Tyrik Rollison looks forward to new beginning at TJC

Published 2:44 pm Thursday, August 11, 2011

Since leading Sulphur Springs to the Class 4A Division II state championship in 2008, Tyrik “The Freak” Rollison has been taken down a peg or two.

The 6-1, 195-pound quarterback has gone from signing with Auburn and transferring to Sam Houston, to trying to resurrect his playing career at Tyler Junior College.

It’s been a downward spiral in terms of level of football.

Rollison suffered a suspension at Auburn — knocking him out of spring football, and then a broken wrist at Sam Houston kept him from the starting job last year.

Rollison went through his first practices with TJC on Wednesday as the Apaches opened fall camp with 85 players. TJC’s other QBs are freshmen Ryan Black (Jacksonville) and Randy Price (Waco University).

Ideally, the Apaches would love to see Rollison do for them what Cam Newton did for Blinn two years ago.

Newton, who started out at Florida and got into some trouble there, rebounded in junior college and led Blinn to a national championship. Newton, ironically, then transferred to Auburn where Rollison was already enrolled.

The rest is history.

Newton won the job at Auburn, led the Tigers to the national title and captured the Heisman Trophy.

Beyond playing recreational basketball against Newton — “he’s a pretty good basketball player, too,” Rollison never shared the same football field with the current No. 1 pick in the NFL.

Newton was the big man on campus at both Blinn and Auburn, a title that no longer applies to Rollison.

“Big man on campus thing … it kind of fell off whenever I went to Auburn,” Rollison said Wednesday before TJC’s evening practice. “That busted my bubble real quick and showed me that it’s not about me anymore. It’s a team thing. I wouldn’t say ‘a big man on campus.’ I’m just here to at least try to make the team better.”

The Apaches went 3-5 last season and 2-4 in conference play as TJC struggled at the quarterback position.

Rollison has the talent to make the Apaches better real quick, based on what he accomplished in high school.

The dual-threat QB put up freakish numbers as a senior — 4,728 yards and 51 touchdowns passing — and remembers picking up “The Freak” nickname after an early season game on ESPN against Wichita Falls Rider.

Despite major setbacks, the former U.S. Army All-American — with a rocket right arm — hasn’t given up on his dream of playing major college football and following in the footsteps of Newton.

“That’s a big step,” Rollison said. “Like I said, Cam Newton is a great player. We have two different styles of play, though. He likes to bring the blow. I don’t like to bring the blow. I would rather get out of bounds before I get hit. That’s a big goal … get back to that DI level and compete on that level again.”