Louisville Male football coach Chris Wolfe had a big decision to make about which reserve wide receiver to insert into the starting lineup days before his team played in the 2018 state championship game. One of his standout performers, a senior 400-meter state track champion with loads of experience, had broken his arm during the state semifinal game the previous week. Many people assumed Wolfe would simply replace him with another senior given the magnitude of the moment.
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Wolfe opted for freshman Vinny Anthony, a speedy and elusive threat whose knack for big plays had stood out during the season. Anthony rewarded that decision by carrying the ball 11 times for 75 yards, primarily on a series of jet sweeps, and scoring two touchdowns to help Louisville Male defeat Scott County 37-20 for the Class 6A title.
“That was probably a good indication of how good he could be,” Wolfe said.
Anthony, a 6-foot and 167-pound receiver, has been making big plays in big moments ever since. He earned second-team all-state honors as a junior when he caught 34 passes for 539 yards and nine touchdowns. He then became just the third Male player in Wolfe’s 12 seasons as coach to eclipse the 1,000-yard receiving mark in a season, finishing his senior campaign with 49 catches for 1,108 yards and 16 touchdowns to capture first-team all-state honors. His teams appeared in the state championship game all four seasons of his varsity career, going 49-5 during that stretch.
Anthony will bring those talents to Wisconsin, where he enrolled for his freshman season this month. He is a different type of receiver from the Badgers’ two other scholarship signees in the 2022 class — Tommy McIntosh is 6-5 and 210 pounds, while Chris Brooks Jr. is 6-2 and 200 pounds — but Wisconsin receivers coach Alvis Whitted recognized Anthony’s ability to be a difference maker.
“He’s a playmaker,” Whitted said. “Vinny, he makes plays, makes one-handed catches, does everything for his team on the football field. He just loves the game of football as well. Guys that want to compete and love the game, that’s what I’m looking for and just trying to build a room full of those (players). You watch his senior tape, he’s everywhere. He’s electric. He has great run-after-the-catch ability. I’m just excited about him.”
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Anthony’s senior season highlight film reveals why Whitted is so optimistic about his skill level. On one play, he fields a kickoff at his own 26-yard line and zips down the left sideline before cutting back across the field and outracing every player on the kickoff team for a touchdown.
He makes a diving touchdown catch while falling backward in the end zone with a defensive back draped on him and shielding his vision. He splits a pair of defenders in the secondary and hauls in a high pass in stride with his right hand on his way to the endzone for another score. He catches a pass over the middle with two defenders in front of him, spins off both and scores again.
“If the ball is remotely close to him, somehow he’s going to find a way to catch it,” said Anthony’s dad, Vincel.
On a recent weekday, Wolfe was editing game clips for his returning wide receivers to analyze and acknowledged that the bulk of the plays he wanted them to see involved Anthony. He praised Anthony’s ability to secure 50-50 balls and give quarterbacks faith that he’ll regularly win on downfield shots. Even when Anthony appears as though he isn’t open, he still often comes up with a reception.
“He’s really good at getting off coverage,” Wolfe said. “He really understands how to beat the different looks that he has, at least at the high school level. I know it’s going to be more difficult at the college level. But the way he’s able to beat single coverage, the way he’s able to stem his routes, the way he’s able to adlib his routes, too, and get into the open space, he does it extraordinarily well. We haven’t had anybody probably as smooth as him route running that I can remember.”
Anthony earned 13 scholarship offers and chose Wisconsin over other finalists Duke and Cincinnati. Wisconsin extended him the offer in February 2021 during a time in which players and coaches could not meet in person due to NCAA restrictions from the COVID-19 pandemic. From the day Anthony was offered until he could take an official campus visit in late June of 2021, he and his family relied on Zoom meetings with the staff. Anthony’s dad said those initial interactions set the tone for his son’s recruitment.
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“At the basic level, really from our first engagement with them, it was very five-star, very well executed,” Vincel said. “It was unique in that we were the first class maybe to go through this recruiting process under the COVID restraints, which meant we’re now dealing with seeing campus and meeting coaches via Zoom. You’re engaging with folks and technology is really leading the charge, to be honest. So some schools struggled with that in contrast to others.
“Quite frankly, just kind of leading off with that, that was one of the very first things that were impressive to me as a dad, having heard from a lot of different schools and understanding the dynamic that was really in play. I would say it showed those organizations, those universities that were agile and flexible and sharp enough to deal with the current situation and maximize on it. Because what it exposed were some of the weaknesses of other universities.”
Vincel said Whitted played a central role in Anthony’s decision to commit to Wisconsin. He cited the fact that Whitted, a former track standout who participated in the 1996 U.S. Olympic Trials, found common ground with Anthony over their shared love of football and track. Earlier this month, Anthony won the Kentucky 3A state track championship in the 300-meter hurdles. He finished second in the 110-meter hurdles, missing out on a second state title by a few thousandths of a second. He also qualified for state in the high jump and the 4×100-meter relay.
Anthony noted Whitted views him as a receiver who can play either on the outside or in the slot but that he was open to playing anywhere he could to help the team.
“They liked my playing style, how I attack the ball, how I ran full speed on every play and just showed effort through everything I did,” Anthony said. “And just my attitude on and off the field. They said I was a good leader.
“They were all real cool and nice and respectful to me. I really appreciated that. They were also consistent with recruiting me. And that just made it honestly an easy pick that showed that they wanted me. It felt easy to transfer from my high school to that kind of environment just because it kind of felt the same.”
Anthony’s family roots in football run deep. His grandfather, Dwight Lee, was a running back for Michigan State and then briefly played in the NFL for the Atlanta Falcons and the San Francisco 49ers during the 1968 season. Anthony’s dad was a defensive back at Western Kentucky. When Wisconsin first expressed interest in Anthony, he and his dad had questions about how the Badgers, a traditionally run-heavy program, intended to utilize their receivers. They came away impressed with the messaging they heard from Whitted and head coach Paul Chryst.
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“That’s why they brought (quarterback Graham) Mertz in,” Vincel said. “That’s why they brought Alvis there. All of that is to slowly turn into what they would like to be, which is a far more diverse offense where you’re throwing the ball just as effectively, 50-50 if you will, as you are running the ball. We could see it. We could see it coming. We could see the turning of the tide, if you will, in the young receivers they have. Coach Whitted carries it a lot.
“There were lots of other places that were at the table that you may initially think, ‘Well, they throw the ball a whole lot more. They do this or they do that.’ There were other variables that still played into it. At the end of the day, we were convinced that the tomorrow of what Wisconsin’s going to be about, we believe in that.”
Anthony is eager to bring his speed and playmaking ability to a unit that continues to try and upgrade through competition.
“He’s such a joy to coach,” Wolfe said. “He’s a team-first guy. He’s the hardest worker on the team. He carries himself with a lot of class and character. He’s a really smart guy, mature for his age. He’s been a special guy all four years. You don’t find those guys very often. Those are like once in a decade in high school-type kids.”
(Top photo courtesy of Vincel Anthony)
