HOLLYWOOD, Fla. — At 6-foot-4 and 200 pounds, Edric Weldon possesses the kind of size and athleticism defensive coordinators in Power 5 conferences often spend months fighting over. And if they don’t, it’s usually only because of the situation Weldon finds himself in — out with a season-ending knee injury and not nearly enough game film to persuade them to take a chance on him.
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“I went to Texas A&M in June on an unofficial (visit) and it was so exciting,” the senior at South Broward High said Tuesday as he stood clutching his crutches and watching his teammates prepare for their first-round state playoff game Friday versus Homestead High.
“I saw the facilities. We ate there and spent the whole day there. I was already dreaming about going there, being close to some family. Coach told me they were going to watch me the rest of the year. Jimbo (Fisher) was a cool dude. I took a picture with him. He told me to keep grinding, keep working. I told him I was going to ball out.”
Weldon, a defensive back/linebacker prospect, never got the opportunity to ball out. He tore the ACL in his left knee in practice during his team’s bye week in early September. As soon as word got out, Arizona State, Texas A&M, Mississippi State, Penn State and other Power 5 schools who had offered him scholarships — or were working to invite him on campus for official visits — lost his phone number. When he or his coach called them, the coaches who answered told them they’d moved on.
“I thought college was over for me when I got hurt,” Weldon said. “But I’m going to come back stronger than ever. So it really doesn’t matter.”
In an era of college football when the transfer portal could end up leaving some talented high school recruits without FBS suitors, Weldon, who has played in only six games over the past three years because of injuries and the COVID-19 pandemic, could serve as an example of what might become the new norm: top talents having to go play at the FCS level.
Ranked 385th overall in the 247Sports Composite 2022 class rankings and 17th best overall in talent-laden South Florida, Weldon is the highest-rated recruit who has pledged to an FCS program this cycle.
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Committed to Campbell University since October, he’s one of five top-1,000 players committed to an FCS team as of Nov. 10. Last year, 14 players ranked among the top 1,000 signed with FCS programs. Deion Sanders and Jackson State signed six of the top 500 in the 247Sports Composite rankings, including five who were rated as four-stars.
Being the top-ranked recruit headed to an FCS school is something Weldon thinks is cool.
“I’m grateful the coaches at Campbell have stood by my side, kept their word,” said Weldon, who is set to have knee surgery Nov. 21 and has plans to officially visit Campbell in December before signing in February. “But I know I’m good enough to play at the top level, and I can’t wait to prove some people wrong.”
South Broward coach Charles McCrae, who mentored Weldon at North Dade Optimist when he was in middle school and now again as a senior, is stunned that no FBS teams are willing to take a shot on his top senior.
“Little do a lot of those schools know it’s not as severe of an injury to his leg as they think,” McCrae said. “Judging by what the doctors said, where it tore it was particularly weak just from him growing so fast and being a very big kid. It is a torn ACL, but it’s requiring minimum surgery instead of a full surgery. So, he’ll be back in two or three months, up right, ready to go to school. It’s just crazy how everything happened. Just a little freak accident.”
Coach Charles McCrae, right, who mentored Weldon in middle school and now again at South Broward High, is stunned no FBS teams want his top senior. (Manny Navarro / The Athletic)The issue for Weldon — aside from the injury — is the fact that he doesn’t have a lot of game tape. He’s also been to five high schools, which makes chasing down his transcripts irksome. He has a 3.0 grade point average but has also yet to take the SAT or ACT to academically qualify.
As a player, though, the potential is there. He projects as a safety at the next level, one who could play outside linebacker or striker. McCrae said Weldon runs about a 4.6 in the 40-yard dash, but his length and growing body are what make him “a unicorn.”
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He has drawn comparisons to former Clemson standout and Arizona Cardinals first-round pick Isaiah Simmons.
“Edric’s got a lot of potential and he’s a really good player, but he’s got a long way to go,” local recruiting guru Larry Blustein said. “He still has a lot of experience to catch up on. I mean, he’s a good-looking kid, and he’s a great athlete. But at the end of the day, colleges are not going to go on your word. They’ve got to see him play. Wherever he goes, he could even be gray-shirted. Some teams will take a chance because they think he could develop into something special. But to say he’s ready now, I don’t think so.”
Weldon has played in only six varsity games since last year, recording an interception twice as a junior in four games. In the two he played this season for South Broward, he was all over the field making plays.
“He was killing people, playing on a different level,” said McCrae, who got the job at South Broward in the spring after serving as an assistant at Hollywood Chaminade, where he coached University of Miami freshman running back Thad Franklin.
“He was literally locking down one side of the field. I think one person caught a pass and took one of the biggest hits of their life. If you watch the clips, he was literally picking receivers up on the jam and throwing them behind the line of scrimmage. There was one play where he jammed a receiver 10 yards out of bounds and the ref threw the flag.”
Weldon said he studies film of legendary Raiders safety Jack Tatum, who died in 2010 at age 61.
“He was a little dude, but he played like he was 6-4, 240,” Weldon said. “People tell me I could be the next Sean Taylor. I’m the kind of guy who just wants to run through you.
“Right now, I’m not playing, but I’m still studying our next opponent, Homestead. I like helping my teammates. If they slip and fall, I pick them up.”
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Weldon began his high school career as a freshman receiver at Everglades High in Miramar. He then transferred to Hialeah for his sophomore year but missed the season when he tore the ACL in his right knee. Weldon then transferred to Hallandale High for his junior year and appeared in four games at cornerback during a shortened season.
He picked up his first offers from Maryland and Penn State on Nov. 9 last year and quickly added Tennessee, Miami, Virginia Tech, UAB, Pitt, Alabama, Florida, Georgia Tech, Florida State, Texas A&M and Oklahoma State before he really blew up playing in the seven-on-seven circuit last January.
Playing alongside three-star receivers Devaughn Mortimer (FSU commitment) and Jullian Lewis (former Georgia Tech commitment) and in the same secondary with four-star and three-star defensive backs Jaylin Marshall (Georgia Tech commitment), Alfonzo Allen (former Arizona State commitment) and Anthony Rose (South Carolina commitment), Weldon co-starred on the Defcon seven-on-seven team, which beat the Louisiana Bootleggers in the Battle Miami tournament.
Edric Weldon said Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher was “a cool dude. He told me to keep grinding, keep working. I told him I was going to ball out.” (Manny Navarro / The Athletic)Weldon was part of a wave of talented players who left Hallandale after last season. He spent this past summer at Miami Central but ended up transferring to South Broward and reuniting with McCrae.
“He flips his hips with any receiver,” McCrae said. “Put him inside, and he covers guys. Anybody that was anybody last year, they’d put Edric on. If they put him in the box, he has a chance to play on Sundays. With the right training, he’d be a lot faster, too.
“I know the safety and linebacker coach at Oklahoma State were in love with him,” McCrae continued. “The day after he got hurt, they were like, ‘Hey, we’re out of spots.’ He has zero problems. No sneaking out of the house. No drugs, nothing. He lives, eats, sleeps football, and his motivation is trying to get his Mom out. He’s a very loyal person in general. His ultimate dream school was Miami. I know Miami was going to be that last school that was going to be the deciding factor for him.”
McCrae said he still talks to FBS coaches every now and then about Weldon, including Mississippi State assistants and Miami cornerbacks coach DeMarcus Van Dyke. But nobody is willing to bite except Campbell, which has 18 players from Florida on its roster, including former FIU defensive lineman Alexy Jean-Baptiste and freshman defensive back Demitray Fields, who played high school football in Broward County.
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“Every other day we’re talking to their coaches,” McCrae said of Campbell. “We’ve already got everything mapped out with his rehab, making sure he’s ready when it’s time for him to leave.”
Still, signing with an FBS program remains something Weldon wants to do. Campbell knows it, too, Weldon said. In the end, he’s going to make the best decision for himself.
“I just don’t want my Mom to work anymore,” said Weldon, who is the youngest of five children raised by a single mother who works as a dialysis nurse. “She’s worked two jobs my whole life. There’s mornings she was out of the house by 4:35 in the morning and I wouldn’t see her until 8 p.m. … Some days I wouldn’t even see her. I just want to put my family on my back, feed everyone.”
(Top photo: Manny Navarro / The Athletic)
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