Countdown to Monon: The Star: Former DI player Flynn joins Tigers

Wednesday, November 13, 2013
DePauw senior Barry Flynn doesn't depend only on his height to make catches over opponents. This acrobatic catch against Oberlin earlier this season demonstrates his ability to go after the ball. (Banner Graphic/GRANT WIEMAN)

Watching Barry Flynn play basketball, it's not hard to imagine him as a football player. He just didn't seem like a wide receiver.

His relentless attack -- of his defensive assignment; of rebounds -- made him seem more like a defensive end chasing the quarterback. Yet when DPU football coach Bill Lynch heard last spring that Flynn had one semester left of college eligibility, he knew better.

In high school Flynn was a division I football prospect recruited to play tight end. He was known by Lynch, then the head coach for Indiana University, and ended up at Ball State where Joey Lynch, the DPU coach's son, was tight end coach.

"(Joey) told me, 'I think he's going to be a really good football player,'" Lynch said. "The next thing (I know) he's playing basketball at DePauw."

DPU doesn't get many athletic transfers, especially from the DI level. It worked out pretty well for the 6-foot-5 football star.

In two seasons playing on the hardwood for the Tigers, Flynn was a two-time all-North Coast Athletic Conference member. He scored 15.0 points and 7.0 rebounds last year and finished second on the team in assists.

After the spring, Flynn had just one semester of classes remaining and a few decisions. He could study abroad in the fall and rejoin the basketball team in the winter, finish school early and take his final semester at college away from athletics to enjoy the other experiences students are offered or he could return to a sport he hadn't played in three years.

Lynch and basketball coach Bill Fenlon have adjacent offices in the DPU athletic department and Flynn came up in conversation.

"It was like, you know, I'd love to have him play football," Lynch said. "Bill said, 'Well, you ought to ask him.' I didn't know if he would."

Flynn thought about it and before heading home for the summer he tentatively agreed to join the football team as a wide receiver.

"On a campus like this, the athletes know each other," Lynch said. "They're in fraternity houses or whatever. Some of the other guys got in his ear a little bit."

The decision stood throughout the summer and on the first day of training camp Flynn joined the other fourth-string receivers in line behind the veterans.

"He's done everything that we've ever asked of him," Lynch said. "You'd think a guy that was a star basketball player would come out and expect this and that. ... He just got in line, like any other new guy and just earned his way to the top.

"He practices hard every day. He's really been good for the football team."

Really good is a bit of an understatement. Flynn has been the cog that's made the Tigers offense go. If the team is stalling or searching for a big play, the solution is generally just to throw it up to Flynn and let him catch it.

His play is reminiscent of watching Braylon Edwards in his final season at Michigan or Matt Stafford lobbing it up to Calvin Johnson.

In nine games, Flynn has 66 catches for 819 yards and nine touchdowns, all among the top ten in school history and he's got one game to go.

Not bad for a senior who just started practicing a few months ago.

"He has a great ability to go up and get a ball," Lynch said. "When he goes and gets it, you can see why he was a great rebounder in basketball.

"Some guys can go after it and be aggressive, but he gets it. He has great body control when he's in the air and he expects to catch every ball. That's kind of the mindset that separates him. Even if it's a poorly thrown ball, he thinks he should have caught it."

Playing post-collegiate football is a long-shot and something Lynch said he and Flynn haven't addressed yet, but Flynn has one more game to impress scouts with a nationally televised audience as he goes against one of the top defenses in the country.

The Wabash Little Giants will be ready.

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