11/19/2009 - Al Featherston, GoDuke.com

DURHAM, N.C. – Rav Maisonet still can’t understand why none of the Florida schools wanted Conner Vernon last fall.

“That’s mind-boggling to me,” Maisonet, the offensive coordinator at Gulliver Prep School in Miami, said. “The only knock on him early was his speed, but he worked on that and before his senior season, he ran a 4.41 40. With that speed and his hands, he was uncoverable his senior year.”

Vernon, who is a solid 6-foot-2, 195 pounds, caught 60 passes for 1,163 yards and 11 TDs for a 12-2 team that played in the Florida 2-A state title game.

Yet, hometown Miami, which signed more than half a dozen receiving prospects last year, wasn’t interested. Florida State signed a kid from the same conference, but didn’t offer Vernon. Florida didn’t even look at him.

“I had offers from Ole Miss, Vanderbilt, Wake Forest, Troy,” Vernon said. “UCF, I didn’t have an offer from them, but they were the Florida school that recruited me heaviest.”

So why no interest from the Florida schools?

“Your guess is as good as mine,” he said. “I guess they didn’t see ... I don’t know. I can’t answer that question. Growing up in Miami, I was always a Hurricane fan. I idolized the Hurricanes ... from Reggie Wayne’s years to Andre Johnson. Just coming up in Miami, you were a Hurricane fan.”

Saturday, Vernon will get a chance to show the Hurricanes what they missed. He’ll start at wide receiver, alongside his Gulliver Prep teammate, sophomore Donovan Varner, when Duke takes on Miami in Land Shark Stadium.

“I’m going to have a whole mob of people coming,” Varner said. “It’s very exciting for me to go home and play my hometown team -- a team I watched growing up. It would be fun to get a win down there.”

Especially since Varner, like Vernon, was not offered by the Hurricanes.

“I have a chip on my shoulder about that,” he said. “It’s definitely going to be an emotional game for me. I loved watching them growing up and I always wanted to play for them. I didn’t get that opportunity. I’m lucky to be here at Duke.”

The two Gulliver Prep products are not the only ones excited about the homecoming.

“The whole school – the whole community – knows about it,” Coach Maisonet said. “We’re looking to get the whole staff there Saturday and a bunch of the kids. I told [head coach Earl] Simms, I’ve never heard of two kids from the same high school starting at wide receiver for a school in another state. Two kids from Miami, starting for a school in North Carolina?”

Not only starting, but excelling – through nine games (he missed the Kansas game with an injury), Vernon has 44 catches for 601 yards and three touchdowns. Varner has 46 catches for 708 yards and five touchdowns in 10 games. They rank second and eighth, respectively, in the ACC in terms of receptions per game. Varner is second in the ACC is receiving yards per game, while Vernon is fifth.

Vernon is the No. 2 freshman receiver in all of college football in receptions and third in receiving yardage. Freshmen have recorded just six 100-yard receiving games in school history – Vernon has three of them.

“I’ve never had a freshman receiver [like him],” Duke coach David Cutcliffe said. “I had Chris Collins at Ole Miss and he had a fine freshman year, but nothing like Conner has done. Conner has this great savvy. I saw that in August. He’s a good sized guy that’s really fast and real strong. He has a knack for always being in the right place. He has a knack for precision route running that most freshmen don’t have.

“He’s having a heck of a year. I’d have a hard time not voting him for All-ACC.”

Coach Maisonet saw all that and more at Gulliver Prep.

“I’ve known the kid since the eighth grade,” he said. “He has been a starter [at wide receiver] since he was a ninth grader. Conner could always catch anything – with his fingers. He has the best pair of hands I’ve ever coached.”

That might be the product of his amazing workout regime. Vernon worked out daily in the off-season with his father, often catching 250 balls a day.

But there’s more to it than that.

“Conner is one of the toughest kids ever to come out of this city,” Maisonet said. “He’ll block the hell out of you. I could show you on film where he’d line up on the left and we’d run to the right and he’d come across the field to get a knockdown block. He used to laugh and put it on me – ‘Coach, you said if I don’t block, you won’t throw me the ball.’”

Varner, who stands a mere 5-9, 170-pounds, brings a different skill set.

“Donovan was a running back, receiver, a cornerback, a punt returner for us,” Maisonet said. “We always had a bunch of athletes, but he was our best playmaker, so we had to find ways to get the ball in his hands.”

Varner was a senior at Gulliver Prep when Vernon was a junior. At that point, the older player was more of a cornerback than a receiver – so that he and Vernon often dueled in practice.

“Practice got pretty heated some times,” Vernon said. “We used to go at it. We would both get ours. He’d get me. I’d get him. It was never one sided.”

Varner was mostly recruited as a cornerback.

“His size hurt him in some people’s eyes,” Maisonet said. “At 5-9, some would just not give him an opportunity or a look. Some felt the competition we had wasn’t that good – we’re a small school and it’s not up to all the 6-A powers in the Miami area.”

The first Gulliver product to attend Duke kind of regrets leaving the defensive side of the ball, although he knew he was coming to Durham to play wide receiver.

“Oh yeah. [Wide receivers coach Scottie] Montgomery recruited me,” he said. “I’ve always loved the offensive side of the ball, but I loved being physical at cornerback. It’s always fun catching interceptions. I was highly recruited at cornerback. Playing defense was a great experience for me.”

A preseason injury delayed Varner’s debut at Duke. His first collegiate catch was a 36-yard reception to convert a third down against Navy. He finished the year with 10 receptions in the finale against North Carolina.

He finished his freshman year with 21 receptions for 164 yards and one touchdown. His experience in 2008 helped him both recruit his former prep teammate to Duke and to ease his transition to the college game.

“We hung out [on his recruiting visit] and I told him it would be a great opportunity for him,” Varner said. “We all worked as a receiving corps in the offseason. We helped him with the playbook. It wasn’t just one person -- it was the receiving corps as a whole.”

Vernon said his relationship with Varner helped him make a quick transition from high school to college ball. So did his early arrival on campus.

“I came in May,” he said. “That helped a lot. I was able to learn the system seven-on-seven and get in the weight room, getting bigger and faster. That was probably the best move I ever made, coming earlier to get a jump start on things.

“I knew coming in, they told me, ‘You’re going to be thrown into the fire.’ I came in and camp started and I made a couple of plays here and there. Luckily, I had the upperclassmen to help me every step of the way. I was just able to learn the system quick and go out there and have fun.”

Vernon caught four passes for 48 yards against Richmond in his debut. He followed that with a 55-yard kickoff return and a 14-yard touchdown catch against Army. He had his three 100-yard receiving games in October. His 42-yard touchdown reception in the fourth quarter of the Virginia game was decisive as the Blue Devils won in Charlottesville.

“He’s done a tremendous job,” quarterback Thaddeus Lewis said. “We don’t even call him a freshman any more. We kind of joke about it – he’s a different kind of freshman. He came in and stepped right in the rotation. It’s obvious that he had a good background in coaching, because he came in ready to play. He’s just a guy that’s a playmaker.”

Lewis suggested that Vernon has the mentality to be a great receiver.

“He doesn’t feel like anybody can cover him,” the Duke QB said. “That’s the type of mindset you have to have. He doesn’t walk around here big headed or anything. It’s just confidence out there on the football field. He’s a cool guy, down to earth. He’s probably one of the most mellow guys on the team. Even on the football field, he doesn’t talk trash. He just goes out there and plays.

“Hats off to Coach Montgomery for going down there and finding that guy. He’s kind of following Donovan Varner from the same school. I’ll take any receiver that comes from Gulliver Prep right now.”

Actually, Gulliver does have some more prospects, although it’s too early to tell when and if Duke will be adding to its Gulliver Prep connection. But it’s not too early to suggest that the two former prep stars give the Blue Devils an identity in South Florida.

And that’s a great place for football talent – and for football talent with attitude.

“It’s real competitive in Miami -- a lot of trash talking, a lot of swagger,” Varner said. “That’s how we’re brought up playing little league football. It’s always been like that -- since we were 65-pound guys playing in the sixth grade. High school football has always been competitive. The fans make it that way, the parents make it that way.”

The best part about the Varner-Vernon tandem for Duke is that they are just getting started. Varner has two more seasons after this one and Vernon will be in Durham for three more years. As good as they are as underclassmen, how good will they be as juniors and seniors?

“You can always get better at what you do,” Vernon said. “You’re never perfect. When we break down the films, you can see you’re always making mistakes out there. Every game I’ve played this year, I’ve had more negatives than positives. Just fixing those will help my game.”

As bright as the future is, neither player wants to look past Miami this week. Not only will a win keep Duke alive for its first bowl in 15 years, it would mean the world to the two Miami kids.

“We need this win,” Varner said. “It’s going to be emotional for us.”

And if Duke is going to have a chance against the Hurricanes, the Gulliver Prep duo will have to play a big role in the victory.