Sports360AZ
Elroy Masters Jr. had a spectacular senior season for the Mustangs of Sunrise Mountain finishing with 44 catches for 1,118 yards and 14 touchdowns. Do the math and that averages out to 25.41 yards per catch.
This will tell you how important Masters was to the team on an offensive scale: He had nearly half of the team’s receiving touchdowns [29] in 2012.
But, all good things must come to an end as the saying goes, and it’s time for Masters to move onto the next phase of his life and his football career.
That phase takes place at the next level, which is college.
Masters has a tough decision to make over the next few weeks, as to which school he wants to play football at.
Currently, he has 13 schools who are offering him a full-ride scholarship, including NAU, San Jose State, Nevada and all the academies [Army, Navy & Air Force].
I mentioned NAU as one of the schools who offered Masters a full-ride, but what about Arizona and Arizona State? Where do they fit in, if at all, in Masters’ future?
“With the Arizona schools, U of A, [I] never really heard anything from them,” Masters said.
Things were different when it came to the Sun Devils, a program Masters was really interested in during the recruiting process.
“I had a lot of interest in ASU,” Masters said. “I thought I could help the system a lot, [but] their thing is that they were kind of booked before the season, they had three receiver commits.”
Masters wasn’t upset in the fact that things didn’t work out with Arizona State, because he knows this is how recruiting works sometimes.
“They [Arizona State] liked me a lot, they were really high on me, and I had a lot of interest in them, but unfortunately it didn’t work out that way,” Masters said. “Best of luck to them.”
Masters said head coach Todd Graham invited him to the Oregon/Arizona State game back on October 18, where they got to meet and chat along with wide receivers coach DelVaughn Alexander.
Masters was very impressed with what the Sun Devils did this past season, going 8-5 and winning a bowl game in Year One of the Todd Graham era.
“ASU, the type of offense that they run, the receivers are there, D.J. Foster’s there, there’s great athletes there,” Masters said.
Back to the Lumberjacks and where they stand with Masters…
“I just told them that I’m going to look at other places and see what they have to offer first, seeing how many offers I have [coming] to me,” Masters said.
NAU has a special place in Masters’ heart, because that’s where his parents went to school. He says his mother and father haven’t put any added pressure on him to choose to go to school in Flagstaff, Ariz., just because they went there. He says they told him to make the best decision possible, because in the end, it’s up to him to make that choice, not them.
“That’s one thing my parents, they prepared me well for,” Masters said. “I’ve always been mature, and they’ve always said to have maturity in whatever you do.”
