Ellison said he has known since his sophomore year of high school that SMU is where he wanted to end up (photo by Webmaster).

Instead, he's the youngest player on the Mustangs' team, having graduated early and enrolled at SMU in January. He's playing his third position in a year, regaining weight he lost after offseason surgery and adjusting to the academic rigors of college.

Ellison was the first player to commit to SMU for the 2008 signing class. After visiting the campus in July, he visited Arkansas before calling then-coach Phil Bennett to announce his desire to be a Mustang.

"I knew this was where I wanted to be," Ellison said. "My grandpa got his MBA at SMU. I really didn't even need to go to Arkansas."

Ellison was not without options. He received scholarship offers from Texas Tech, Tulsa and Houston, and significant recruiting interest from Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas and Kansas State. A standout tight end and linebacker at A&M Consolidated, some schools recruited him at each position. The SMU coaches have agreed that his future is brightest on defense - the previous coaching staff pegging him as a linebacker, while June Jones' staff has slid him up to defensive end, a position he has never played.

Ellison acknowledges he has to get bigger. When he had his tonsils and adnoids removed in late December, his weight dipped to 219 pounds. He now carries 232 pounds on his 6-foot-3 frame, and he says that by the time two-a-days begin in August, he expects to be in the neighborhood of 240 pounds.

Ellison said he's missing his prom, high school graduation and a Sadie Hawkins dance, and doesn't regret for a second his decision to enroll early at SMU (photo by Webmaster).

He got used to playing defense when his high school coaches moved him from tight end to linebacker halfway through his senior season. The adjustment to defensive end, he said, is more significant than he originally imagined.

"You start with your hand down on the ground, so the way you see plays is totally different," he said. "There's also a lot less space - it's more hands-on. You get some of that playing tight end, but it's different on offense. Even the holding is different. At tight end, you can get called for holding. On defense, I have to learn how to hold. I'm going to be going against guys who are a lot bigger, so I have to master how they (defensive ends) hold a guy's jersey and jerk him down, to use his weight against him."

Ellison knew enrolling at SMU in January wouldn't be easy. His teammates have treated him well, but he is, after all, a freshman. He has adjusted pretty well, thus far, to the academic rigors of college - he said his grades at the moment fall into the "A" and "B-plus" range, and plans to earn a double-major in business administration and corporate communications and public affairs.

The biggest challenge, however, was "the wait." Ellison was the first player to commit to this year's recruiting class, giving his pledge in July. But when the losses piled up for the Mustangs, it was announced that Bennett and his staff wouldn't be back. Ellison and the rest of the SMU commitments were assured that the school would hire a top-shelf coach to replace Bennett. What wasn't promised was when that hire would be made.

It was 71 days before SMU athletic director Steve Orsini hired June Jones as the Mustangs' new coach. In the interim, Ellison waited, a process made easier by a member of the school's recruiting staff and the assistant coach who had recruited him for the previous staff.

Now a defensive end, Ellison is playing his third position in a calendar year (photo by Webmaster).

"Coach (Steve) Stigall (SMU's director of on-campus recruiting) really befriended me, and he did a great job of staying in touch to keep me up to date," Ellison said. "And Coach (Larry) Edmondson stayed in touch with me, too, even after the decision was made to change coaches. He never had anything but good things to say about SMU, and reminded me of why I committed in the first place."

But Ellison had known since he was in the 10th grade that SMU was where he wanted to be, and once he realized he had the talent to play at the college level, he started adjusting his academic schedule in order to graduate early from high school, so he could go through an extra spring practice with his new team.

"I started in my junior year, as soon as I thought I might be good enough," he said. "It just meant taking a lot of summer school."

Now that he's at SMU, his immediate future is hard to determine. He has worked at both defensive end spots. He has worked extensively on special teams.

"I don't know," he said, when asked about his prediction for his freshman year. "I don't know if the coaches even know what they want me to do yet. I've got plenty to learn, so that's all I can worry about for now."