SEATTLE, Wash. – Only a few hours after National Football League teams were permitted to begin signing rookie free agent prospects, West Liberty All-American tight end Ryan Travis was packing his bags.
Travis, who caught more passes than any college football player in the nation last fall, was one of 19 undrafted free agents signed by the Seattle Seahawks on Tuesday morning.
The Hilltopper standout caught a flight to the West Coast on Tuesday afternoon and planned to report to the Seahawks’ training camp at the team’s Virginia Mason Athletic Facility in Renton, Wash. on the outskirts of Seattle.
Players will complete their pre-camp testing and physicals during the day on Wednesday with the first full team meeting of coaches and players set for 6 p.m. (PDT) on Wednesday. The coaching staff will lead the players through a couple of walk-throughs on Thursday before the first official practice session kicks off at 9 a.m. (PDT) on Friday.
A converted running back who played only two full seasons as a combination H-Back/tight end, the sure-handed Travis burst into the national spotlight as a consensus first-team NCAA Division II All-America in 2009 and 2010.
The only college football player in the country to catch at least 10 passes in every game during the 2010 season, Travis led the nation with 126 catches for 1,402 yards despite playing just a 10-game schedule. His 126 catches and 12.6 average per game are the second-highest single-season marks ever posted by an NCAA Division II receiver while his 15 TD catches tied the NCAA Division II single-season record for tight ends.
Travis’s 285 career catches rank No. 5 on the all-time NCAA Division II career receiving list and he leaves West Liberty as the school’s career leader in catches (285), receiving yards (3,228) and receiving touchdowns (34).
A 6-3, 235-pound graduate of Massillon (Ohio) Tuslaw High School, Travis earned first-team All-America honors from the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA), AP’s Little All-America Team, Daktronics, D2Football.com and Don Hansen’s Football Gazette following his senior season.
Travis was selected to play in the 2011 Cactus Bowl NCAA Division II All-Star Game and had an outstanding game, pulling in four passes for 60 yards – including a 23-yard TD grab – and having a spectacular 30-yard reception wiped out by an offensive holding call.
The Seahawks, coached by former University of Southern California head coach Pete Carroll, won the NFC West title last season and upset the New Orleans Saints in the first round of the NFL playoffs before being eliminated by the Chicago Bears in Round 2.