I don't think this is the first time Oregon has pulled a scholarship offer on a kid either. He's from the same High School JO'Co and Corey attended.
It's a good thing he went public. I'll bet the coach got a lot of calls on Tuesday from the other commits. Either that or the other commits are starting to look around. :?
His SAT score indicates he is far too smart to play for Oregon. They'd rather have a couple of JUCO borderline idiots . Is Bellotti still the coach? What turd!
If he's a Damien kid <t>he'll be a good one.<br/> <br/> Nebraska fans may remember former captain Sheldon Jackson...Northwestern went from Big10 doormat to Rose Bowl team behind Casey Dailey at DE..Even Rashidi Wheeler in later years... The RB for Boise State that everyone seems to love Ian Johnson...Joe Vigil at Minnesota. We could go on and on.... even the bad son Daryl Henley, was a good football player and team leader at UCLA. From Dennis Shaw to the new kids coming out this year, they'll take note of that and it will wind up hurting Oregon in the end.<br/> <br/> Most public school powers come and go with a few, notable exceptions. You don't do the Catholic school kids ugly in SoCal. USC has owned them forever and its always paid immeasurable dividends for them.. Belotti needs to slap someone, even if its himself. <br/> <br/> Those Damien folks have a long, long memory.. That being said, that is the recruiting business. Its a 'to each their own' kinda thing. I wouldn't do that to a kid... I am sure he will land on his feet somewhere and do well.</t>
At Damien's first home game this year, I was sitting up in my usual spot, with my usual group of friends, nearly all of whom are former Damien football players. Some of whom have been watching from those same seats for so long, that they even remember watching ME play back in the 1960's. We've seen a LOT of high school football, and now we're even watching the occasional grandson of players that we saw or played with. One of my grandsons is the QB over at Holy Name of Mary School and he should be on the roster at Damien in the next five years. When that happens, I will be only the third Damien grandfather to be awarded the pin for having three generations of Damien football players. I can't wait... This year, as we watched the team in their opening game, we became excited about the play of a defensive end who had pitched a tent in the opponent's backfield and who was creating havoc with everything they tried to do. He was a big kid, 6'5" 270lbs with hostility and a motor that kept running. His name was Jon Rabe and his father (who is around 6'7") was sitting in front of me. Despite the fact that I was praising his son, he seemed bothered by something. It turned out to be the IRISH jacket that I was wearing... At halftime, he finally got it off his chest. He told me how he and his son had worked all of the kid's life to get into Notre Dame. (The Rabes are an Irish-Catholic family.) Now the boy was a senior and he had the grades, size and talent to be accepted. He had camped at Notre Dame over the summer expecting to get an offer, but it didn't come. The father's version is that the boy turned Charlie Weis down, because of the poor condition of the campus and training facilities. He went on and on about this, to the point where even his wife was embarrassed. Obviously, he was very hurt. I could have destroyed him by mentioning that all of Notre Dame's football/conditioning facilities are brand new, but I held my tongue. He was already destroyed. There was nothing I could do to him that would make it hurt any worse, and all of the old players up there knew it too. They are ALL Notre Dame fans and really felt sorry for the guy. It was his wife who told us that her son had picked Oregon, so of course we all praised the Ducks and told her what a great choice their family had made... Now this. Wherever he goes, I hope Jonny gets his hands on the Duckies. He's a big, pissed-off, Irish kid and it won't be pretty...
Wow that's a terrible story. A 3.65 GPA and 1540 SAT is amazing, in addition to being a good football player this kids future sounds bright. The coach that did this to him should be ashamed. I wish him well. JO'Co, thanks for sharing that story and we hope you will share with us more when your grandson gets to Damien and plays QB.
Jim, Re: sitting in the stands at a HS football game. Been there, done that. I can picture the conversation. I also feel for the poor dad, BUT he needs time to put in perspective the phenomenal accomplishments of his son. You and I have seen dads whose dreams for their sons - oftimes unrealistic - don't materialize and the dads spend so much time feeling sorry for themselves - however veiled that emotion may be in the form of anger at the offender, in this case ND - that they fail to recognize the plusses of the situation. I hope he gets over it, and I hope his son has a successful college career both athletically and academically. Keep us posted.
This is amazing. <t>As bad as the Irish needed linemen on the defensive side of the football I wonder what is was that kept them from making an offer? It was not the fact they had the current commits locked up at that time so I just have to wonder. No matter this is piss poor on the Ducks part.</t>
As far as the Irish not offering him, I don't of course know the reason, but Corwin Brown was after some pretty top players. Jon Rabe might in fact be a top player, I don't know. But I doubt if they overlooked him, just didn't think he was as good as some of their other targets. We have our best DL haul in years, so I'm pretty happy with Corwin's recruiting and evaluations. Terry
Damien <t>has a long history of producing players that, for whatever reason, get passed on by the Irish but then go on to very good careers at other schools. I haven't attended a Damien game in probably 10 years now so I haven't seen the updated list in the program about who all is where.<br/> <br/> What I do know is that kids like Ian Johnson, Sheldon Jackson, Casey Dailey, Thomas Henley, Daryl Henley, Dennis Shaw, Rashidi Wheeler etc not only go on to have strong careers at their respective programs but they become team leaders with those programs.<br/> <br/> Its a much tougher academic and athletic environment than people realize. I can't speak for right now but I know when JOCO was there all the way till when I was there, they actually have a 'conditioning' type of program that spins off the "Spartan" mentality of a phalanx composed off individuals that are all capable of leadership roles. You are challenged constantly to become better.<br/> <br/> Fun fact for you:<br/> <br/> Damien HS sends more students to West Point than any other school West of the Mississippi. The average American HS sends 1 graduate to West Point every 17 years. In the past 5 years, Damien has sent 12 to West Point.</t>