NORMAL – With the departure of a pair of 1,000-yard receivers from the 2014 roster, Illinois State football head coach Brock Spack and his staff were looking for options to help improve his team’s depth at the position. Spack and company believe they have done that with the addition of junior college wide receiver Anthony Fowler, who signed a financial aid agreement with ISU over the weekend.
Fowler, a 6-foot-1, 175-pound transfer from College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita, California, will have three years of eligibility remaining with the Redbirds when he joins the team this fall.
With the loss of senior speedster Lechein Neblett to graduation, Spack was looking for a player with the type of speed that could stretch a defense and he believes Fowler could be that type of player.
“Anthony has tremendous foot speed, which was the first thing that stood out to us when evaluating his film,” Spack stated. “He took a year off of football to run junior Olympic track, so he is still raw as a football player having only played one year at the junior college level. Without Lechein, we felt like we needed a receiver who could stretch coverages and get loose in the secondary, and we think he is that kind of guy.”
Fowler played in nine games in 2014 for the Cougars as a freshman and finished the season with 16 catches for 278 yards with two touchdowns. The Woodland Hills, California, native averaged 17.4 yards per catch on the season, with a long reception of 56 yards in a win over Bakersfield, and caught touchdown passes in a win over Santa Ana and a loss at Ventura.
