When Jeremy Hosley got pickup football games together in Delray Beach, Fla., he'd let little brother Jayron tag along.
It didn't matter that 7-year-old Jayron was five years Jeremy's junior. He might have been smaller than everybody else, but he wasn't overwhelmed.
"Some guys would actually be like, 'Aw man, he brought his little brother out here?' "said Jayron, now a standout cornerback at Virginia Tech. "And then once they see me play, their whole perspective changed. They'd be like, 'You're a hell of a player, man.' "
The same holds true today. Hosley, a junior wrapping up what is likely to be his last season, has a long list of accomplishments, earning All-America and All-ACC honors and tying the single-season school record for interceptions with nine.
That was last year. This season hasn't gone to script, with a hamstring injury and concussion limiting him.
But should Hosley enter the NFL draft, and indications are he will, he'll be remembered among the best of the Hokies' cornerbacks in the past decade, an All-America lineage that includes DeAngelo Hall, Jimmy Williams, Brandon Flowers and Victor "Macho" Harris.
"DBU. The D-Block. That's what we call ourselves," Hosley said. "It was here before me. We're trying to keep that tradition alive."
The path to Blacksburg started on those Delray Beach playgrounds. Or streets. Or living rooms. Wherever the Hosley brothers could a game together.
His mother, Beverly Hosley, who raised Jayron and his five older siblings more or less by herself, encouraged her youngest to play, even if he was the smallest of the group. It toughened him.
"He always had confidence in what he did," Beverly said. "He didn't let fear come his way. He just played the game."
Jeremy knew it'd be good for his brother to play. Their father, John Hosley, was in and out of the prison system for much of their lives.
"I saw the potential in (Jayron) as a kid," said Jeremy Hosley, a producer at a music studio. "The only person I had was my mother, to show me the ropes and teach me whatever I needed to know. So I tried to be a father figure and an older brother to him because I didn't want him to go down the wrong path."
As Jayron blossomed, colleges began to take notice. South Florida emerged as the favorite.
But Flowers, a Tech cornerback from 2003-05 who plays for the Kansas City Chiefs, was a high school teammate and friend of Jeremy's. He told Tech's coaches about Jayron.
On Signing Day 2009, Hosley picked the Hokies.
Hosley's first reaction upon visiting Blacksburg?
"There's a lot of mountains," he said. "Where's the city and stuff like that?"
He was separated for the first time from the tight-knit family his mother had fostered.
"When he first left, I was missing him very greatly," Beverly Hosley said. "But I know now it was very needed for him to go up and be independent and develop a lot of skills as a man."
Said Jayron: "I just had to suck it up."
He quickly found that defensive backs coach Torrian Gray, though hard on freshmen, was his biggest ally, a strong-handed mentor who would teach him the game's finer points to go with his natural skills.valentines day flowers him
Things didn't completely click until Hosley's sophomore year, his first season as a stater, and it took a wake-up call. He violated curfew and sat out against East Carolina in the third week.
"It was definitely an eye-opener," Hosley said. "It kind of made me realize that I was here for a reason. You can't take anything for granted. And from that point on, I kind of went from being still a young sophomore to having to grow up and be mature and be accountable."
The lesson learned, Hosley would grab nine interceptions in the next 11 games, leading the nation and tying the single-season school record.
This year, his first at boundary corner, didn't go as planned. He wanted to duplicate his nine-pick season, then dash to the NFL as a first-round pick.
Instead, he struggled. Opponents, reluctant at first to go after Hosley, began having success throwing in his direction. A hamstring injury against Wake Forest limited him for weeks.
He suffered a concussion in the first quarter of the ACC championship against Clemson, and coaches took his helmet so he wouldn't try to get back in the game as the Tigers picked apart the secondary.
"I don't think it would have been good to go out there," Hosley said. "I think I would have hurt my team more than I would have helped them."
The NFL appears to be in his future after this season. Hosley indicated he's leaning that way, even though his brother wants him to stay and finish his degree.
There are family considerations. Hosley would like to pay back his mother, a retailer, for raising him.
"She's been working for a long time and for nothing, really," Hosley said. "I want her to be able to take some of that stress off and be able to go on a vacation every now and then. It'll feel good to finally give her a chance to live life without worrying about bills and living paycheck to paycheck."
Hosley's NFL stock has dropped since ESPN draft guru Mel Kiper Jr. had him 17th overall on his preseason Big Board of prospects. Now, he isn't even among Kiper's top-five junior cornerbacks.
But Gray, who thinks Hosley will go pro, believes NFL teams will notice the cornerback's instincts.
"He still has an 'it' factor as far as playing the ball," Gray said. "And he'll be a guy who will turn the ball over for the other teams. I think that always carries a big value in it."
Hosley has read about his shortcomings on NFL draft scouting sites.valentines day flowers him "I'm not going to say it's the little man's syndrome or nothing like that, but you know, it's kind of just in me from blood," Hosley said. "I respect every player and everybody, but you've got to show me that you're better than me. And that's something I take onto the field."
