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Arizona senior cornerback Antoine Cason plays his final home game on Thursday.

The smiling star hails from Long Beach, Calif., and was lightly recruited as a prep standout at Los Alamitos High School and has started 44 consecutive games since arriving at the UA in 2004.

We know he is a good football player, now let's fill in the gaps. We asked Cason to get it started.

"I like smooth jazz," he said. "Not the boring stuff, but like Kenny G, Wayman Tisdale and those kind of guys. I'm kind of laid-back. When I go out, I just chill out and observe. That's fun."

Here are five other things you do not know about No. 5:

1. He's a Mustang man. Cason has a jones for Ford Mustangs. With his father's help, Cason purchased a new, white Mustang after his freshman year at Arizona.

Cason bought a new Mustang, a red GT, before the start of this season. Cason babies the new car, whether he is driving around town or shuttling teammates such as Willie Tuitama home from practice. The Cats' quarterback lives down the street.

"Every time I speak to him, he's going to get it cleaned," said Matt Brooks, a friend and former UA quarterback. "He always keeps the car clean. It always smells good. It's cleaner than most hospitals.

"He wants his car to sound sexy. He wants his car to look sexy."

2. He wasn't always the big man on campus. Cason was popular in high school but was not quite the force of nature he became at the UA.

Cason was outgoing, charming and funny and said he became more outgoing after transferring from Long Beach Poly High School to Los Alamitos following his freshman year.

"When I first got there, it was kind of weird to me. There were only a handful of black kids there," he said. "You know those punk-rock guys with the spiked belts and stuff like that? I went up to those kind of people and just talked to them."

Cason said he taught his new friends about his life and background and learned plenty in return. He started listening to laid-back musicians Jack Johnson and John Mayer and top-40 bands such as The Fray and Maroon 5.

"Kids liked him because he treated everyone with respect. He was the kind of guy you wanted to hang around with only because you liked him, not because he was trying to be the Homecoming King or anything," said John Barnes, Cason's high school coach at Long Beach (Calif.) Los Alamitos High school.

3. He was a late-bloomer. Cason might be a chiseled 6-foot, 185-pounder now, but there was a time when he was so skinny his pants barely stayed up.

Cason was 5-6 and 150 pounds before hitting a growth spurt after his sophomore season.

"As a sophomore, he was a skinny little nothin'. He looked like a pencil out there," Barnes said. "At that point, you wouldn't have looked and said, 'That guy is going to be a first-round pick in the NFL.'"

Cason grew 6 inches after his sophomore season and developed Osgood-Schlatter Disease, a syndrome that causes pain and swelling in the shins and knees. Because of it, he was held out of physical activity for six months.

"I just figured it was his turn to grow," Cason's father, Wendell, said. "It happened real fast — too fast. He was like a giraffe, learning to run again."

Cason was 6 feet tall when he rejoined the team, and eventually learned to use the newfound size to his advantage. He was an all-league selection as a junior and a second-team All-CIF Southern Section selection as a senior.

4. He was recruited by accident. Mike Stoops was still the defensive coordinator at Oklahoma in fall 2003 when he went to Los Alamitos to recruit super-prospect Randy Estes. Stoops liked what he saw: After watching a few minutes of practice, he tracked down a coach.

"Randy looks good today," Stoops said.

One problem: Stoops was watching Cason, not Estes. Within months, Stoops was named head coach at the UA, and one of his first recruits was Cason.

5. He wants to change the world. Cason knows there is more to life than football. His charity, Cason Cares, has raised about $4,000 for cancer research.

Stoops, UA soccer coach Dan Tobias, Phoenix Suns general manager Steve Kerr and star Shawn Marion have all worn red Cason Cares wristbands to support the cause. Cason started the charity to honor his grandfather, who died in February of Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS), a blood disease formerly known as preleukemia. Cason said his grandfather, Royce E. Rambo, was his role model.

Though the NCAA limits the amount of money Cason can raise — he can only sell 2,500 bands for $3 apiece — the charity is expected to endure. Antoine hopes to continue Cason Cares following next spring's NFL draft.

"This is something that he's definitely passionate about," said Brooks, who helped found the charity. "He's not just talking about this. He knew it was time for him to do this."

Antoine Cason first noticed Arizona's Ring of Honor in 2004, when he made his college debut. It might not be long before his name is added to the list.

UA officials said this week that Cason would surely earn a spot immediately if he is named a first-team All-American or wins a national award like the Lott or Bednarik trophy. He is a semifnalist for both awards.

"I said, 'I'm going to play every game just to try to get my name up there.' You want your name in the stadium," he said. "That's a big goal for me. I came back to achieve those goals."

"He'll go down as one of the great defensive players with the rest of those guys: Tedy, McAlister, Dana Wells. His legacy will last a long time. He has been an impact player in this league for four years, and that's pretty special. His production, his consistency … his durability. All those things are super-unique."

— UA coach Mike Stoops