The year 2012 for Elon University senior wide receiver Aaron Mellette started with the influence of a draft pick by the National Football League’s St. Louis Rams.
The Rams selected Appalachian State University wide receiver Brian Quick with the first pick of the second round, No. 33 overall. Quick was a senior whom Mellette had out-dueled in the pair’s two match-ups in 2010 and 2011.
“A lot of people hit me up, former teammates, friends, like, ‘Aaron, did you see that? Quick’s gone,’” Mellette said the day after Quick was drafted. “I was like, ‘Yeah man.’ And they were like, ‘Man, you should have left early.’ I was like, ‘No, I’m good.’”
The hype fest
Mellette decided to stay for 2011 and has set himself up nicely for a shot at the NFL, at least according to the scouts. Dane Brugler, an NFLDraftScout.com senior analyst, listed Mellette as his top small school prospect for the 2013 draft. NFLDraftBible.com has the senior wideout as its No. 43 prospect overall. NFLMocks.com writer Mackenzie Pantoja called him a “small school Chad Ochocinco,” comparing Mellette to the wide receiver who made several Pro Bowls for the Cincinnati Bengals.
All of that followed a career year of 1,639 receiving yards and 12 touchdowns, top numbers in the Southern Conference, for a 5-6 Elon team.
Despite the attention he has received, he said there have not really been any distractions.
“Every day you get kind of more accustomed to it,” he said. “The biggest distraction is more of the outside people calling you or sending you messages trying to reach you, people you’ve never spoke to ever. That’s where the distractions come from.”
Mellette said being a professional was a goal of his from day one, either in basketball, a sport he played in high school, or football. It is well-documented that he did not play organized football until his sophomore year of high school. He also sees the benefits it will bring to his team and his town.
“It means a lot,” he said. “I know it helps Elon a lot. We’re getting noticed more on the map, not just a school that nobody’s going to know about in the future possibly. And it does a lot for me, for my city of Sanford. All the great athletes that came out of there that I used to read about in the newspaper, none of them really got a chance to play at the professional level such as the NBA and the NFL. And knowing that I could be the first guy to do that ever means a lot to me. This is bigger than me, this is for my city. Sanford’s going to be on the map. It’s going to be cool, because if I make it, we all make it, that’s how I look at it.”
To the small city of Sanford, about an hour and fifteen minutes from Elon’s campus, it would be an awesome thing, said Mellette’s former high school assistant basketball coach, Gaston Collins.
“It would do wonders for this town and this great city of Sanford,” said Collins, who is now the head boys’ basketball coach at Southern Lee High School, where Mellette graduated in 2008. “We all support each other, and he has a lot of fans — not only the Southern Lee family, but he has his church family, his extended family, also the people over at Lee County High School, the other high school in our county, they’re all very supportive. If he were to have that opportunity, that would just be very awesome.”
An influential tweet
One big endorsement Mellette recieved came in April soon after the draft, when ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper, Jr., tweeted, “Two non Div 1-A prospects I will be watching very closely this season are Elon WR Aaron Mellette & Missouri Southern DT Brandon Williams.” He later tweeted, “Mellette could be this years Brian Quick, provided he has another eye catching season & does well at the all-star games & Combine.”
Yes, Mellette saw the tweet.
“I was like, ‘Aw, shoot, Mel Kiper tweeted about me. I see this dude on ESPN all through the offseason,’” he said. “So that was pretty cool. I remember a lot of people retweeted it that day. One of my coaches asked me if I saw it. I even retweeted it myself, then everybody from Sanford seemed like they were retweeting it, like, ‘Merle Nation, yeah!’ It was pretty funny.” Merle is Aaron’s nickname.
The Pendulum did a Q&A with Mellette at the end of last season. Read it here.[divider_flat] [/box]
The NFL hype hasn’t been a distraction to Mellette, but his teammates notice the scouts.
“We see them every day at practice, out there walking around with the logos on and everything,” said senior quarterback Thomas Wilson. “He’s out there working hard, I’m excited for him. Panthers, Jaguars, Eagles. It gets everybody excited.”
Mellette said his teammates like to rag him about it.
“They do sometimes,” he said. “Like, ‘Oh it’s Merle, he don’t gotta do nothing, he’s going to the NFL.’ It’s funny. We’re just talking junk. It’s all fun and games, nothing serious out of it.”
Staying focused on what lies ahead this season
Despite the attention No. 3 is getting, Elon head football coach Jason Swepson is quick to remind the team that this season is not about the performance of an individual player.
“This is about Elon,” he said. “But we want him to be successful, because if he’s successful, we’re all successful. So I think the team was excited when I said that, that it’s not about Aaron, it’s about the team, but let’s make sure we let him do his thing.”
Doing his thing may mean helping the Phoenix to a SoCon championship and a berth in the Football Championship Subdivison playoffs, something Mellette said he wants.
“I want to win a conference championship. I’ve never won a ring at all,” he said. “I would love to win one. It would be great to win one, something that would always stick with me. At the end of the day, if I don’t win the conference championship, and I’ve got eight wins, nine wins, I’m going to the playoffs, and I get to compete for the national championship. I get to go against some of the other best teams across the country, which I want to do, see other defenses, who else is out there, and compete for that. And put another playoff sign up there, for the 2012 season.”
There is no doubt a conference championship would come off the back of a solid season from Aaron Mellette. And perhaps a little more could come as well.