By Billy Watkins
Dexter McCluster had committed to South Florida, just 23 miles from his home in Largo. He wasn’t accepting calls from any other schools.
Except one.
Ed Orgeron, then the head football coach at Ole Miss, kept calling. “Just let me come sit in your living room and talk to you,” he said.
“I finally agreed,” McCluster recalled recently. “His energy was the first thing I noticed. We talked schemes and scenarios. Next thing I know, we’re both standing up. Pillows were flying all over the room. Man, I was ready to play a game right then.
“When he left, I told my dad, ‘I want to visit Ole Miss.’ I had never been out of the state of Florida. It was my first time to fly. Every bump we hit, I thought the plane was going down. My dad was laughing at me the whole way.”
Before he left campus, McCluster knew he wanted to be a Rebel. His dad told him, “Let’s go home, If you still feel the same way, we’ll call South Florida and thank them for everything.’”
His dad had always instilled the values of what a “true man” really meant, and this was another one of those teaching moments.
“He made me call the coach at South Florida and tell him myself.,” McCluster said.
The decision to commit to Ole Miss in 2006 helped change the program, which had struggled since Eli Manning departed in 2003.
McCluster, a blink-quick athlete who stood 5-foot 8, 153 pounds when he arrived in Oxford, would go on to win back-to-back Cotton Bowl MVP awards, twice earn All-SEC honors and earn selection into the SEC Legends Class.
To this day, he remains one of Ole Miss’ most cherished athletes. He also had a solid seven-year career in the NFL — four with the Kansas City Chiefs, who drafted him 36th overall.
Another honor awaits Saturday night when he will be inducted into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame. He became emotional when asked about getting the call.
“It carried me straight back to high school when a lot of the big schools had counted me out, but Ole Miss took a chance,” he said. “I heard it all. ‘He might be too small’ or ‘the SEC might be too big for him.’ I look back at film of my games, and I was small. I never weighed more than 168 pounds my whole time at Ole Miss. I could finally see what the fans saw.
“But I never felt small. I felt as big as anyone out there. I had a warrior mentality. Yes, you’ve got to grind and work. But, most of all, you’ve got to believe in yourself. Now, going into the Mississippi Hall of Fame … I am so honored. It’s more than I ever dreamed.”
***********
A story should never be bogged down by statistics, but McCluster’s numbers are a major part of his story. He began his Ole Miss career as a slot receiver. McCluster viewed himself as a running back.
In his first two seasons, he carried the ball only 14 times for 131 yards — an impressive 9.3 yard average.
Houston Nutt replaced Orgeron as head coach prior to McCluster’s junior season.
Nutt’s brother, Danny, was watching the skill players run 110s during the summer before McCluster’s junior season. Danny Nutt approached him afterward and asked if he had ever played running back. “Yes sir, all my life,” he replied.
“Let me talk to my brother,” Danny Nutt said.
McCluster, who ran a 4.39 40-yard dash, made the move and led the team in rushing the next two seasons. He ran for 1,169 yards as a senior and finished his career with 3,658 total yards. The 2008 and 2009 teams enjoyed back-to-back nine-win seasons.
During our conversation, I asked McCluster who would be good to talk to for this story. He never hesitated. “Andy Hartman,” he said. “He never got any glory, but I’d appreciate you making him a part of this. He was my fullback and I could’ve never done anything without him.”
When I contacted Hartman, a firefighter near Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., he was overwhelmed.
“It’s an honor to talk about Dexter, but I think he’s giving me way too much credit,” Hartman said. “It wasn’t like I had to motor grade a path for him. I just kinda got in the way, and if you gave Dexter a sliver of a hole he’d do the rest. I did a lot of watching just like the fans did.”
Hartman remembers the highlights. But he also recalls being a walk-on freshman the same year McCluster arrived.
“Here I was, just trying to make the team, and Dexter was ‘all everything’ coming out of high school,” Hartman said. “But he spoke and talked to me the same as he did everyone else. He had no ego. I will always be grateful for how he treated me when I didn’t know a soul up there.”
And, yes, it was different blocking for McCluster.
“A lot of times, I wouldn’t even block the first guy that showed up because for the first five yards, Dexter was an Etch A Sketch. I knew Dexter would go right by him. So then I’d work up to the second level and try to get a linebacker.”
***********
A lot of NFL teams were puzzled about McCluster’s transition to the NFL.
Kansas City scout Dom Green was not.
“I’m from Largo, Fla, too, just like Dexter,” said Green, now a national scout with the New York Jets who played football at Mississippi College and spent three seasons (1992-94) as a graduate assistant at Ole Miss.
“I knew that family. Played football with Dexter’s uncle Eddie. His grandfather was a construction guy, and I knew what kind of family Dexter came from — blue collar, work hard, great people.
“And Dexter was as good a person as he was a football player. He was humble. Cared and had an appreciation for people. He loved football. Those are the ones you fight for. And any time I heard someone doubt him, I would say ‘Put on his tape.’ ”
The Chiefs drafted him 36th overall as a slot receiver “but for whatever reason that position didn’t pan out,” Green said.
That’s when they started using him as a “joker.”
“That means he’s a guy who can do a whole bunch of things,” Green said. “He would fit in every personnel grouping. And those guys are really valuable. Look around the league. Teams that don’t have a guy like that struggle.”
In addition to lining up all over the field, McCluster led the NFL in punt returns in 2013 with 686 total yards and two touchdowns.
McCluster, who is married (Brittany) with five daughters, retired after the 2016 season.
“I wanted to be home with my family,” he said, “but I couldn’t watch football. I went into a deep depression trying to figure out who I really was after football.”
The death of his quarterback at Ole Miss, Jevan Snead, to suicide in 2019 rocked McCluster. Snead had also struggled with depression.
“I remember getting that call and just couldn’t believe it,” he said. “i would urge anyone out there … if you’re struggling, talk to somebody. If you keep things bottled up, they just grow.”
McCluster, who lives in Brentwood, Tenn., now focuses on his family, trains athletes, coaches high school football, and does some motivational speaking.
“I’m all over the place,” he said with a laugh.
*************
During our conversation, we touched on some of the more memorable moments of his career.
*The “McCluster Fluster” — a 32-yard touchdown run against Memphis his freshman season.
“The linemen were basically shoulder to shoulder, and I lined up right behind the right tackle,” McCluster said. “I stayed real low coming out of the huddle so the defense couldn’t see me. We had practiced it all the time, and it never worked. I guess our defense caught on to it. But when they called it that day, (quarterback) Brent Schaeffer ran right and snuck me the ball. I had to count ‘one thousand one, one thousand two’ and then take off left. When I saw big ol’ Michael Oher out in front of me, I knew I was going to score.”
*His 282-yard, four-touchdown rushing performance against Tennessee — led by now Rebel coach Lane Kiffin — in a 42-17 home win in 2009.
“I just ran like I always did — reacting and trusting my blockers,” he said. “But that day I was really in a zone. It was special. I’ve talked to Coach Kiffin about it. He just said he kept telling (UT assistant) Coach Orgeron that he needed to find him a Dexter McCluster.”
*In 2008, Ole Miss 31, Florida 30 in the Swamp — or the day the Rebels made Tim Tebow cry at his postgame press conference. McCluster ran for a 40-yard touchdown in the second half. “That game meant so much to me,” he said. “Florida had recruited me but they said I might make it as a cornerback.” A scholarship offer never came.
In 2009, McCluster was named All-American. He thanks former Ole Miss media relations director Langston Rogers for promoting him for every honor he received at Ole Miss.
“Langston is my man,” McCluster said. “If I was skinny dipping and I knew that was Langston calling my phone, I’d get out of the water and answer it.”
McCluster always seems to remember the behind-the-scenes people who helped him along the way.
As for Ole Miss and Oxford, he ended our conversation with this: “I just want to thank them for taking a chance on me. I tried to show my thanks by signing every autograph and taking every picture I could for the fans.
“My relationship with the people of Ole Miss is for life. I will always represent the university and Oxford in a great way. Hey, I met my wife in math class at Ole Miss. Anytime Ole Miss needs me for anything, I’m there. I love that place.”
2025 HOF Induction Info
In addition to McCluster, inductees include: Scott Berry, the winningest baseball coach in Southern Mississippi history; Steve Freeman, a former standout defensive back for Mississippi State and the Buffalo Bills; High school football coach Mike Justice,, who won 75 percent of his games, three state titles and 21 district titles; Derrick Nix, former running back with Southern Miss who rushed for more than 1,000 yards three straight seasons; Steve Rives, winningest men’s basketball coach in Delta State history; the late Country Club of Canton golf pro Robbie Webb, who helped build the game statewide, especially working with youngsters; Mo Williams, a former Jackson Murrah High School star who went on to become an NBA champion and All-Star selection.
An autograph session with the inductees will be Saturday at 10 a.m. at the Miss. Sports Hall of Fame in Jackson. It is open to the public.
Induction ceremonies will be Saturday at 7 p.m. at the Clyde Muse Center, 515 Country Place Parkway in Pearl.
For information, call the Hall of Fame at 601-982-8264.
##############
