Friday, February 1, 2013

Alcorn State's Driver retires after 14 seasons in Green Bay

Driver showed something special: 'The determination to succeed'


GREEN BAY, Wisconsin  --  Alonzo Highsmith was only a few weeks into his career as an area college scout for the Green Bay Packers when he visited a small campus in southwest Mississippi to look at the NFL prospects from little Alcorn State.

While there, he looked at videotape of and then interviewed an under-the-radar receiver named Donald Driver, who’d caught 88 passes in his three seasons at Alcorn.

After he finished his work, Highsmith presented Driver as a draft-worthy prospect to his boss, former general manager Ron Wolf. Highsmith thought Driver had the same mental makeup as one of his former teammates at the University of Miami, receiver Michael Irvin, who by ’99 was going into the final season of a career that would land him in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Their physical makeup and pedigree couldn’t have been more different. Irvin was 6-feet-2 and 207 pounds, and a highly regarded prospect coming out of a premier college program. He was the No. 11 pick overall in the ’88 draft.

Driver played a much lower level of Division I college football and was a wiry 5-feet-111/4and 170 pounds. His standout physical trait was his jumping — he was a national-caliber high and long jumper.

PHOTO GALLERY:
  • Green Bay Packers WR Donald Driver: On and off the field
  • Hundreds line up for tickets to Driver retirement event


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