UNIVERSITY PARK — It was fall of 2017 at UT-San Antonio — Charles Cannon’s first day of college. He was walking to pick up his pads to mark the official start of his college football career.

Cannon was promised a walk-on spot by the UTSA coaching staff, and specifically then-special teams coordinator Ricky Brumfield, according to Cannon and members of his inner circle. They added the UTSA staff had reaffirmed that offer with Charles, his family and with his personal kicking coach.

The reason Cannon chose to go to UTSA was for football. This was the school that had offered him a chance to play. A chance to compete to be the team’s placekicker and kickoff specialist.

But as he was walking to pick up his pads, already enrolled and committed, Cannon received a call from his coach asking him to come in. That’s when he found out they didn’t actually have a spot for him.

He’d have to be an equipment manager instead. Maybe a spot would open up down the line.

“To be quite frank,” Cannon said, “I think that experience was pretty demoralizing.”

Neither Brumfield — now a coach at Virginia — nor UTSA responded to a request for comment regarding their handling of Cannon.

Still, this story does have a happy ending for Cannon.

After not kicking in a game for three full seasons — his senior year of high school in 2016 was the last time — Cannon re-emerged on a football field as a starter for SMU in the Mustangs’ most recent game against East Carolina.

Study in perseverance

After leaving UTSA, Cannon, who kicked at Justin Northwest, received interest from SMU, but no roster spot was offered. He attended Wade College in Dallas for a semester.

Then SMU showed interest again, and he came to the school in January 2019. In the fall, he was left off the training camp roster. Eventually he made the team early in the season, but didn’t make the two-deep depth chart until SMU’s 10th game of the season. He wasn’t listed on the roster printed out and passed around on game day.

So when he made that first kickoff, it was a years-long moment in the making. To the 29,000-plus at Ford Stadium, it was just a kickoff. To Cannon, his family, and those close to him, it was an ultimate culmination of perseverance.

“It was the most terrifying, amazing time for me as a parent, in my life,” his mother Kay Cannon said. “My husband and I, we sat there, we prayed in the morning, talked about how it could not be God’s plan for him to go out there and completely humiliate him.

“After that first kick, we were so thankful.”

Charles got the opportunity because SMU’s kickoff situation in the Memphis game was, as head coach Sonny Dykes said, “atrocious.”

So he found Cannon, a guy who was brought on because of a recommendation from Cannon’s personal coach, Scott Blanton, who is respected among college coaches in the D-FW area.

Even after finally making the roster, Cannon’s opportunity to showcase his kickoffs was almost nonexistent. He’d often call his mom and the two would joke about how he’d often only get to kick once, maybe twice in a practice.

Charles Cannon warms up prior to SMU's game against ECU on Nov. 9, 2019. (Courtesy of Kay Cannon)

“From the moment he showed up, we kind of thought he’s got some pop in his leg, he just hadn’t been incredibly consistent,” Dykes said. “As he kicked more and more and more, he became a little more consistent. … I think his leg is fresh and he’s been kicking the ball accurately. I’m impressed with what he’s done, I’m not really surprised.”

Down time

Cannon only kicked one year in high school. He spent almost all of his childhood as a soccer player. It made sense for him to start playing football, given that he claims he can make field goals upward of 50 yards.

He hired Blanton and started to train with him. And it was Blanton who became a life coach as much as a kicking coach during Cannon’s two-year exile from the game.

During practices, Blanton would have Cannon simulate kicking wearing enlarged rubber bands to build up strength.

Blanton would talk about mind-set. Both Blanton and other kickers in his program tried to convince Cannon that he was good enough.

“He had his ups and downs, his mental stuff, doubting himself to some degree,” Blanton said. “It was just being around, staying confident. He’s finally getting that opportunity.”

It’s an opportunity that came two full years after he was promised his first real opportunity at UTSA. One that set him back and altered the course of his life.

If this wild, wacky journey to playing in a Division I game was a play or a movie — showing up to UTSA to a rescinded roster spot would be the opening act that caused everything.

He’d bet on himself to play college football. He chose one of the only programs that had been willing to take a chance on him.

“They gave me their word, and they gave Charles and his family their word that he had a spot,” said Blanton, who works with college special teams coordinators around the country. “It kind of shocked me.”

Brumfield had escorted Cannon and his family around the school, Kay Cannon said. He followed the family on social media and texted Cannon throughout the summer to make sure he had student housing.

After Cannon posted online about kicking a long field goal, Kay Cannon said Brumfield messaged them to express excitement about Cannon coming to UTSA.

But that situation changed when he arrived at UTSA. Throughout the season, he never got that opportunity that he’d been guaranteed.

“That was rough,” Kay Cannon said. “Were we duped? I still wonder that about UTSA.”

Charles Cannon hugs his mother, Kay Cannon, after SMU's 59-51 win over ECU on Nov. 9, 2019. (Courtesy of Kay Cannon)

Looking ahead

That experience at UTSA is just part of his history. It’s part of the incredible journey that Cannon took.

Two days before the East Carolina game, Cannon was invited to stay in the team hotel before the game. He told his mom that he thought he’d earned the starting role. It wasn’t until he ran out after SMU’s first touchdown that his parents finally knew for sure.

After the game, Kay hugged her son. She said she could feel his nerves in that hug. “It was truly amazing,” she said of the moment. He kicked off 10 times that day.

Cannon might never be a star on the football field. He might get a chance to someday kick a field goal. He might not.

He still has two years of eligibility after this season but concedes he’ll be happy to “ride off into the sun” after graduating next year.

“It’s a great example of just hard work and determination,” Cannon said. “I got to give [my mom] the best birthday present. She got to see her son play Division I football and achieve a goal he’d been working for for two years, three years.”