Armed Forces Bowl: Two players will finish college football careers in their hometown

by Todd E. Jones of of College Football Top Ten

On New Years’ Eve day at Fort Worth’s Amon G. Carter Stadium, the Air Force Falcons will play the Houston Cougars in the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl. Among players from the two teams, two seniors will finish their college football careers near where they graduated high school.

Ryan Harrison is a do-everything kicker/punter for Air Force who graduated from Keller High School. Harrison was 22-for-25 on field goal attempts and was perfect on extra point tries this season. Further, he was a semifinalist for the Lou Groza Collegiate Place-Kicker Award for the nation’s top place kicker. In high school, Harrison was a stand-out football and soccer player for Keller High School becoming a first-team all-state 5-A kicker as a senior along with second-team all-district kicker as a junior and second-team all district punter as a senior. In soccer, Harrison was a three-time all-district midfielder and a first-team all-area as a senior.

For his career, Harrison is 41-of-52 on field goals, a 78% average, holds a 40.9 yard per punt average, has only missed two point-after-touchdown tries in 80 attempts, and has 55 touch-backs in 145 kick-offs. He holds the Air Force single season school record for field goals (22) and was named second team All-Mountain West Conference this season.

Joining Harrison at the Air Force Academy from the Dallas-Fort Worth area on is sophomore corner back Reggie Rembert from Flower Mound High School and sophomore defensive end Chase Darden from Plano East High School. Rembert was the Academy’s top returner in 2008 returning kicks for an average of 18.5 yards per kick return and 13.5 yards per punt return. In addition, Rembert gets some playing time on the offense at the WR-Z position. Other players from the DFW area include sophomore Jacob Morgan from Arlington Martin High School, and freshman Evan Epstein from Dallas Bishop Lynch High School.

A Fort Worth Dunbar High School graduate, defensive end Phillip Hunt has had quite a season as a senior for the Houston Cougars. Hunt began the year on the Nagurski, Lombardi and the Ted Hendricks Award watch lists, and he did not disappoint new head coach Kevin Sumlin. While the Cougar offense has gotten a lot of buzz with their high-octane passing attack from sophomore quarterback Case Keenum, Hunt has been terrorizing opposing quarterbacks as he has totaled 14 sacks and 16.5 tackles for loss.

Hunt’s efforts helped him garner the C-USA Defensive Player of the Year as well as a fourth team All-American award from Phil Steele publications. Hunt also finished the season 50 total tackles playing from the defensive end position that is called RUSH. The 6-2, 260 pound Senior also was an Conference USA First Team selection for the second year in a row.

Other players from the Dallas-Fort Worth area playing for Houston include freshman middle linebacker Marcus McGraw from Arlington Bowie High School. McGraw was named to the Conference USA All-Freshman team after compiling 88 tackles along with 5.5 tackles-for-loss and five pass break-ups. Joining McGraw for Houston from Bowie High School is Mohamed Usman who is Hunt’s back up at the RUSH spot. From Hillcrest High School in Dallas, junior Chris Gilbert plays the Y-receiver spot, and from Berkner High School in Richardson is sophomore H-back/tight end Wesley Scourton and redshirt freshman running back Justin Johnson.

Between the two teams in the Armed Forces Bowl, the Dallas-Fort Worth area is well represented.

Information provided by Houston Cougar Athletics and The Air Force Academy Falcon Athletics