6 DRFFOOTBALL FAYTOK

Former Rutgers wide receiver Mohamed Sanu, pictured here playing in the 2008 NJ-NY all-star classic, will play WR for the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl 51. (Photo by Chris Faytok | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

Talk to Rick Mantz for 10 minutes and the former South Brunswick coach will share two dozen anecdotes on why he believes Mohamed Sanu is one of the best all-around athletes in Rutgers football history.

Mantz, who now serves as the Rutgers football program's director of high school relations, had a front-row seat to Sanu's exploits during his final two seasons at South Brunswick High.

"His athleticism was just unbelievable,'' Mantz said Monday, a day after watching Sanu help the Atlanta Falcons earn a trip to Super Bowl LI thanks to a 44-21 win over the Green Bay Packers at the Georgia Dome. "He'd screw around in practice and throw the ball 70 yards on a rope. He was our punter. He'd kick off. One day he was at track practice, just kind of screwing around, and said, 'Coach, can I throw the javelin?' Our top guy, who had a pretty good arm, had gotten hurt and wasn't going to compete.

"So Mo picks up the javelin -- I kid you not -- and he broke the school record in his first day. It was unbelievable, the kid could do anything. He'd play volleyball the tail end of his junior year just because it was a challenge for him. He just annihilated the ball. It was mind-boggling.''

In 2007, after a successful 12-year run at Hillsborough, Mantz took over a South Brunswick program that had qualified for the NJSIAA playoffs just one in 30 years.

"I remember vividly walking through the building after I was hired, I went to the coaches office and started looking at film and Mohamed came in to introduce himself,'' Mantz said. "He goes, 'My name is Mohamed Sanu,' and I said, 'I know who you are.' He said, 'Coach, I will do everything and anything I can to help us get better.' He just started coming in and hanging around, in between school, basketball practice, he was just a gym rat. The happiest and most positive kid I ever met and you have to love a kid like that.''

Mohamed Sanu starred at South Brunswick High School from 2006-08, playing quarterback, wide receiver and punter.

In his lone season playing for Mantz, Sanu tallied 900 yards passing, 700 yards rushing and handled the punting duties en route to earning All-Greater Middlesex Conference honors and leading South Brunswick to its first playoff appearance in three decades.

"For all the struggles South Brunswick had he was never down on anybody, he never blamed anybody,'' Mantz said. "He just wanted to be part of the solution. The thing I was most impressed by was how he'd do whatever it took to help his teammates get better, helping them off the ground, encouraging them to watch film and stick around for extra coaching, staying on them about their grades. He was a competitor -- losing was not part of his DNA. He'd be intense but yet he was always respectful and a gentleman.''

Since Sanu turned 19 a week before the 2008 season, he wasn't eligible to play his senior campaign at South Brunswick. Still, Mantz said Sanu practiced with the team as the scout-team quarterback and was an influential part of the Vikings' 9-2 campaign.

"We thought about trying to get him to play somewhere as a senior, but to do that he'd have to transfer out of school and wherever he went as a senior he would've had to spend the entire year for him to graduate,'' Mantz said. "(Former Rutgers coach) Greg (Schiano) was excited about Mo coming in early. We knew immediately based on his age that he wasn't going to be able to play as a senior. So we put a plan together, and started to speed up his academics so he could enroll at Rutgers (in January 2008).''

Following his junior year, Sanu played quarterback and threw a 55-yard touchdown to lead the New Jersey squad to a victory in the Nike New York vs. New Jersey All-Star Classic.

"Phil Simms was the honorary coach of the New Jersey team,'' Mantz said, referring to the former Giants quarterback who now serves as lead analyst on CBS football broadcasts. "We did a promotional thing up in North Jersey and Phil was there watching Mohamed work out. Mo's throwing balls all over the place, running around, and I said he's going to go to Rutgers and they're not sure what they're going to do with him yet. He goes, 'He's athletic but that kid's not a quarterback.' But he could've played quarterback or, really, any position he wanted at Rutgers.''

Sanu starred at wide receiver and handled shotgun snaps as the quarterback in the Wildcat package at Rutgers, where he tallied a program- and Big East-record 210 receptions during his three seasons.

Sanu, who hauled in a Big East-record 115 receptions for 1,206 yards in 2009, left a year early and ended up getting picked by the Cincinnati Bengals in the third round of the NFL Draft.

Sanu, 27, has carved out a solid NFL career, spending his first four years with the Bengals before signing a lucrative deal with the Falcons last offseason.

In 2016, the 6-2, 210-pounder morphed into a reliable No. 2 receiver, hauling in 59 receptions for 653 yards and four touchdowns during the regular season. He's been even better in the playoffs, hauling in touchdowns in both Falcons victories and totaling nine receptions for 96 yards and seven rushing yards in the two games.

"Watching him (Sunday night) running (the Wildcat) out of the shotgun,'' Mantz said, "was pretty funny.''

Mantz will watch the Falcons play the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl on Feb. 5, and pay extra attention to his former prodigy.

"He didn't have it easy growing up; there was really no money in his family,'' Mantz said. "He was sleeping on the couch. He didn't have a bedroom. There was no food at home. Every time I'd drive him home we'd stop and I'd get him something to eat. There were so many challenges in this kid's life.

"And yet he was just the most amazing guy you'd ever want to meet. What makes him so unique is he's just an awesome human being. I can't emphasize that enough.''

It's why, Mantz said, the player simply known as "Mo'' still has a large following in the various Middlesex County towns in which he has roots, including New Brunswick, Sayreville and on the Pop Warner fields of South River.

"With his upbringing, what he went through, his sister, his brother-in-law and his brother were amazing influences, his mom did a great job on him, and even guys around South Brunswick, like Jake Rodriguez and Mike Muha, they did a tremendous job with him,'' Mantz said. "People in town kind of adopted him. You talk about it takes a village, that's really true, and it's why you're going to see everyone around here pulling for him in this game.''

Keith Sargeant may be reached at ksargeant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @KSargeantNJ. Find NJ.com Rutgers Football on Facebook.