So I talked to him on the phone, wanted to bring him in for a visit on the weekend before signing day, but he had another obligation – I think it might’ve been academics, I don’t remember what it was – but I said ‘Hey, we’ll send you the papers. “We saw his 60-meter time was the fastest in the country and we needed speed at UMass,” Whipple said. Not even a blip on the radar as a running back, Isabella was making more waves as a short-distance runner in indoor track. It was that speed that got Whipple’s attention early in 2015, as Isabella was finishing up his senior year of high school. “He’s fast – he’s faster than that time he ran at the combine, too.” “His speed is different,” receiver Sadiq Palmer said. Three years later, Isabella proved it to the rest of the country, running a 4.31-second 40-yard dash at the NFL combine, just. Later that summer when I got to UMass and finally got to work with him, I knew he was telling the truth.” And at the time I was like, ‘Okay, sure, he’s fast, but I don’t know about that.’ Coach Whipple wasn’t lying. I was hanging out with Coach Whipple and I met Andy, and said he’s the fastest player in the country. “Of course, he was in the building, just like he always is. “On my official visit, before I came to UMass but when I’d decided to come to UMass, I met Andy,” quarterback Andrew Ford said. The first attribute anyone mentions about Isabella’s game is his sheer speed. “It’s definitely a cool campus… but my first impression was like, ‘Maybe I messed up here.’ But obviously it worked out, I’ve come to love UMass.”įour years after that visit, four years after being almost entirely overlooked out of high school, Isabella leaves as the most prolific wide receiver in program history and is likely days away from becoming the highest-drafted player to come out of UMass football in the FBS era. “I was like, ‘Wow, the Air Force Academy is way nicer than this,’” Isabella said with a big laugh. When he finally did visit a couple weeks later, his first impression wasn’t entirely favorable. Reluctant to take on the post-graduation commitment with the Air Force, he signed with UMass three days before signing day, after just one phone call from coach Mark Whipple and without so much as an official visit to the school. Coming out of Mayfield, Ohio as a running back and track star, Andy Isabella had only two Division I offers to play football – Air Force Academy and the University of Massachusetts.
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