It wasn’t all that long ago that Bob Vernick was overlooked by most college football recruiters.

The 2013 Butler graduate was not passed over by Slippery Rock University, however, as then head coach George Mihalik gladly welcomed the hard-hitting linebacker to the Green and White.

“People missed the boat on this kid,” Mihalik boldly said before Vernick’s freshman year. “He’s going to leave here as one of the best linebackers ever to come through this program.”

Bob Vernick wound up seeing action in all 11 SRU games his freshman year. He became a three-year starter at middle linebacker. By the time he graduated, he had become an all-conference player and finished his collegiate career with 105 solo tackles, 243 total tackles, 22 tackles for loss and six interceptions.

Not bad for a kid nobody wanted.

While Vernick was compiling those numbers, younger brother Tim was witnessing most of them. A linebacker himself for Butler on Friday nights, Tim spent many a Saturday watching his older brother play.

It seemed only natural that Tim Vernick would wind up coming to The Rock as well.

Only this time, it was different.

Bob was 6-foot-1, 230 pounds, a strong, physical linebacker.

While Tim puts his heart and soul into the game just like his brother, he was 6-foot-0, 200 as a true freshman last year.

There were no glowing predictions from the head coach concerning Tim Vernick’s prospective SRU football career.

“Honestly, we brought him in here because his last name is Vernick,” current Rock head coach Shawn Lutz admitted. “We know how passionate he is about football.”

That was it. Not a whole lot of expectation with that.

Entering the spring game of 2017, Tim Vernick had a solid performance. He was still projected as a special teams player and reserve linebacker.

When that spring game ended, I talked to Tim Vernick, complimented his play and asked if his goal was getting on the field in some sort of a defensive role this season.

He practically looked insulted.

He smiled at me and said. “I’m gonna start.”

Then a serious look came over his face.

Driving home that night, I couldn’t help but think about that statement, how I didn’t want to use it in the newspaper, how I didn’t want to make this nice kid look bad.

Last week in The Rock’s season opener at Kentucky State, starting middle linebacker Tim Vernick had 10 tackles, one quarterback sack and was a key element in shutting down the Thorobreds’ rushing attack.

It’s not a miracle.

It’s what hard work, desire, intelligence and guts can do on a football field.

Tim Vernick is listed at 220 pounds now, he’s playing bigger than that and Lutz has a new comment about the name.

“I wish they had a third brother coming,” the coach said.

John Enrietto is sports editor of the Butler Eagle