| MOBILE, Ala. — "The
Color Purple" may have been set in the Deep South, but it's awfully hard to find the
color purple in this deepest of Southern towns. It can be seen in striped form on the
pant legs of Louisiana State RB Rondell Mealey, but you have to look real closely just to
spot it, and even then you suspect it might be royal blue. White is the dominant color,
just as gold is on Mealey's helmet. Purple? Secondary.
Best I can tell, only one man among the 100 or so players participating in the 2000
Senior Bowl has, as we Northwestern Wildcats like to call it, "purple pride." He
is TE Jay Tant, the lone representative of my alma mater in any of the postseason college
all-star games.
Truth be known, I expected the Wildcats to have at least a handful of reps at every one
of these games following the miraculous Rose Bowl season of 1995. Alas, success was
fleeting. Gary Barnett did not land the big-time recruits he promised, and when he left
the program following the 1998 season, NU was back to where it had started, or at least
close to it: on the bottom rung of the Big Ten ladder.
Hopefully, the Cats will be bowl-bound once again someday; they'd be on their way for
sure if they recruited more players like Tant.
According to Pro Football Weekly personnel analyst Joel Buchsbaum's initial
player rankings of 2000, Tant is the third-ranked tight end on the board, behind Daniel
"Bubba" Franks of Miami (Fla.) and Anthony Becht of West Virginia. What Tant's
measurables — he stands 6-3, weighs 255 pounds, can run the 40-yard dash in 4.68
seconds and earned a 5.40 grade in the Buchsbaum chart — don't tell you is that he's
a player whose game is built on hard work.
Both of Tant's parents, dad Bill and mom Anne, are teachers. But that only describes
Bill's day job. When he gets home from school, Bill changes clothes and paints houses
until 9 p.m. It's no wonder, then, that son Jay, when asked what his strengths are,
responds, "My intangibles — discipline, hard work, motivated."
Tant considers himself a fine all-around tight end, and there's no doubt he has more to
offer than pass-catching ability. If that were the lone qualification for earning a spot
in the Senior Bowl, Tant wouldn't be here.
Tant caught all of 17 passes during his senior season. QB woes were the main problem.
NU used two different starters, Nick Kreinbrink and Zak Kustok, and neither was the
starter the previous season. That was Gavin Hoffman, who elected to transfer to Penn after
Barnett left.
"I had four or five different quarterbacks," Tant said. "They were
coming and going, right-handers and left-handers. I developed a real good rapport last
year with Gavin Hoffman, but he transferred. This year I was kind of left hanging. It
wasn't the greatest, but you have to adapt to those situations."
Much of the time, the Cats' only serious senior pro prospect was forced to stay in and
block. Whether blocking or going out to run a pass pattern in NU's run-first offense, Tant
showed a good burst off the line. It comes from his swimming background.
Tant was a high school All-American and state of Ohio champion in the 50- and 100-meter
freestyle events. "A drop-dead sprinter," said Tant, who weighed about 200
pounds when he swam competitively. "It really carries over into (football) — my
quicks off the line, my burst of speed. In the 50 free, that's all it was — down and
back, getting off the blocks."
It struck me as I was speaking with Tant that the weather in Mobile was ideal for
swimming — about 75 degrees and sunny. I asked him if the hotel where the players
stay has a pool.
"That's where I'm headed right now," he said.
Apparently, the purple-clad Tant isn't a fish out of water after all. |
