STORRS, Conn. (AP) -Connecticut tailback Andre Dixon walked into coach Randy Edsall\’s office a year ago expecting to be thrown off the football team.
A year later, he is heading into his final regular-season game against South Florida as an NFL prospect with a chance to become the second Husky this season to rush for 1,000 yards.
After running for 828 yards as a sophomore, Dixon didn\’t play much his junior year. He sustained an ankle injury in the preseason and got stuck behind 2,000-yard rusher Donald Brown.
Days before the regular season finale, Dixon was arrested on a drunken driving charge. Having already served a two-game suspension in 2007 for violating team rules, he did not expect his meeting the next day with Edsall to go well.
“I went in there sweating,\’\’ Dixon said. “I thought my career was definitely over at the University of Connecticut for sure. But, I knew what kind of relationship we had, and you always have that slight chance that things might go your way.\’\’
dsall said he saw something in Dixon that made him decide to give the kid from the streets of New Brunswick, N.J. one last chance. Dixon was suspended for four weeks.
“There was a lot of people that wanted to give up on him and thought that I would have given up on him,\’\’ Edsall said. “But I knew deep down what kind of young man he was and what he had inside of him.\’\’
Dixon said he resolved at that moment to change his ways. He stopped hanging out with certain people, stopped going out on weekdays and concentrated on classes and football.
He didn\’t complain this summer when he was listed below sophomore Jordan Todman on the depth chart, and instead became Todman\’s mentor and friend. He earned his playing time, and is now considered a team leader. With his dreadlocks flowing from under his helmet, he has rushed for 913 yards, including a 4-yard run in the second overtime that beat Notre Dame two weeks ago.
“He\’s the guy who gets us fired up,\’\’ Todman said. “Dre is always smiling, upbeat. He doesn\’t let too many things get him down. He\’s been through a lot, but I\’m sure he\’s never thought about quitting or anything. He loves the game.\’\’
He and Todman (1,079 yards) could become the first tandem in school history to each rush for 1,000 yards in the same season.
Edsall said Dixon also will play in one of the senior all-star games this winter, and should get a chance to play in the NFL.
“This is why you coach. This is why you help young people,\’\’ Edsall said. “Just to see how far he\’s come and how much he\’s matured and to understand that there is a place, when you know what\’s inside a person, that you work with him and you give him a second chance, or a third chance to right the ship, so to speak.\’\’
There is another goal Dixon plans to accomplish that he says means more to him than playing in the NFL. The former honor roll student at New Brunswick High School will graduate later this month with a degree in sociology.
“I said, \’Let me get my degree; let me be the first person in my family to get my degree, and anything after that, let that be a bonus,\’\’\’ Dixon said.
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