North Carolina State wide receiver Bradley Rozner is the longest-tenured player in college football. He is 26 years old.
Although there have been older athletes before, Rozner’s journey is unlike any other. This season, his first with the Wolfpack, is his eighth year overall.
Rozner graduated high school in 2016. To put that in perspective, he was in the same recruiting class as Nick Bosa, Michael Pittman Jr., Brian Burns, Mecole Hardman, Miles Sanders, A.J. Brown, Ed Oliver, Jacob Eason, and Rashan Gary, among others. All of those guys have pretty well-established NFL careers by now.
Meanwhile, Rozner is still catching passes in college. He scored his first touchdown at N.C. State against Notre Dame last Saturday!
Bradley Rozner’s journey has been difficult, but rewarding.
The 6-foot-5 receiver was not highly recruited out of Needville High School in Texas and chose to go the JUCO route. He went to Cisco College.
Rozner got injured in his first game and was forced to miss the rest of his freshman season. Unfortunately, he suffered a torn ACL during the rehab process and missed all of year two.
Although a lot of people might have decided to hang it up, Rozner continued to push and made it back on the field in 2018. His 13 touchdowns was a junior college high that year, and he recorded 616 yards on 44 catches.
From there, Rice made the call and offered Rozner a scholarship.
The momentum continued with the Owls.Rozner led the receiving core with 770 yards and five touchdowns in 2019.
And then the injury bug struck again.
COVID-19 hindered the 2020 season and Rozner chose to sit out the five-game schedule while working back from a broken wrist. And then, in the 2021 season-opener, Rozner tore his ACL.
He did not give up. Rozner returned in 2022 and helped lead Rice to its first bowl game since 2014 with 876 yards and 10 touchdowns.
Coming off of the best season of his career, Rozner hit the transfer portal. He landed at N.C. State and joined the team over the summer.
Now, through his first two games with his third program in his eighth season, Rozner has three catches for 44 yards and a touchdown. Expect many more to come!