Interesting story about Georgia State's first and (for now) only player, White WR/RB Mark Hogan Jr.
http://www.ajc.com/sports/content/sports/stories/2009/01/26/georgia_state_football_recruit.html
<h1>Georgia State football player Hogan is a team of one</h1>
By
DARRYL MAXIE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Monday, January 26, 2009
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Mark Hogan Jr. is a contradiction, a trail blazer who's following a familiar path.
He is the first â€" and only, so far â€" Georgia State University
football player, the answer to a trivia question that'll probably make
the rounds two decades from now. That's the trail he blazes.
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Jason Getz/jgetz@ajc.com
<h3>Mark
Hogan Jr. takes a break from the weight room. His father, Mark Sr.,
played for Georgia State coach Bill Curry at Georgia Tech, where he
went from walk-on to become a member of the Black Watch Defense. </h3>
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<h3>Mark Hogan Jr. performs a power squat. He works out regularly and is ‘a tough sucker.'</h3>
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<h3>Georgia
State football player Mark Hogan Jr. walks past GSU's trophy case on
the way to the weight room, where is the sole student of conditioning
coach J.R. Terry.
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"It feels good. But, at the same time, it's weird,"Â Hogan said.
"Football's a team sport, with 70 to 80 guys split into offense,
defense and special teams. But it's just me right now. In that aspect,
it's a little strange."Â
Stranger still is that the coach he'll play for is the one his father played for 24 years ago. Therein is the familiar path.
"It's my first time having a second-generation player,"Â said Bill
Curry, a head coach for 17 years through stops at Georgia Tech, Alabama
and Kentucky.
Mark Hogan Sr. went from walk-on reserve to scholarship starter and
a member of Tech's famed Black Watch Defense in 1985. But the father
never put any pressure on the son to play for Curry.
"He wanted me to do what was best for me,"Â said Hogan Jr., 19, a
wide receiver/running back who was going to play for Brown University,
then decided before the 2008 season that the school didn't suit him.
"I'm happy with the way things worked out."Â
While Hogan Sr., a safety, shot up the ranks by tackling anything
that moved, hitting so hard he broke helmets, Curry said the son has
more ability.
"He's a lot superior,"Â said Curry, though he's seen Hogan Jr. play only on video.
If being the football program's only signee makes him the big man on
campus, the soft-spoken but laser-focused Hogan disguises it well. At 5
feet 11, 190 pounds, he has blended in with all of the other business
majors in the three weeks since he enrolled.
Hogan talked with Dave Cohen, who likely will call his games when
GSU begins play in September 2010, during halftime of the Jan. 10
basketball broadcast against Drexel. Few had any idea the veteran radio
announcer was talking to the school's first football player.
"With people who know that it's him, yes, they knew,"Â Cohen said.
"But there's 28,000 students here who can't be caught up in that."Â
At Lincoln-Sudbury High in Massachusetts, Hogan Jr. was well known,
rushing for 2,622 yards and catching 57 passes for 931 yards. He scored
41 touchdowns and grabbed eight interceptions. He made the Super 26
All-State team.
Cohen predicts Hogan, who's at GSU on a scholarship, will adjust
fine. He will be eligible to play for four years, with the clock
starting next fall, and plans to attend graduate school.
"He's got no stats that he has to beat, no won-lost record that he
has to live up to,"Â Cohen said. "Everything they do is going to be for
the first time â€" it's like that Foreigner song."Â
He won't be GSU's sole football player much longer. National signing
day is Feb. 4, and Curry expects "a good number"Â of signees, though
NCAA rules keep him from identifying prospects.
During the time he's been the one and only, Hogan talks about
getting prepared to play, about being a leader and doing the right
things when no one's watching, about the importance of academics.
And he backs it up, Curry said, earning the respect of coaches and counselors alike.
"He's a tough sucker, I know that,"Â said Ken Coggins, GSU's strength
and conditioning coach. "What I'm doing with him is going to take him
to a new level."Â
In terms of dedication, Hogan is already at a new level. Curry has heard it from the player's mouth.
"The only touch of what some might call wieneriness or real
confidence," Curry said, "is when he told me, ‘Coach, I'll be a one-man
gang' in terms of training. And he is. He shows up early for
everything. Our tutors called me and said, ‘Coach, he's 10 minutes
early!' "
Hogan has learned that time moves no faster, no matter how hard he works. But he sees progress.
"In the coaches' office, there's a ticking clock that says the
season is 500-something days away,"Â said Hogan. "I remember when it was
in the 600s."Â
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