Sometimes where a player is from tells much about how he got to where he is. The tale of Victor Cruz is augmented because of his modest college football roots at the University of Massachusetts and that he was completely bypassed in the NFL Draft. A star was not born out of nowhere, but close to it.
Perhaps the Giants have a Cruz redux in Michael Cox, the rookie running back who remains on the 53-man roster. This wasn’t much of a surprise on cut-down day, as his body of work this summer made it obvious he was going to stick — just as Cruz performed his way onto the team in 2010.
Cox, who like Cruz went to UMass, was drafted, sort of. The Giants had a compensatory (extra) pick late in the seventh and final round of the NFL Draft and made Cox the 253rd and second-to-last player taken, one away from the coveted (or infamous) Mr. Irrelevant distinction.
Coming out of Avon (Conn.) Old Farms High School, Cox opted to play for Michigan, a program that recruits very different athletes than UMass. Cox spent four years at Michigan — he redshirted as a freshman — before transferring to UMass.
So, where is he from?
“I consider myself a UMass guy and a Michigan guy,’’ Cox said “I graduated from Michigan, so obviously I spent most of my time there. Last school where I played the most was UMass. I definitely love both schools.
“When I was coming out of high school, UMass was Double-A, they were a good Double-A school, but when I was going to Michigan, they were No. 2 in the country, you can’t really compare them. I guess it just depends on how you look at it. I look at it obviously being at Michigan I had better competition and that helped prepare me a lot.’’
Without UMass, Cox wouldn’t have gotten a sniff of the NFL. He barely got on the field at Michigan. In 2009 he got 13 rushing attempts, 113 yards and two touchdowns, but after that he sat the bench, managing to find only six more carries the next two years. He earned his degree, though, and, with one more year of playing eligibility, he moved closer to home, enrolled at UMass, took post-graduate courses and started all 12 games at running back. His 198 rushes for 715 yards and five TDs got him on the fringe of the draft radar.
Soon enough, around the Giants, it was apparent his size (6-foot, 220 pounds) and skill-set made him a viable roster option. The competition certainly wasn’t fierce and Cox was in line to make the team even before Andre Brown broke a bone, again, in his left leg, putting him out of action for 4-6 weeks. Cox didn’t do much out of the backfield in the preseason (18 carries, 32 yards), but he did plenty on kickoff returns, averaging 29.3 yards, punching his ticket on to the roster. He also was impressive with catch-and-runs on screen passes.
“Honestly, it was no shock to me,’’ said safety Stevie Brown, a senior at Michigan when Cox was a freshman working against the defense on the scout team.
“I knew Cox had great skill, he was really tough to tackle and bring down,’’ said Brown, who is on injured reserve and will miss the 2013 season after tearing his ACL. “He’s big, fast and he has good moves.’’
The Giants cut Ryan Torain, a running back with NFL experience, and, for now, kept third-year Da’Rel Scott as well. The starter, David Wilson, is entering his second season. It is an incredibly, and perhaps frighteningly, unproven backfield.
Cox has kept a low-profile and doesn’t say much. With a deep, rich voice and classic looks, he reminds some of another one-time unknown who has made it big with the Giants.
“If you let him tell it, he’d probably be a model if he wasn’t playing,’’ Brown said. “I joke around with him all the time, I think he did some photo thing when he was a freshman at Michigan and we used to give him crap for him all the time. He might try to follow in Cruz’s steps.’’
In some ways, he already has.