Rejected by GT led to a championship

thwgjacket

thwgjacket

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I'm glad this guy found something he's great at and is getting a great education. That being said, what did he expect? Football is an athletic game, you can be as smart as Einstein but it doesn't mean you can cover Smelter or block Freeman.
Everyone is looked at as a "body" in sports. When I played baseball we called combines, or "showcases" a meat market. It's why the NFL Combine is all physical and then there's a short interview and a test that has little to no effect on if you get drafted.
Him crying after practices and matches and singling out a school in a way that seems petty also throws up a couple of red flags. Just my take.
 

Tech93

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Yes, I was watching the NCAA wrestling tonight and watched this guy win(never heard of him and no reason to really since I do not follow wrestling) but when interviewed after the match he was very direct about calling GT out about them rejecting him for football...you could hear the anger in his voice and then I googled him and found the article posted above. You could tell his experience must of really affected him. Hate that he walked away with that feeling, but we are only hearing his side of story. Nevertheless, congrats to him on winning National Championship.
 
Techster

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FYI:

http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaa/footba...vbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDREZENV8xBHNlYwNzcg--



2011 would have put him in the same class as Vad Lee (and Tim Byerly). After reading that, it seems he was more bitter about the sport of football than he was at GT. Sorry, but the guy made the right choice picking wrestling over football. If he loved football that much, he could have walked on, or even played for Cornell.

It's just a good angle to build "the myth" of a champion wrestler. If someone really wants to play football, they will find a way to play football.
 
Chris Freeman

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Didn't see this live because, uhm, I'm not watching college wrestling on tv... lol, but he sounds like a whiny douche to me. Are we the only football program in the country? Did you try out anywhere else? You know Cornell has a football team, right? Why aren't you playing there? I looked up his profile, he wasn't even evaluated by the recruiting services nor does he appear to have any college football offers. Guess what kid, maybe you just aren't D-I material. Oh, you're smart! Well guess what, it's Georgia Tech, everybody's smart. Being smart doesn't make you an elite athlete. You chose to make the trip down here and apparently it was obvious from the jump that you couldn't cut it in D-I. Would you rather our coaches blow smoke up your rear for a few hours then cut you loose? Guess what, either way you're not playing in Bobby Dodd on Saturday's.
 
Bruce Wayne

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When he says they drove 13 hours from Lowell to Atlanta to a Junior camp at Tech, I am guessing they mean from Massachusetts? So he only wanted to try out at Tech? He could have tried out at Notre Dame, Duke, Vanderbilt, UVA, other Ivy schools, etc., all within a 13 hour drive and possibly had a chance to catch a football coaches eye at a great academic school. I suppose it is a backhanded compliment to consider it GT or bust . . .
 

dmurdock

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Bruce Wayne said:
When he says they drove 13 hours from Lowell to Atlanta to a Junior camp at Tech, I am guessing they mean from Massachusetts?
Click to expand...

Lowell is in Michigan, just east of Grand Rapids.

Here is an article from when he committed to Cornell for wrestling: http://highschoolsports.mlive.com/n...senior-gabe-dean-picks-cornell-for-wrestling/ A quote from that article: "When I was little, like every kid, I had dreams of being a pro football player," Dean said. "And football is a sport I will always love and has given me some great memories. But I don’t think I ever had the build to play football at the next level, and that won’t be an issue in wrestling. I love them both, but I realized you can create your own destiny in wrestling."

I'm guessing his school ran an option offense and he decided the only way he was going to be able to play football at a D1 school was with a school that runs an option offense. That at least would explain driving from Grand Rapids to Atlanta for a tryout.
 
kg01

kg01

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Breaking news: a kid thinks he's all that on the football field, coaches disagree. News at 11.

Agree with most of what's been said. @thwgjacket is onto something. All that crying after practice and now this petty display are troublesome signs. That's not 'will to win', that's potential issues bubbling to the surface. Dude accomplished something great. Just be proud of it.

Thousands of kids try out and find that their success in life lies in places other than the football field. GT didn't disrespect him, no need to try to disparage our name. Petty is the right word.
 
awbuzz

awbuzz

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Folks who heard or have read his comments will be able to understand that he either loved GT so much that he had to try to get on the team or was desperate to get any tryout anywhere. To bypass all other "opportunities" anywhere else says a lot about his real chances.
 
slugboy

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Skeptic said:
So exactly how did his "rejection" at Tech do anything but help him? Cornell is every bit as valued in liberal arts as Tech is in engineering, and he is an NCAA champion in wrestling. For a guy who hates losing so much he surely comes across with a sense of entitlement.
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Cornell has good engineering and science degrees--#13 on US News' ranking. Yes, they're good at Liberal Arts, but they're good at what we're good at, too. Some of my profs were from Cornell.

Cornell has an Ivy League football team too. Shame things didn't work out for him here, but not many people make D1/BCS/whatever-our-section-of-football-is-called-these-days football.
 

CHE90

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You guys are reading way too much into this. The kid lives in the next town over from us. Great kid, great family and yes Lowell HS runs the option offense. The kid is anything but a "whiner" and has no sense of entitlement. Most on this board would hire him if he showed up for an interview.
 

orange14

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thwgjacket said:
I'm glad this guy found something he's great at and is getting a great education. That being said, what did he expect? Football is an athletic game, you can be as smart as Einstein but it doesn't mean you can cover Smelter or block Freeman.
Everyone is looked at as a "body" in sports. When I played baseball we called combines, or "showcases" a meat market. It's why the NFL Combine is all physical and then there's a short interview and a test that has little to no effect on if you get drafted.
Him crying after practices and matches and singling out a school in a way that seems petty also throws up a couple of red flags. Just my take.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I agree. What I wonder about is why he was terribly surprised? 5-10 , 175 Lbs? Ok if you are fast. Oh - he was slow as well? Why pick on GT? Are we supposed to give every wannabe a scholarship or a PWO status? The guy is obviously an athlete - but better suited for baseball or wrestling...or something. Go ask Michigan or Michigan State to let you play! Or as some people on here have stated - Cornell!
 
LibertyTurns

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CHE90 said:
You guys are reading way too much into this. The kid lives in the next town over from us. Great kid, great family and yes Lowell HS runs the option offense. The kid is anything but a "whiner" and has no sense of entitlement. Most on this board would hire him if he showed up for an interview.
Click to expand...
OK, I'll spot you all of the above is true but put yourself in the position of you can win an individual national championship. If I was being interviewed I'd focus on God, family, my coaches and other prominent support elements that made me successful not "despite having no offer or interest from GT I drove 13 hrs down there and found the staff to be disinterested in me as a football player".

Secondly, if I wanted to be a football player and I'm so incredibly driven that I don't let anything get in my way I would get myself accepted to GT, walk on the football team and EARN my spot. I'd EARN a scholarship and then I'd EARN the starting spot and then I'd lead my team to great accomplishments. I'd show those bastards that can't evaluate talent that they overlooked me & humiliate them by succeeding despite them. Maybe I'd go to the Naval Academy & whoop ND's butt on national TV and in the post-game interview where I was the game MVP divulge I wanted to do that at GT but had to settle for USNA.

Just seemed like an odd article to me, but maybe this was THE pivotal moment in this young man's life. If so, just another feather in the cap for GT. Apparently attending GT on scholarship as a football player is so admired and sought after that we've literally got kids all over this country killing themselves just to get a sniff. Maybe that's why everyone hates us so. There's only so many spots to go around.

Again, I'm sure he's a good kid and that writer probably didn't do him any favors the way he portrayed him.
 

up state jacket

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I guess he's never had his heart broken before. Which also leads me to believe that he's always gotten what he wants and unfortunately Tech didn't oblige him. Guess what friend, life isn't fair, I to would have killed to play football for GT, but I was 5'10" and slow. Now you know the rest of the story. Good day
 
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