As if you are needing *yet* another reason to watch the big game tomorrow, then we
have *eleven* reasons to satisfy that craving–with a special twist on the festivities. Of course we had to find the high school football angle, right? RIGHT! This year’s big game features eleven players that played their prep football up and down the peninsula. Of those eleven, nine are starters. The eleven players hail from ten different colleges, with six of those coming from in-state schools.
As you may have guessed already, the “big three” are all represented, with the University of Florida holding the top billing as the only in-state program to have multiple players. The others represented aside from Florida State, Florida and Miami are: Florida Atlantic, Bethune-Cookman and UCF. The out-of-state programs that are represented by our former prep stars are Oregon, Purdue, South Carolina and Wisconsin.
There are eight counties from the Sunshine State that are represented and they are Dade, Manatee and Volusia, all with two players each. Broward, Palm Beach, Seminole, Sumter and Taylor Counties all check-in with one player each on the active rosters in Houston. Of the nine starters between the two teams, seven are on Atlanta’s Roster while two of the starters are on New England’s.
Here is the breakdown of the Floridians playing in Super Bowl LI this Sunday:
Atlanta: *denotes starter
P – Matt Bosher (Jupiter High School / Miami) Rookie Season*
FS – Ricardo Allen (Mainland High School / Purdue) 4th season*
SS – Keanu Neal (South Sumter High School / Florida) 2nd season*
FB – Patrick DiMarco (Lake Brantley / South Carolina) 7th season*
PR/KR – Eric Weems (Seabreeze / Bethune-Cookman) 11th season*
RB – Devonta Freeman (Miami Central / Florida State) 4th season*
SS – Sharrod Neasman (Braden River / Florida Atlantic) 2nd season (backup)
CB – Brian Poole (Southeast / Florida) 2nd season*
FS – Kemal Ishmael (N. Miami Beach / Central Florida) 4th season
New England: *denotes starter
RB – James White (Saint Thomas Aquinas / Wisconsin) 4th season* RB – LeGarrette Blount (Taylor County / Oregon) 8th season*