How the Patriots' Chris Hogan went from Penn State lacrosse to Steeler killer

If you were running a "Which random Patriot will step up and destroy the Steelers" pool — and you should've been, all things considered — Chris Hogan would've been a perfect pick.

Lo and behold, it was Hogan who did a lot of the damage in the AFC championship, catching nine passes for 180 yards — a Patriots playoff record -— and two touchdowns as the Patriots crushed the Steelers, 36-17. Seven of those catches, 115 of those yards and both touchdowns came in the first half.

Now, it's not that Hogan is bad; he's a decent vertical threat for the Patriots and averaged 17.9 yards on his 38 regular-season catches. It's not even that he's fairly anonymous. It's the fact that he played lacrosse at Penn State, and one season of post-grad football at Monmouth, that makes him perfect for the role he's currently filling.

In 2007, Hogan was a first-team all-New Jersey football and lacrosse player. Instead of playing football for UConn or Rutgers, he opted for Penn State lacrosse, where he led the team in 2009 with 29 goals and "certainly played lacrosse like a football player," former Nittany Lions coach Glenn Thiel told the Boston Globe in training camp.

"Obviously he was a great athlete,'' said Thiel. "But his size set him apart. He was 6-2, 6-3, 215 pounds — we just didn't see that on the lacrosse field, very seldom. There are some guys playing now that size but he was unique then.''

Flash forward a few years: After captaining the team as a senior, Hogan was set to graduate with a year of NCAA eligibility remaining and still had the football itch. Monmouth had recruited him in high school and had no problem taking on an athlete of that caliber.

And even then, Hogan, 28, didn't even play receiver full time. He started at cornerback for nine games and didn't get a Combine invite. Instead, he had to parlay Monmouth's pro day into a free-agent deal with the 49ers.

"I remember that day like it was yesterday,'' Hogan told the Globe. "It was an emotional day. I was able to put up some really good numbers. My 40 [time] was good. My shuttle was good. Bench press was good. Everything I did was enough to impress some people. Enough to be one of those guys they wanted to work out after and do some drills.''

He didn't get any snaps with San Francisco or the Dolphins, then caught 87 passes over four seasons with the BIlls before signing with New England. Now he's catching flea flickers from Tom Brady in the AFC championship. Not bad.