Chicago Bears Countdown to Kickoff: 36 Days with DeAndre Houston-Carson

Today is the last Saturday without some form of football for quite a while, indicating that we are just 36 days away from the first Sunday of the NFL schedule. To celebrate football season rapidly approaching, today's installment of Chicago Bears Countdown to Kickoff brings us to the best player in franchise history to don the number 36, safety DeAndre Houston-Carson.

DeAndre Houston-Carson's journey from FCS to the Chicago Bears

Houston-Carson originally hails from Woodford, Virginia a town just 15 minutes away via car from Massaponax, where he attended high school. As a Panther, Houston-Carson was a dominant three-sport athlete, spending time on the football, basketball, and track and field teams. Despite winning three letters for basketball, where he played point guard, and an additional letter in track, there was never a doubt that football was his specialty.

In high school, the future Bear was an incredibly versatile player, spending time on offense at running back and receiver while splitting time as a cornerback on the defensive side of the ball. Across his three seasons as a letterman player, Houston-Carson's best season by far came as a senior. In 2010, the star athlete finished the season with over 1,000 yards on the ground, 17 total touchdowns, and was chosen to the All-Commonwealth District First Team as both a running back and a cornerback. He was also nominated to the All-Northwestern region team as a corner and was named his school's Offensive Player of the Year.

Despite a dominant high school career on both sides of the ball, Houston-Carson only garnered attention from FCS programs, specifically William and Mary and James Madison. While the latter has since been moved up to FBS, Houston-Carson elected to attend the former, in part due to his academic interests in law.

In his first year at William and Mary, Houston-Carson was designated as a redshirt and played in zero games despite being a part of the team's travel squad. The wait paid off, as the following year, the player started in the team's secondary for all 11 of the team's regular season games. Despite posting a 2-9 record, Houston-Carson, who started solely on the defensive side of the ball as a corner, had a solid first year, recording 55 tackles, six pass breakups, and an interception.

The following season, Houston-Carson again started in every game for the program. Finishing the season as an All-Conference selection, the Virginia native logged 62 tackles, 4.5 of which were for a loss, two interceptions, 13 pass breakups, and a sack in 12 games. Houston-Carson even contributed on special teams, where he was able to play two total kicks on the year, including a punt block against Towson and a field goal block against James Madison.

In 2014, Houston-Carson, unfortunately, had his season cut to just nine games after sustaining a season-ending injury versus James Madison. The defensive back was having a great start to his season, including 67 tackles, two fumble recoveries, three interceptions, and seven pass breakups. Despite not finishing the season, the corner was elected as an All-Conference player for the second straight season.

Houston-Carson was also dominant on special teams and had a number of impressive feats, including recording a blocked kick in three straight games. He even returned a blocked PAT for a two-point score on the other end, marking the program's first returned attempt since 1992.

Heading into his senior season, the secret was out on William and Mary's star defensive back, and despite transitioning to free safety, Houston-Carson had a dominant outing in his final year of college football.

Voted as a captain to begin the year, he finished the season as the school's third-ever First-Team All-American selection, led the team in tackles with 109, and also logged four interceptions, a total strong enough for second-best in his conference. Houston-Carson also logged two blocked kicks while again serving as a star special teams player. A four-year starter, he finished his career with 293 total tackles, 10 interceptions, and nine blocked kicks.