Syracuse Lacrosse > Texas Football: Brandon Mullins Chooses Cuse Lax Over Football

When a high school athlete has football scholarship offers from Texas, Notre Dame, TCU and Oklahoma, it's not a question of if he'll play football, but where.

Coppel High School (TX) star Brandon Mullins is the rare exception. Despite the fact that he ended his senior season with 131 tackles, 17 tackles for loss, 11 sacks, three interceptions, a touchdown return and being named Associate Press Class 5A defensive player of the year, he will not be going on to play college football. Brandon has decided to stick with a scholarship offer from Syracuse University to play...lacrosse.

According to the Dallas Morning News, Mullins has stuck to his original decision that he will play lacrosse — and only lacrosse — when he attends Syracuse next fall. That comes despite the linebacker’s outstanding senior season that earned him one of the state’s most prestigious honors: the Associated Press Class 5A Defensive Player of the Year award.

It goes without saying that Mullins is considered the best lacrosse player in the state of Texas where he's played as a defenseman and long-stick middie. He was named one of the 20 Long Stick Midfielders on the rise by ESPN RISE in September.

Mullins has considered the possibility of being a two-sport athlete but he ultimately figured it would be "too much of a load." Syracuse assistant coach Lelan Rogers told College Crosse's Justin Simon that Mullins got the "lacrosse bug" and "wanted to be at Syracuse."

Mullins is listed as having received "medium" interest from SU Football but there's no confirmation as to how interested they were.

Turning down a chance to play football couldn't have been easy for the Texas athlete. At least five of Mullins' teammates will play college football on a scholarship, two of them will attend Notre Dame.