A Cabarrus County star gave up his basketball dreams. Now, he’s a Power 4 football recruit
Jason Seidel was hired as JM Robinson High School’ head football coach in May 2023. One of the first people he noticed when he got the job was a skinny wide receiver named Brian Rowe.
Rowe, then about 5-foot-11 and 155 pounds, fancied himself a basketball player. Rowe had averaged seven points per game for a 20-win team as a sophomore. He was thinking he had next.
Even then, Rowe was wiry strong and had what Seidel estimated to be a 40-inch vertical leap. But the more Seidel looked, he thought Rowe’s future was on the football field and not the basketball court.
“First day I showed up, you can tell how smooth he was and you could tell he was raw,” Seidel said of Rowe. “I remember talking to him and he was basketball first, and that’s how a lot of them are. But the more I looked and the more I watched, I said, ‘Hang tight, it might be football, man.’”
Seidel worked with Rowe on his route running and learning better how to use his speed. By the middle of the year, Seidel was convinced that he had a high major player and began working the phones.
Miami was the first school to offer Rowe, who finished his junior season with 50 catches for 1,063 yards and 15 touchdowns. And it wasn’t just his pass catching, it was what he did after plays. Seidel said Rowe had a natural elusive ability that enabled him to get yards after the catch. He also became the South Piedmont 3A conference Special Teams player of the year, mainly because he returned three punts for touchdowns and began to make opposing coaches to tell their punters to not kick to him.
“About halfway through the (2023) season, it started to click,” Seidel said, “and he started to realize, ‘Hey, I can do this.’ And once those offers started coming and him going off to see those schools and seeing what was on that level, that was really good for him saying, ‘Hey I need to get better and better.’”
Said Rowe: “When coach Seidel told me I had potential to play football at a really high level, I really believed him. And I’m glad I did.”
By early spring, Rowe — who had grown to 6-1 and 170 pounds — had more than 30 college offers from schools like Charlotte, Duke, Georgia, Michigan State, Mississippi and Tennessee.
In April, he committed to coach Shane Beamer’s South Carolina Gamecocks.
“It just feels like I’m still in high school there with all the love and team chemistry they have,” Rowe said. “I feel like I fit in well.”
247 Sports, a national recruiting service, ranks Rowe as a four-star recruit and No. 8 in North Carolina, regardless of position. Nationally, it ranks him No. 39 among all recruits at wide receiver.
“There is a reason for all that,” Seidel said. “He can high point any ball. He can run away from you, and he’s gotten good this summer at being a route technician and that’s just going to add to his game.”
Rowe is one of 16 starters returning from a 12-1 team that reached the third round of the N.C. 3A playoffs. The Bulldogs are 32-5 in the past three seasons and Rowe feels this year’s team will be a state title contender. And he’s planning a big senior season for himself, too.
“Last season, I impressed myself a little bit,” he said, “but this year, I think (I will be able to do much) more because I’ve improved a lot. (There will be) a lot more route-running and way more highlight plays in the end zone.
“I can’t wait.”
