Last summer, wide receiver Marlon Anthony was willing to listen to what the big schools had to say. In the weeks leading up to national signing day on Feb. 4, however, he tuned them out.

“I heard from a lot of them, but I didn’t show any interest,” said the Kell High School standout from Acworth, Ga. “I didn’t want to listen because I’d already made my decision.”

Rated a three-star recruit by Rivals.com, the 6-foot-5 Anthony committed to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga two days after his official visit during the second weekend in January, and he honored that commitment on signing day.

Anthony, who had 46 catches for 776 yards and 10 punt returns for 228 yards during his senior year, is the most high-profile of the 15 signees in coach Russ Huesman’s first recruiting class. And he wouldn’t have been available if he hadn’t decided to take his time before making his decision.

More and more recruits are offered scholarships and are encouraged to commit before their senior year, and Anthony had several offers from bowl subdivision programs, including Indiana, Marshall, Arkansas and Mississippi State, Kell coach Derek Cook said.

But Anthony wasn’t ready to make a decision so soon, and by the time he thought he was ready to do so, in the fall, the schools that had made him offers already had full slates of commitments.

“When the whole recruiting process started, everyone was telling me how much it was like a business, and it is,” Anthony said. “It was a good experience for me, though.”

When Huesman and recruiting coordinator Jason McManus went to Kell in early January, they weren’t even going there to see Anthony, Huesman said. Cook then told them about Anthony missing his window of opportunity with some of the big schools.

“That’s the way it happens now a lot of times,” Huesman said. “You can lose (the offer) as quickly as you get it, and I think that’s what happened to Marlon, and we just happened to be there at the right time, when he was a little shell-shocked.

“We got him to come in for a visit and he said this is a pretty good place, and he committed to us a day or two after he made the trip — and he hung in there.”

More bowl subdivision schools went after Anthony as signing day drew closer, Huesman said, but Anthony, who canceled a couple of visits after he committed to UTC, never wavered.

“The kid hung in there with us, and the parents (Virgil and Georgette), I’ll give them all the credit in the world, because he was getting hammered by some other people, saying, ‘Why UTC?’ And there were some other bigger-conference schools, and he hung in there with us,” Huesman said. “I talked to his dad and I was jacked up and his dad said, ‘Man, we’re hanging with you guys.’”

“I think he’s going to be a great player for us. (I’m) really thrilled with him, and we’re probably lucky, probably lucky to have him. ... They stood firm, and the next time I see him I’m going to give him a big ol’ hug.”

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