Go find highlights from Omar Bayless' senior season at Arkansas State.
Go ahead. Look.
If you need a game in particular, check out the season-opener against SMU. It will be worth it.
You'll see one-handed touchdown grabs, bursts downfield and moves in the open field that result in multiple defenders looking foolish with their missed tackles while Bayless squeaks past them to yet another touchdown.
It's not just his highlights from his final college season that are flashy. After just one 100-yard receiving game in his previous three seasons, Bayless had eight in 2019 _ the most by any player in a season at Arkansas State or the Sun Belt Conference.
All of that by a player who contemplated quitting football and school multiple times after going through unspeakable tragedy.
"I feel like (my senior year) was a dedication season to all the people that I did lose," said Bayless, who was one of 17 undrafted free agents signed by the Panthers this week. "And (it was) also for me, because if I wouldn't have come back, none of this would have ever happened. I would have never been a Carolina Panther."
Growing up in Laurel, Mississippi, football was always Bayless' first love. He was a natural, playing in backyards or the parks, but he stopped playing organized football when he got to high school, turning his attention to basketball. His friends, however, convinced him return to football his junior season, and as senior, he broke out, tallying 70 receptions for 1,442 yards and 18 touchdowns _ helping Laurel High win a state title.
Bayless could have played basketball in college _ he had offers from multiple Sun Belt schools _ but ended up sticking with football because it was what he loved most.
He received significant interest from Gary Pinkel's staff at Missouri, but that dissipated weeks before National Signing Day due to a change in coaches. Then Arkansas State head coach Blake Anderson got involved.
"I actually returned him personally, we found him late in the process due to a friend of mine that was at an SEC school that was recruiting him, but wasn't going to be able to offer him and told us about him kind of late in the process. I just immediately liked his personality and met his mom as well, I really liked her," Anderson told the Observer in a phone interview. "(We) didn't get to see a lot of football from him, really just saw him play basketball and thought he had great ball skills and was just really athletic and, as you can see, he's got a good frame to him. He was just a guy that really elevated and played above the rim, which I've always thought was a great skill for a wideout."
Bayless went on a one-week visit to Arkansas State, arriving on a Monday. The only requirement was that he was back in Mississippi in time for his basketball game Friday night. The recruitment process was quick and simple, and the people he met on his visit to Jonesboro were a large part of the appeal for the wide receiver.
Anderson never got to watch Bayless play football in person before extending an offer, but was impressed by what he did on the basketball court and on film. Multiple-sport athletes are always a positive anyway, Anderson said.
