By RYAN ARENA
Sports Editor

When Juan Joseph began his prep football career at West St. John, he didn’t really expect too much.

He’d get to hang out with his friends on the sidelines, and experience being a part of a successful Rams team. He’d get to have fun – it’s all he felt he was in for.

Yet, before his senior season, then Coach Laury Dupont gave him an opportunity – to be the team’s starting quarterback, in a season with high expectations. And a season later, Joseph led West St. John to the 2004 Class 2A state championship.

Joseph figured that would be the end of his time in the athletic spotlight. He moved on to study at Millsaps, where he’d play football and maybe win a few games along the way.

Uh, not exactly.

Four years later, Joseph has rewritten the Millsaps record books while lifting the football program to unforeseen heights. The senior led the Majors to an 11-1 record this past season, a year where the team was ranked as high as No. 3 nationally in both the D3football.com and AFCA polls and reached the second round of the NCAA Division III playoffs.

He completed 68 percent of his passes for 3,463 yards and 32 touchdowns. He threw only six interceptions, while also rushing for 416 yards and another four touchdowns. In short, it was a monster campaign.

“I never thought any of this was possible,” Joseph said. “I never expected anything like this when I came here.”

His spectacular season hardly went without notice. Despite facing brutal competition from fellow finalists in Ole Miss’ Michael Oher and Peria Jerry – each projected as high NFL first round picks – this Edgard native from a tiny Division III school captured the Cellular South Conerly Trophy. That’s awarded to the best collegiate football player in Mississippi, and Joseph is the first Division III player to receive that honor in the award’s 13 year existence.

On the night he received the award, the results vastly exceeded Joseph’s wildest imagination one more time.

“I told (Oher and Jerry) that I was just happy to be there,” he said. “”Just to be in the top three with them, it was an amazing feeling. And luckily, I was able to win.”

Joseph also finished as one of four finalists for the Gagliardi Trophy – basically the Heisman Trophy of NCAA Division III. Mount Union College senior quarterback Greg Micheli took that honor.

When Mike DuBose took over as the Majors head coach in Joseph’s sophomore season, he brought with him a substantial change in offensive philosophy. The team’s conventional, balanced offense would be scrapped in favor of the spread – a pass first offense which relies heavily on the quarterback to make plays.

Joseph, as it turned out, would have to carry the offense.

“I knew for the team to be successful, I’d have to be successful,” Joseph said.

Successful is putting it mildly.

He’s now is second to none in the Millsaps record book. He holds single game records in completions, attempts, and touchdown passes. He holds the single season record in those categories, plus total yards and yards per game. He is the school’s all-time leader in career passing yards, total offense, completions, attempts, and touchdown passes – all marks he set BEFORE his senior season.

“That was different,” he says. “Most of the time, I never even knew that I needed six more yards for this, or 10 more completions for that. They’d come up to me after the game and tell me. In my sophomore season, I broke some. Then as a junior, I broke my own records.”

As you can imagine, he’s steadily improved – and as he has, so has the team’s record. He’s improved each season in yardage, completion percentage, and touchdowns, while cutting his interceptions in half from his first season as starter (he threw 14 as a sophomore, only 12 in the last two seasons combined).

“You can’t get better just by watching film and practicing. You need to play,” Joseph said. “I was fortunate enough to start since my sophomore season. I had game experience, and I was able to learn from my mistakes.”

None of this would have happened if Dupont hadn’t seen potential in him as a young passer back in his days at West St. John. Joseph, whose younger brother Dray currently starts at quarterback for the Rams, says his time with the Rams was spent learning how to succeed.

(See JOSEPH, Page 12A)

“It’s just how competitive West St. John was, how much we won,” said Joseph. “It made so much of a difference. And Millsaps is a school that tries to recruit from successful programs. We were always in the playoffs, with a good shot at the finals or semifinals.”

DuBose, best known for his time as head coach of the University of Alabama in the late 90’s, says Joseph is as special a competitor as he’s encountered.

“I’ve been around a lot of good players, even Heisman Trophy candidates when I was at Alabama, but I don’t know of any player I’ve ever coached that has meant more to his team and program than Juan Joseph,” third-year head coach Mike DuBose said.  “He did everything we asked him to do both on and off the field and excelled at both.  With his leadership, he made his teammates around him better as football players and men.”

Somehow, Joseph finds time to be just as successful in the classroom. He’s been named to the Academic All-Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference team as he’s studied business administration, his major.

“My parents always stressed grades,” he says. “Millsaps is a tough school. I figured all colleges would be tough, but Millsaps is very tough. My roommate and I look out for each other, we push one another to do well. We both have had great parents.”

He’s not sure what his future holds these days, only that the possibilities are endless. He’s currently preparing to workout for teams at the next level, be it in the NFL, the CFL, or elsewhere.

And if that doesn’t work out, he’ll always got that Millsaps degree to fall back on.

“I want to give myself a shot (in the pros),” said Joseph. “I don’t want to have any regrets when I look back. If it doesn’t happen, I might just go back and get my masters.”

DuBose certainly has faith.

“Juan will have the chance to play at the next level, whether that be in the NFL or CFL,” he says.

“And if he doesn’t,” he adds, “then he might go on to own a franchise some day with his degree from Millsaps.”