Edison sees the light

Back in March of 2009 I did a dread gallery (DG45) featuring National Signing Day, and I remember one of the photos was of DB Josh Johnson accompanied by a comment that Purdue's '09 recruiting class had several players with dreads. Well, for Johnson and the other members of that class who haven't redshirted, their time at Purdue is almost up. That includes a player I've become a big fan of over the years - I'm talking about WR Antavian Edison. I thought I'd give a quick shout out to Edison before he plays his final game in a Purdue uniform in the Heart of Dallas Bowl against Oklahoma State (Jan. 1 at 11 AM CT on ESPNU).

Antavian has been a pretty decent playmaker in the Big 10 during his career, which might come as a surprise to anyone who saw him in HS.
According to the article I'm including with this feature, he was a 150-pound weakling when (now former) Coach Hope recruited him out of Ft. Myers, FL. He's added about 30 pounds since then, but at 5-11, 181, he's still not built to endure a lot of contact.

Another item prominent in the article is Edison's arrest seven months ago, when he went home right after the end of his junior year. Not that he was a troublemaker or anything like that, Edison nevertheless used the arrest to get scared straight and has grown up and become more mature since then. You can read the article, from ESPN.com about 3 months ago, by clicking on the link below.
http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/60557/purdues-edison-grows-up-on-off-field

Hopefully Edison will be able to continue playing football beyond this season; but that's doubtful at this time. So be sure to tune in on New Year's Day, where Antavian (according to my crystal ball) will add 1 or 2 more to his career total of 18 TD.