STILL WORTH WATCHING : Five Years Later, These Athletes Are Fulfilling Their Early Promise : Andy Linnen

He didn’t grow to 6 feet 2, like doctors projected; he’s 5-11 1/2. And his feet didn’t get much bigger than they were five years ago; he wears size 12 compared to a size 11.

But Linnen did have a good football career as a receiver at Edison. As a senior, he caught 62 passes for 762 yards and was a second-team Times’ all-county selection.

“We were more of a running team my junior year with Michael Graham, Chris Young and Jeremy Simmons, so I didn’t get a chance to catch the ball until my senior year,” Linnen said.

Linnen’s size didn’t attract many recruiters and he wound up at Golden West College, where he played three games last year before transferring to Orange Coast. Linnen is playing baseball at OCC this spring and plans to play football next season.

Linnen said he never felt much pressure from the “Kids to Watch” story, but he was reminded of it by a receivers coach at Edison once during a practice.

“He said, ‘You’re supposed to be a L.A. Times boy,’ ” Linnen said. “He was doing it to motivate me. I said, ‘Oh, great.’ ”

Linnen said he still hopes to play Division I football somewhere, but admits he won’t be the type of receiver he was projected to be.

“They thought I’d be 6-5 and like an Al Toon [former New York Jets receiver],” he said. “I guess I turned out to be more of the Henry Ellard type.”