with didn’t get the opportunity to continue playing football and I know it meant the world to some guys and then their football careers were over,” King said. “For the most part, you can’t go to the park and play a game of tackle football as an adult. It’s not like basketball where you can go play pickup. You have to cherish every moment you have and I’m blessed to make it here to the biggest stage.”

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