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Receiver Cecil Shorts prepared for his chance with Jags
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Cecil Shorts (Cockrill's Studio)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
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Mount Union wide receiver Cecil Shorts runs after a reception in the second quarter of their NCAA Division III semifinal college football game against Bethel in Alliance, Ohio on Saturday, Dec. 11, 2010.
By Joe Scalzo
Just before 1 p.m. on Saturday afternoon, Cecil Shorts was in his parents’ house in Cleveland, playing with his iPhone, when he saw a random number pop up on his screen.
“I thought, ‘It’s probably a team,’ so I got a little excited,” said Shorts. “Then I picked it up and it was the Jaguars, so I thought, ‘OK, cool.’”
Shorts, an All-American wide receiver from Mount Union, entered last weekend expecting to be picked somewhere between the third and fifth rounds of the NFL draft. (Although he was secretly hoping to get picked late in the second round.)
Only 10 Division III players had been drafted in the past 15 years and only one was a Purple Raider: wide receiver Pierre Garcon, who went to the Colts in the sixth round in 2008.
“I didn’t realize the Jaguars were even on the clock,” said Shorts. “They said, ‘We have three questions to ask you.”
“Are you healthy?” he was asked.
“Yes sir,” Garcon said.
“Have you had any trouble with the law since the [NFL] Combine?
“No.”
“If we brought you in today, would you be ready to play in camp tomorrow?”
“No doubt about it.”
Satisfied, they told him not to hang up. That’s when Shorts looked up at the TV and saw the Jaguars on the clock.
“It didn’t click at first, then I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s about to happen,’” Shorts said. “I started smiling and my family started noticing and they told me they were going to select me.
“I said, ‘I’m proud to be a Jaguar’ and the whole house erupted.”
Shorts went in the fourth round, the 114th overall pick. The selection capped a rapid — and unexpected — rise for the former Collinwood quarterback, who chose Mount Union coming out of high school because he wanted to keep playing quarterback and his only other scholarship offers came from struggling Division II programs.
“I felt the love as soon as I came here,” he said.
Shorts got hurt as a freshman and redshirted, then spent the spring running track, where he earned All-America honors. Afterward, Purple Raiders coach Larry Kehres came up to him and said, “What do you think about wide receiver?”
“If it’ll get me on the field, yeah, I’ll play it,” Shorts said.
He spent his redshirt freshman year watching Garcon, then a senior/BMOC. Like a lot of college football players, Shorts dreamed of one day playing in the NFL, but at that point it was just that. A dream.
“Then, when Pierre got drafted, it hit me — if he can get drafted, maybe the same thing can happen for me,” he said.
After splitting time between receiver and quarterback as a freshmen, Shorts focused on receiver full-time as a sophomore, catching 77 passes for 1,484 yards and 23 TDs. His success continued the next two years, as he topped 1,000 yards receiving both years and became an all-purpose threat. Last fall, he scored touchdowns as a receiver, rusher, punt returner and kick returner.
“After my second season [at receiver], I started seeing some scouts at practice and then this past season, there were numerous scouts every day,” Shorts said. “I figured I’d get an opportunity.”
Meanwhile, Garcon was emerging as a potent threat in the Colts’ offense, catching 47 passes in 2009 and 67 last fall.
“His success in the NFL really helped me,” Shorts said of Garcon, who took him under his wing in recent years. “People saw him producing and doing well and it let people know that Division III players can play at that level.”
Shorts was invited to play in the East-West Shrine Game in Orlando, which was just his second trip to Florida. (He also played in an all-star game when he was 12.) He tweaked his hamstring early in the week — although not before catching the eye of Jaguars scouts — then performed well at February’s Combine.
By the time last weekend’s draft rolled around, it was no longer a question of if he’d get drafted. Just when.
“Being a D-III guy, people are always questioning whether you can play at this level,” Shorts said. “But I’ve been an underdog my whole life.
“I’ve always tried to play with a chip on my shoulder. When I was at Mount Union, I tried to prove every single game and every single practice that I didn’t belong there. And I was going to make people pay for it.”
He said he’ll take the same approach to the NFL, although it might be months before he gets the chance. With the league mired in a lockout, he can’t practice or talk with his coaches. He’s planning to go to Jacksonville in the next few weeks to practice with his teammates.
“The lockout situation makes it difficult, but I’m going to head down there to work with the quarterbacks and the receivers,” he said. “Hopefully the lockout is over as soon as possible.
“I just want to get on the field and learn and try to contribute as a rookie and show people I can play.”