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C.J. Avery, then a junior at Grenada (Mississippi) High School, was being scouted as one of the nation’s top safeties when head coach Ashley Kuhn needed a replacement quarterback.

Grenada’s starting quarterback was injured, and C.J.’s athleticism made him the top candidate to take over.

In his first start at the position, he engineered all 15 of the Chargers points in a 37-15 loss. Balancing quarterback with safety, he led Grenada to its third-ever district title. He was a better quarterback than the original starter, defensive coordinator Chip Foster said.

“I was like, ‘Good lord, why hadn’t he been playing quarterback the whole time?’” Foster said. “If he did not play quarterback, we probably wouldn’t have scored.”

At the time, C.J. was a four-star recruit, ranked 84th in the nation and seventh-highest among safeties, according to ESPN. Now a senior at Louisville, C.J. is being scouted again — this time by NFL teams. Halfway through his freshman season, then-head coach Bobby Petrino and Louisville’s defensive staff shifted C.J. to inside linebacker.

C.J.’s co-captaining the Cardinals and is the bright spot on an otherwise struggling 2-6 Louisville team that allows 29.8 points a game. At linebacker, he’s likely to be an NFL Draft prospect.

“He was (already) big, and I knew he was going to get bigger, and I figured he would be a linebacker,” Foster said. “He’s so involved in the weight room and so dedicated to strength.”

C.J. gained 16 pounds during his sophomore year, up from 205 the year prior, and tripled his solo tackle tally. He finished second on the Cardinals, with a total of 56 tackles in 2018. In his junior season, he nearly doubled that number, leading the team with 93 tackles as the Cardinals beat Mississippi State 38-28 in the Music City Bowl that year. 

He trained during the offseason with his cousin Genard Avery, a defensive end for the Philadelphia Eagles, who converted his grandmother’s garage into a miniature gym. Genard, who also attended Grenada, has heavily influenced his cousin’s football ambitions. In previous years, Genard — then at the University of Memphis — would return to his former high school and help C.J. train.

“Just as C.J. entered 10th grade, you could tell he had something different about his work ethic,” Kuhn said.

The Avery’s are a football family that spans three generations. C.J.’s father had stints in the Arena Football League and the World League of American Football in Spain. His grandfather also played at the University of Virginia. 

“In ninth grade, when they decided to move him up to varsity, is when it really kicked in. Like ‘Okay, I can do this. I’m going to do this. It’s in my genes, it’s in my blood,’” said Claudette Avery, C.J.’s mother. 

At Grenada, C.J. broke into a starting role halfway through his freshman year, something Kuhn has never seen from someone his age. The then-safety played a significant role even as an underclassman, Kuhn said.

C.J.’s shifts from safety to quarterback to inside linebacker highlight his versatility and all-around abilities, Foster said. The defensive coordinator felt confident that his team would be “safe” no matter where C.J. was on the field.

“I wish we had more Averys,” Foster said. 

 

Published on November 18, 2020 at 10:39 pm

Contact Alex: ahcirino@syr.edu