Marcus McShepard reclined on his couch, munching on pepperoni-and-bacon pizza when his phone started to buzz. At 11 p.m. on a Friday, he figured it might be a wrong number -- but he was curious.

So the senior clicked to accept the call. And the voice on the other line turned out to be a coach -- Penn State assistant Stan Hixon -- from the biggest school he's heard from yet.

"It was just kind of out of the blue, but it was pretty cool to get a random call like that right after a win," said McShepard, a cornerback out of Cleveland Heights (Ohio). "He just introduced himself and asked how the game was and just touched base."

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