Brees wasn't always the star QB he is today

By Darin Gantt - daringantt@carolina.rr.com

CHARLOTTE -- No matter how good he looks today, New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees wasn't one of those can't-miss prospects in high school. In fact, it took an injury to even get him on the field to begin with.

Carolina Panthers assistant special teams coach Jeff Rodgers was there for the beginning of Brees' career — and every snap of his junior season — since they were high school teammates in Texas.

Rodgers, who joined the Panthers this year, was Brees' center at Westlake High in Austin, Texas, when Brees broke into the lineup by a twist of fate.

Rodgers' older brother, Jay, had just graduated, and was headed to play quarterback at Indiana. His younger brother, Jonny, was the starter on the JV team, ahead of Brees on the depth chart. But then Jonny suffered a knee injury the week before the first game of their junior year, and Brees got the chance to take snaps from Jeff.

“Drew was his backup, and the rest is history,” Jeff Rodgers said with a grin Friday.

The Panthers coach remains impressed by his old high school teammate, who he'll visit with in pre-game warmups Sunday. Brother Jonny will be there, too, and plans to sit with Brees' wife in a Superdome suite.

But when Jeff Rodgers thinks back to what made him so good in high school, he keeps coming up with the things that make Brees one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL at the moment, a leading candidate for MVP honors halfway through the season.

“He was just ultra-competitive, very intelligent, and just always seemed to have terrific timing,” Rodgers said of Brees in high school. “In high school, you don't have as much time to practice, we had good skill position guys, good receivers and stuff. But his rhythm, the way he threw the ball downfield, he just had terrific timing. He knew when to throw the ball and when to throw it away, just a really intelligent player.”

Which makes it all that much more amazing that Brees got out of state at all.

After all, he was 27-0-1 as a starter in high school. Westlake missed out on a state title in 1995 when Brees was injured (Jonny got to quarterback Jeff's final high school game). The following year, Brees led them to a 16-0 record and a Class 5A title with a 55-15 rout over Abilene Cooper (and future NFL running back Dominic Rhodes), throwing for 3,528 yards and 31 touchdowns.

But in one of the biggest recruiting mysteries of all time, there was a time during his senior year when Brees wasn't being recruited at all.

Randy Rodgers, the head of the Westlake clan and John Mackovic's recruiting coordinator at the University of Texas, already had secured a commitment from Major Applewhite to be the future leader of the Longhorns. Texas A&M, Brees' preferred destination, never called. The Aggies had sophomore quarterback Randy McCown (the brother of injured Panthers backup quarterback Josh McCown), backing up starter Branndon Stewart at the moment.

For a long time, no other schools were calling. By this time, Jeff was playing linebacker at North Texas, and he remembers going home for a playoff game in 1996 and talking to a friend whose future was uncertain.

The knee injury during Brees' junior year was a factor, as well as the fact he's still not the biggest guy (listed as 6-foot, 209 pounds).

“I was at North Texas, he was certainly good enough to play at North Texas,” Rodgers said. “He thought the bigger schools weren't quite sold on him, and maybe the smaller schools thought he was going to bigger schools.

“He was truly getting recruited by nobody.”

New Purdue coach Joe Tiller fell into his best player somewhat by accident, as a result.

“Tiller was new on staff at Purdue that year,” Rodgers recalled. “He came in in January, said ‘Who's the best quarterback in Texas not going anywhere?' So Purdue jumped on late ... and obviously, he was a great fit for that offense.”

Brees would go on to break all the Big Ten's passing records at Purdue, leading to his current successful run in New Orleans.

But even Rodgers admitted it wasn't as if Brees was labeled as a sure NFL star at the moment.

“There's a lot of good players in high school,” Rodgers said. “We won games, and that's the biggest thing. As a high school player, he was 27-0-1, never lost a game as a high school starter.

“He was just ultra-competitive, he was a winner, and that's what showed up at Purdue.”

It's still showing up today.