Standing next in a long line
The Nevada football team has had a long line of big-play wide receivers, with players such as Alex Van Dyke, Jeff Noisy, Nate Burleson and Trevor Insley. Now the Wolf Pack is hoping that the next big-play wideout will be Marko Mitchell.
Mitchell has all the features to be that guy with a 6-4, 200-pound frame and 4.4-40 speed and leaping ability that he honed while playing basketball in high school and junior college.
“I was a true basketball player,” Mitchell said. “I wasn’t looking into playing football (collegiately) until my senior year in high school.”
Mitchell went to Sumter County High School in York, Ala., where he was a standout basketball player. But, while he wasn’t thinking about playing football in college, his coaches were thinking about it for him.
“I had a coach that I was real close to in high school,” Mitchell said. “And he broke down the chances of me making it in football and me making it in basketball. He just broke it all down for me and thought football should be the way I should go.”
Mississippi State offered Mitchell a basketball scholarship, but he decided to go to Mesa (Ariz.) Community College, where he had 34 catches for 719 yards and eight touchdowns. Mitchell also played basketball there and ran track. But when he got to Nevada he knew football was going to be his future.
“They asked me if wanted to (play basketball),” Mitchell said. “But after I got done playing in junior college, I told them I didn’t want to anymore and I just wanted to concentrate on one sport.”
While his concentration went to one sport, it was another sport that helped him on the football field.
Mitchell has been able to use his basketball skills to help create separation with smaller defensive backs, much like San Diego Chargers’ tight end Antonio Gates has been able to do after playing basketball at Kent State.
“With his height and his ability to jump and play fast, it has helped him a bunch,” Nevada receiver coach Scott Baumgartner said. “He can go up a get a ball. Just get it in the vicinity and he’ll make an effort for it.”
His ability to separate himself from defensive backs has helped him rack up 612 yards and four touchdowns on 45 receptions at Nevada. Mitchell was also able to show off some ability in the MPC Computers Bowl against Miami in his lone catch that went for 27 yards and a touchdown.
Mitchell is the tallest receiver on the Wolf Pack roster, which averages about 6 foot 1. While height hasn’t held back other receivers like Mike McCoy, who is 6-2 and had nine touchdown catches in 2006, height is a big advantage when most defensive backs are about 5-11. That added height has helped not only Mitchell, but the whole receiving corp.
“We’ve got him (Mitchell), Mike McCoy and Kyle Salmon,” Baumgartner said. “I mean we have good group of receivers, so as a group they make each other stronger.”
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on Tuesday, September 11th, 2007 at 1:35 am and is filed under 2007 Football Preview, Football, Sports.
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