Missing out on a football recruiting prospect: Jacquizz Rodgers

If you have been following college football over the past few weeks, there is no doubt that you should have heard of Jacquizz Rodgers.  This running back from Oregon State is a true freshman who rushed for 186 yards against then #1 rated USC.  Again, was all done by a true freshman.  But because Oregon State has not been consistent on the football field, they have not brought in all that many top rated recruits.

You would expect a running back who can rush for 186 yards on the #1 team in the country to be sought after by schools all throughout the nation.  That was not the case as this Texas native was only a three star recruit as rated by Rivals.com.  He was the #26 all purpose back in the country and the #80 player in Texas.  Unless there was a mistake, that means the State of Texas produced 79 amazing players.

In the end, the offer list for Rodgers looks like this: Oregon State, Louisiana Tech, SMU, Arizona, Baylor, Houston, and Illinois.  Kansas State is listed as a school that was recruiting him but they didn’t end up extending a scholarship to him.  Rodgers even went to a Nike Camp so he was trying to do what he could to get his name out.

And even though he played in the great state of Texas, none of the real big boys came knocking on his door.  My guess is that happened because he is 5-foot-6.  While height doesn’t matter all that much in running backs, some schools want a prototypical 5-foot-10 running back.  Like Barry Sanders and other smaller backs, the defense sometimes has trouble seeing him because he is so small.  And against USC on national television, he made them pay.

While I can’t say for sure, my guess is that the Trojans never ever had Rodgers on their recruiting radar.  USC is a school that normally gets the kids that they really want.  They throw the full court press on them and usually are able to land them in the end.  But that didn’t stop the Beavers from winning their second game over USC in three years.

So why does a player like this end up falling through the recruiting cracks?  The first is size obviously.  The second is that he never really had any of the major schools around offering him a scholarship.  A program like Illinois is great but they seem to offer a lot of recruits.  Arizona does the same.  Most of the other schools have struggled in the past.

Just to let you know, Rodgers rushed for 7,760 yards and scored 121 touchdowns in his last three years of high school football.  If that doesn’t get you recruited, nothing will.  Hopefully schools will open theirs eyes more in the football recruiting process to players who may not fit the exact mold college coaches are looking for.  In a player like Rodgers, Oregon State got one of the best three star recruits in recent memory.