MONROE, La. ? There are many wide receivers
in the NFL today who are more concerned about their accolades and post-touchdown
celebrations than their team's success. Sometimes those ESPN highlight reel celebrations
trickle down to the collegiate football field and its receivers.
Luckily for ULM, Anthony McCall is more
concerned about catching touchdowns and helping the team move the chains than exciting
celebrations. Polite and easygoing, McCall is a student-athlete who simply goes
to work everyday.
“I just try to do what I can and not worry
about what other people say,” McCall said. “I just go out there and play my
game trying to lead by example.”
He displayed his athleticism and sure hands
throughout last season when he led the team in touchdown catches. That success has
moved him from relative unknown to one of the top receivers in the Sun Belt
Conference.
McCall has gone from a talented wide receiver on
the depth chart in 2007 to potentially ULM's top receiver in a new and exciting
spread offense. The 6-foot-1, 180-pounder embraces his role of being a top receiver
for ULM ? displaying his crisp route running and glue-like hands.
Entering last season McCall was thought to be
a redshirt freshman wide receiver that would help the Warhawks in certain situations
on the football field. But with a depleted corp before the beginning of the season
he was thrust into the starting lineup against none other than Auburn ? the university
where his father, Anthony, Sr., played football.
“It wasn't some thing I was expecting to do,”
McCall said. “I was thrown in and I try to take advantage of every opportunity
given to me.”
On rare occasions a son will have to
opportunity to play with his father like Ken Griffey Jr. did with his dad in
major league baseball. The next best thing would have to be playing in front of
him at his alma mater.
“It was very special,” McCall said. “It was
fun going back to my home state to play in front of friends and family. It was
fun to have my first game there.”
McCall went on to catch three passes for 25
yards in his first action as a collegiate football player. The added bonus for
him was starting in his first game not more than 55 miles from his hometown of
Montgomery, Ala.
McCall rode his emotional high one week later
into War Memorial Stadium ? a building containing 55,048 screaming Arkansas Razorbacks fans. He
would go on to have a career game catching a team-high six balls for 125 yards
and two touchdowns.
“McCall stepped up last year and made a bunch
of big catches,” ULM quarterback Trey Revell said. “He became the guy that was
going to be on the same page as the quarterback at all times.”
After combining for nine catches, 150 yards
and two touchdowns in his first two outings of his career people began to take
notice. McCall continued his success into the third game of the season against Alabama
A&M with a 20 yard touchdown catch.
“Anthony McCall is a very intelligent young
man,” ULM head coach Charlie Weatherbie said. “He had an outstanding year as
one of the nation's leading touchdown catchers.”
McCall finished his freshman season with 28
catches, 406 yards and a team-leading six touchdowns. He also set the ULM
freshman record for most touchdown catches and ranked eighth nationally among
freshman wide receivers.
For most players, success early in their
careers would distract them from the big picture ? winning football games. Not McCall.
He takes the added demands in stride, wanting to produce consistently so his
team has success.
“He comes out here with a lunch pail and a
hard hat on,” Weatherbie said. “He is one of those guys who is steady when it
comes to competing.”
When watching McCall play he is rarely confused
as a vocal leader. Instead he chooses to lead by example on the field showing
that hard work in the offseason leads to success between the white lines.
“That is my personality,” McCall said. “That
is the way I am. I talk some, but for the most part I am a quiet guy and that
is what I am going to stick to.”
McCall's ?under the radar' attitude is
noticed by his teammates, but what is being recognized by outsiders is his
ability to make outstanding catches.
“McCall is a modest guy,” Revell said. “You
don't hear him speak much, but when he does everyone listens. He just does everything
right. It shows because a lot of people follow in his foot steps.”
He spends every chance he gets catching balls
from the jug machine or with his quarterbacks. It is not uncommon to find
McCall in the weight room or running routes on the field ? long after other
have left.
“No. 83 is a go-to-guy,” Revell said. “He is
going to get a large percentage of the balls and that is what we want. McCall
is one of those guys up there in the top of the Sun Belt and we look for him to
have another impressive year.”
McCall will enter the 2009 season as one of
the top receivers in a relatively unknown receiving core that lost near 100
receptions and over 1,000 yards. And with the new spread offensive scheme he
will be relied upon more because of the system.
