MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Two years into his West Virginia career, safety Jovanni Stewart hasn’t forgotten the sting of letdowns that led him here.
Being a high-impact player on one of the stingiest high school defenses in America earned him some looks.
Just not many second looks.
“A lot of schools would talk to me and they’d say, ‘We love your film,’” Stewart said. But when recruiters showed up to survey the talent in Katy, Texas, first-hand, “they would see that I’m 5-9 and they’d kind of wander off.”
Never mind that Stewart scored five defensive touchdowns for a state championship team that finished 16-0 his senior year.