romeo travis has a year to play football for akron

[timmyboy]

this is an article i ran across when i was looking at players who still have a year of eligibility because they never used a redshirt....... what do you all think of having romeo as a tight end, or a defensive end/ outside linebacker.Romeo Travis gave up what he did best for what he loved most when he decided to play basketball for the Akron Zips. “Football is really my game,” he said, “but I just love basketball.” His love of hoops landed the 6-7, 225-pound Travis at Akron instead of at one of many football teams that will be playing in bowl games this holiday season. “He really was more highly recruited out of [st. Vincent-St. Mary] high school for football than basketball,” Akron head coach Keith Dambrot said.Travis is no slouch on the basketball court, as his current averages of 14.8 points and 5 rebounds per game for the 7-3 Zips will attest. But he admits that this time of year, his eyes drift toward watching all the bowl games, and his mind toward what might have been. “I miss football every day,” Travis said. “It makes me wonder, ‘What if?’ I’ve been playing football since I was 8 years old, before basketball. Pitt, Purdue, Missouri, Connecticut, they offered me to play both, all of them. But I didn’t trust them. Purdue wanted me to be a slot receiver. Everybody else wanted me for defensive end. Michigan, they wanted me to walk on.” Instead, Travis leads a team expected to win the Mid-American Conference. The senior’s attributes on the court — size, speed, soft hands and a physical style of play — compare well to those of a football player. And there have been times when he has dipped a toe of curiosity on the side. “I went through a few football workouts here one spring,” Travis said. “But coach Dambrot waived me off.” Akron football coach J.D. Brookhart confirmed Travis has been in pads for the Zips. “I thought he might consider it,” Brookhart said of a tryout in the NFL. “He would have a shot. If he did it, he’d probably be better off offensively. Four years with not being used to the physical side of it could be a problem for him on defense.” While this is Travis’ final year of basketball eligibility, he could play one season of football for the Zips next season if he wanted because he did not use a redshirt year. Or, he could opt for an NFL tryout after this season, not uncommon for basketball players his size. Jai Lewis from George Mason’s Final Four team last season unsuccessfully tried out for the Pittsburgh Steelers last spring. The poster child for making the switch is Can't State’s Antonio Gates, now an All-Pro tight end with the San Diego Chargers. But Travis holds no such illusions. “I’m a physical basketball player,” Travis said. “But on the football field, professionally, I’d be pretty little. [Gates] had a football body playing basketball. I’m not built like that. If I were bigger, physically bigger, I’d think about it. I’d love to play football again, no question.”

[UAZipster0305]

Could Romeo be the next Antonio Gates?Regardless,