Ex-UTEP Receiver Rouse Leaves Jail, Finds Himself Playing At Small College

Concordia-Selma football coach Shepard Skanes has a motto his players can recite from memory:

You’ve got to do something you’ve never done before to get something you’ve never had before.

These days, Concordia-Selma wide receiver Fred Rouse does things he never did before at Florida State and UTEP, where he became the often-heard cautionary tale of a five-star athlete whose conduct overshadowed his talent.

Rouse is often the first player to arrive for morning film sessions, beating Skanes into the athletic facility at 6 a.m. to plug in the projector. He pushes his teammates for extra weightlifting sessions or playbook study sessions. Most of all, he’s become humble, the result of falling from a freshman starting in the Orange Bowl for the Seminoles to a senior playing for a school of about 600 students without an athletic association affiliation.

“This opportunity opened my eyes to a lot of things, such as the actual work that guys put into the game or your craft that makes (you) that great receiver,” Rouse, now 24, said last week on Concordia-Selma’s campus.

Read the full Birmingham News article here.