12 Days Until National Signing Day / Feb. 3, 2010
Owls land wide receiver
The relative calm this Polk County wide receiver showed when telling his coach about his commitment to FAU is a trait also shown at game time.
Originally published on
1/24/2010
by
Chuck King
It wasn’t quite the response William Hill expected.
He returned to FAU’s campus on Sunday to pick up one of his players from an official visit. Hill had already learned that the player had committed, but didn’t want to let on, hoping to catch a jubilant reaction.
Instead, the wide receiver from Polk County played it cool.
“Initially, he didn’t tell me anything,” Hill said of Marcus Cunningham.
Cunningham likely knew that he had plenty of time to talk with Hill, his offensive coordinator at Lakeland-Kathleen, on the three-hour drive home.
Hill said Cunningham honed the cool demeanor displayed while telling the coach of his commitment on the football field.
“In the ball games he’s not going to get overly excited,” Hill said. “He’s a calm, laid-back individual.”
He’s also tough. Cunningham, a 6-foot-1, 175-pound possession receiver, caught 44 passes for nearly 500 yards and seven touchdowns as a senior despite playing with a soft cast that protected a torn ligament in his thumb.
That was after Cunningham played his entire junior year with a torn labrum, opting to wait for surgery until the season had ended.
“(FAU coaches) told me they liked my route-running ability and my ability to catch,” Cunningham said.
Hanging out with the players and FAU’s academic programs impressed Cunningham, but FAU’s facilities – both the existent and the promised – sealed the deal.
“The new renovations they were getting, the new facilities, the new stadium –they were impressive,” said Cunningham. “I was so happy.”
Watson still looking: Panama City-Rutherford lineman Sean Watson said FAU coaches once again offered him a scholarship but he said he won’t make a decision until after next week’s visit to Baylor.
Watson had previously visited Arkansas and Florida International.