Will Pettway Play Football at Auburn Again

Kamryn Pettway admits that the thought has crossed his mind several times.

There is a world in which he is still at Auburn. The Montgomery native still had a year of eligibility remaining when he announced via Instagram on January. iii of this year that he would enter the NFL typhoon.

Could the one-time standout running dorsum have come back to school for his senior flavour? Would he be the focal point of the Tigers' rushing attack right now? How might that accept afflicted his draft stock in 2019?

Pettway tries not to think about it.

"I know I can't dwell on the past," he told the Montgomery Advertiser this week. "I only got to keep edifice toward the future."

On Wednesday, that future is taking place 50 miles west of Jordan-Hare Stadium on the practice field at Park Crossing High School in Montgomery. A few late-arriving players are nonetheless trickling out of the locker room before the start of that afternoon's practice. Lil Babe's "Cash" is blaring from a speaker set on the runway.

Pettway, the first-yr running backs charabanc for the Thunderbirds, is set up in the far corner of the north end zone, football in hand, five pads fix on the ground and a group of high schoolers watching his every movement.

He runs through the various drills outset — one human foot in each hole, shuffle and switch, spring and backpedal, etc. — and so watches intently every bit each player follows backside him.

"It has been something new for me, just it'south something I've always wanted to (exercise) since I was younger, was to be a coach and help give back to others," Pettway said. "I feel like I can relate to a lot of the guys, especially the running backs."

Pettway briefly latched on in the NFL post-obit his Auburn career, just in his words, he was "unprepared." He signed with the Minnesota Vikings as an undrafted free agent on April 28, merely was waived following the squad's rookie minicamp on May vii.

He got an opportunity with the Columbus Lions of the National Arena League in July, but played in only one game. He rushed three times for thirteen yards and a touchdown.

When neither opportunity worked out, Pettway chosen Angelo Wheeler, who was his coach for his last two seasons at Capitol Heights Middle School and only two seasons at Lanier High. Pettway transferred to Prattville for the final two seasons of his prep career, but as Wheeler tells all of his players: "I'm their coach for life."

Wheeler, who took over as Park Crossing's head coach in May, brought his former player in to be his running backs coach. Pettway, who graduated from Auburn in the spring, likewise teaches psychology and career preparation total time.

"Kamryn is like a son to me," Wheeler said. "I knew where his heart was, and I know he actually had desires and dreams to go to the next level, where he has the ability to play. The opportunity just has to be presented to him.

"Simply to have a kid you've had an opportunity to influence his whole life, non only to bring him into the coaching concern and prove him the coaching side of it — hopefully i solar day he tin can exist my replacement."

Pettway arrived at Park Crossing with no official coaching feel, but he wasn't entirely unfamiliar. Any fourth dimension he was hurt during his career at Auburn, running backs double-decker Tim Horton would have Pettway right adjacent to him during practice.

The ii withal talk every other week, if not weekly.

And what Pettway lacks in experience, he makes up for with his ability to relate to players. Whereas Wheeler is 42 years old and more 20 years removed from his high school and higher days, Pettway was where his players are at present just 5 years ago. Any one of them could have turned on the TV during parts of the 2016 and 2017 seasons and watched their coach run for the Tigers.

"He's got a lot that he can tell you and teach you on and help you on. You just got to mind, considering he'southward been through information technology before and he knows what he's doing," sophomore running back Adaryll Lewis said. "He's been coached by coach Wheeler, too, so he can relate to everything. He knows what we're going through. We can talk to him, tell him about anything.

"I look at it as a blessing. It'south not many times yous're going to go something like that. And so I effort to make the all-time of information technology and have everything in."

Pettway doesn't talk much almost the way his career at Auburn ended, other than to call 2017 his "downfall year."

The half-dozen-foot, 235-pound bruiser was a breakout star in 2016, coming almost out of nowhere to rush 209 times for 1,224 yards and seven touchdowns in just 10 games. He entered the 2017 campaign with stated goals of eclipsing Tre Mason's single-flavor plan rushing record.

Instead, Pettway carried just 76 times for 305 yards and six touchdowns over five games. His junior season started with a 1-game suspension and ended when he suffered a fractured shoulder bract Oct. 21, 2017, at Arkansas.

That was the final game Pettway played in an Auburn uniform. He didn't travel with the team to the Peach Bowl in Atlanta later on head coach Gus Malzahn said the running back decided to stay back with his family — wife Natonya and young girl Kaisley.

"I appreciate Kam Pettway's time at Auburn," Malzahn said in a argument when Pettway declared for the NFL draft. "When good for you, he was a dominant running dorsum. We'll be rooting for him moving forward and wish him aught but the all-time."

There was a report that Pettway was barred from squad activities during the week leading up to the Peach Basin, but Auburn officials told the Montgomery Advertiser at the fourth dimension that it was "not accurate." An AFC regional picket said before the NFL draft in April that the running back was "a mess" and had "besides many character flags to get drafted."

"I've never had a problem with that with him," Horton said in response to those criticisms. "His was just such an unfortunate bargain with the injuries. All I tin can talk about and bargain with was my situation with him and it's always been great. I have no issues with his character."

Again, Pettway tries non to dwell on all that. He hasn't given up on his playing career, either. He works out with the running backs he coaches every day. He still has an agent, and he said some teams take kept tabs on him in instance there'southward an injury or a spot opens up.

If the NFL doesn't piece of work out, the eight-team Alliance of American Football game starts its flavour on Feb. 9, and Pettway said he has already spoken to a few teams. The Birmingham Iron will play just an hr or so northward on I-65.

Until then, he'southward trying to live out another dream.

"I'chiliad yet working to get dorsum to the NFL, but I tin aid other guys, also," Pettway said. "I effort to instill in them, 'Always work hard.' I know where they're trying to get, and then they kind of wait upwards to me — older guy from the same city who went to college and did this and had an opportunity with the NFL. I attempt to let that be a stepping stone for them."

hooverconesee1936.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/sports/college/auburn/2018/10/28/auburn-football-kamryn-pettway-running-back-nfl-park-crossing-high-school-coach/1761904002/

Share this post