Arizona Wildcats: Top 30 athletes in school history
Antoine Cason played for four years at the University of Arizona; he continued to play in the NFL, but we don’t know yet if he will retire.
Antoine Cason was born in Long Beach California to a family full of athletes. His father, Wendall Cason, played for the University of Oregon and then in the NFL for the Atlanta Falcons. When Antoine was deciding where to commit, his top three schools were Boise State, Oregon State, and Arizona.
Cason chose to commit to Arizona and played cornerback for the Wildcats from 2004-2007. His college career started out slow and in his freshman year he accumulated four interceptions for 88 yards. Each season Cason played, his stats improved. He started all 46 games he was eligible to play in.
| Tackles | Def Int | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | School | Class | G | Solo | Ast | Tot | Loss | Sk | Int | Yds | Avg | TD | PD |
| 2004 | Arizona | FR | 11 | 4 | 88 | 22.0 | 0 | ||||||
| 2005 | Arizona | SO | 11 | 38 | 12 | 50 | 2.5 | 0.0 | 3 | 40 | 13.3 | 0 | 8 |
| 2006 | Arizona | JR | 12 | 48 | 14 | 62 | 2.0 | 0.0 | 3 | 57 | 19.0 | 1 | 10 |
| 2007 | Arizona | SR | 12 | 57 | 14 | 71 | 4.0 | 1.0 | 5 | 164 | 32.8 | 2 | 19 |
| Career | Arizona | 143 | 40 | 183 | 8.5 | 1.0 | 15 | 349 | 23.3 | 3 | 37 |
Provided by Sports-Reference.com/CFB: View Original Table
Generated 11/24/2015.
When Cason was a senior, he was voted the Consensus All-American and won the Jim Thorpe Award in 2007, but that wasn’t the only award he earned. Following is a list of all the other awards he received in his senior year:
- First-team All-Pac-10
- NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field All-American in 4×100
- Walter Camp First Team All-American
- Associated Press First Team All-American
- The Sporting News First Team All-American
- CBSSports.com First Team All-American
- SI.com First Team All-American
- Rivals.com First Team All-American
- Arizona’s Ruby Award winner as the top male student-athlete
Cason excelled off the field as well as on the field. He was the team spokesman and leader throughout his career. He started a new charity in his senior year, ‘Cason Cares’, which was a charity drive for cancer research.
Cason had his Wildcats jersey retired in 2010.
One of the highest rated cornerbacks entering in the 2008 NFL Draft, Cason was selected 27th overall by the San Diego Chargers. Cason’s first interception was against the Denver Bronco’s quarterback Jay Cutler on September 14, 2008. In his Rookie year, he accumulated 59 tackles, two interceptions, and one touchdown. He got his first start on Monday Night Football against the Kansas City Chiefs in 2010.
Cason played for eight years in the NFL. He played for the Chargers for five years; and then he played for one season with Arizona Cardinals, Carolina Panthers and then the Baltimore Ravens. His career stats include 318 tackles, 16 interceptions for 362 yards in 11o games.
Antoine Cason was released by the Carolina Panthers in December 2014. On Instagram, Cason posted that he had surgery to fix an ongoing foot problem, and he will miss the 2015 season. Two months ago he posted that he was getting the boot off of his foot, so things are progressing. While he sits out, he is having fun as a sports broadcaster for Fox Sports 5 in San Diego.
We hope Antoine recovers and can play next season.
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