Fulton's Cobb looks for own identity

University of Tennessee football coaches are still evaluating the linebacker/running back from Fulton High School. If a scholarship offer is forthcoming and Cobb signs with UT, then he will accept the football fame that accompanies Knoxville area prep stars who wear an orange jersey.

"My mom tells me she wants me to get out of here," Cobb said. "I guess I've got to check out other schools and see what's best for me."

Other schools looking at the 6-foot-1, 210-pound Cobb include Alabama, Kentucky, Louisville, North Carolina, and Penn State. Those schools don't carry the Cobb-UT legacy. Tyrone's brother, Reggie, was a standout at Central High School and a star running back at UT 1987-89. Reggie said he sees the advantages of UT, and elsewhere.

"Everybody that knows me knows that I bleed orange," Reggie Cobb said. "I would love for him to go to Tennessee, but I'm not going to be the one going there. I look back and if I had to do it again, I'd still go to Tennessee. I loved it. But there are times that I look back and say, 'Maybe I should have left just to grow up a little bit.' I was a kid that needed to mature a bit coming out of high school and I didn't do that immediately. I matured later because I had to."

Reggie Cobb had to mature after he was dismissed from UT for violating the school's substance abuse program as a junior. That, along with his 2,360 career yards and dominating running style, made him a household name in Knoxville. He went on to play seven seasons in the NFL.

"Every time he does something now, the article will start off with brother of former UT standout Reggie Cobb. I think that is tough," Reggie Cobb said about his brother. "My younger sister had to go through the same thing. She went to high school after me and everybody asked her, 'Why didn't you play sports?'

"It's tougher because of the recognition but it's also tougher just because he's a Knoxville kid that's trying to play at Tennessee."

Said Tyrone Cobb: "I don't think I'd be following in his footsteps. He set a mark up there (in Knoxville) and I'm just trying to set my own mark for myself. They're going to compare us a lot. They've been doing it forever. But I think I can pretty much make my own mark. I'm a defensive player and my brother was an offensive player.

"Sometimes I feel pressure. But most of the time I don't think about it. I just do what I've got to do and do my best," he said. "I just put it in the back of my head. My brother is in the past. I've got to make my own mark."

Tyrone Cobb said he expects to be recruited as a linebacker. He had 100 tackles, 10 for a loss including three sacks during the 2004 regular season. At running back, he ran for 416 yards and nine touchdowns to help the Falcons to the Class AAA state championship.

"I think he is a heckuva football player," said Reggie Cobb, who is a scout for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. "He probably doesn't want to hear this, but he's a heckuva blocker."

Reggie Cobb said the comparisons between the two stops at their sir name.

"We're different type guys," he said. "He's probably a little tougher than I was back then."

Tyrone Cobb didn't always look like the sure-fire college prospect. He was suspended for his entire sophomore season in 2003 for his participation in a fight at Fulton.

"I told him the first thing he had to do was realize that once you have certain accomplishments athletically, you're not just a guy anymore," Reggie Cobb said. "Now, you've made a name for yourself and you're the big fish in a small pond. I'm an optimist. I looked at it as it was better to happen then than during his senior year or junior year. Having to sit out one of those years would be a lot more damaging to him. He's a good kid. It was an isolated incident. He hasn't been in any trouble before or since then.

"Everybody speaks so highly of him as a kid and a football player. I think that's important because there was a time in my life when I just thought that I was a football player. I didn't know that I had other things to give.

"He still hung around the team for the year he was out. They (Fulton coaches) still kept him as a part of the team. If you're a bad kid, people don't want you around. I was really happy with that."

Said Tyrone Cobb: "That was devastating when I didn't get to play, but it motivated me every day. I had so much motivation to get back on the field."

The next step for Tyrone is a summer stop at a Nike camp where he hopes to prove his speed to any doubting college coaches. He said he's been timed in the 40-yard dash in 4.7 seconds.

Then comes decision time.

"Everyone is talking about it," Tyrone said. "They say it'd be good if I stay at home and play in the backyard just like my brother.

"The coaches are telling me if I keep my grades up and get my SAT score up in April, they'll (UT) probably be offering me a scholarship.

"I'd probably take them as my choice right now because they've been on me harder than any school has."

Hometown stardom looks like the early leader.

Dave Hooker covers recruiting. He can be reached at hookerd@knews.com.