Carolina WR Dwayne Jarrett (official thread)

[AKAKBUCK]

So what's up with Davis now?? Starting scout team SS??

Davis caught 2 passes for 6 yards last week

Two picks is pretty good!

[Oh8ch]

What a disapointment. If Jarret were here he could be having the same kind of year Devon Lyons is having.

[souL]

Originally Posted by bucknuts44820

doesnt matter if Jarrett and Walker were here.......Bolleman is still here which equals below average offensive line play, not talent level.....but results are below average.

Pitiful.

So what you're saying is: turn every thread into a 'fire bollman' thread? :boohoo:

[horseshoe1]

I do not want to be the one to say I told you so but I said long before either Davis or Jarrett had made a decison on college that OSU better push hard for Jarrett because he is the real deal and Davis is a phony. Boy do I feel really smart now. Wonder how mister ( I'll sneak out of town in the dark ) feels now?

[Buckskin86]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/31/sp...all/31usc.html

After Much Doubt and Pain, a U.S.C. Star Feels at Home
By PETE THAMEL

Published: December 31, 2004

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Dec. 30 - Every night, as if hearing chimes on a grandfather clock, Camille Jarrett could count on her phone to ring at midnight.

Her 17-year old son, Dwayne, had left New Brunswick, N.J., to play football for the University of Southern California with a brash attitude, predicting immediate success and telling his mother she would not have anyone to nag about taking out the garbage.

But when he arrived at Southern California in late June, just days after his high school graduation, Jarrett found himself lonely and homesick. So every night when the free minutes started on his cellphone at 9 p.m. Pacific time, he would call his mother.

By the time training camp started in early August, Jarrett was begging his mother to let him come home. He missed her lasagna. He missed having his grandmother down the street. He missed home so much that he even called his grandmother and aunts to have them lobby his mother to let him go back.

"He'd call and whine and whine, he just drove me crazy," Camille Jarrett said in a telephone interview.

Camille Jarrett demanded that her son stick it out at U.S.C., as he endured what Trojans Coach Pete Carroll called "classic homesickness." As No. 1-ranked U.S.C. prepares to play No. 2 Oklahoma on Tuesday in the Orange Bowl, the Bowl Championship Series title game, Jarrett, his mother and his coaches are glad he stuck it out.

Now 18, Jarrett is the youngest member of the team and also one of the Trojans' most tantalizing talents.

He led the team with 50 receptions and 12 touchdown catches, and at 6 feet 5 and 195 pounds is already considered a front-line N.F.L. prospect.

But before he flourished, Jarrett needed his nightly pep talks from his mother, whom Carroll lauded for being able to keep Jarrett at Southern Cal. "In his mind," Carroll said, "he was gone a couple of times."

The calls home melted Camille Jarrett's heart. Dwayne was born when she was a 15-year-old high school freshman.

She raised him with the help of her parents until she graduated from high school and soon after moved out on her own.

From there, Camille Jarrett made sure Dwayne stayed grounded.

She worked hours that enabled her to be around as much as possible, making sure he was not running the streets. She enrolled him in sports programs to keep him active and surrounded him with family for role models. She talked openly with him about sex, drugs, girls and smoking, making sure they could discuss anything.

"There's a branding that young black boys get, especially in urban areas, especially when the mom is so young," Camille Jarrett said.

"People say: 'You have a young mother, she doesn't know anything. She's not going to raise you any better.' "

When Dwayne was 7, he predicted while playing basketball in front of his grandmother's house that he would play in the N.B.A. Sports engrossed him; Camille Jarrett remembers Dwayne having an amazing capacity for players and statistics.

He discovered football not long after, and his passion shifted.

He blossomed into a star at New Brunswick High School, and suitors from around the country flocked to recruit him.

"He was like Randy Moss without the attitude," New Brunswick Coach John Quinn said he told recruiters.

Jarrett picked U.S.C. over Ohio State after the Trojans' star receiver, Mike Williams, was his host for his official visit. Comparisons of the two because of their similar builds became inevitable.

After Williams was ruled ineligible to play this season by the N.C.A.A., the onus of the offense fell on Jarrett, whose struggles adjusting to college mirrored his early struggles on the field. Jarrett had what he calls "the dropsies" in U.S.C.'s first four games and did not find his groove until he caught the winning touchdown pass in the defining game of U.S.C.'s season, a 23-17 victory over California on Oct. 9.

Form there, Jarrett settled down on the field and settled in off it.

"I think him being homesick affected his overall game a lot," the receivers coach Lane Kiffin said. "He told us, 'You guys haven't seen as good as I really am.' And he was right."

By the Arizona game on Nov. 13, Camille could see the difference while watching the Trojans on television. Jarrett caught two touchdown passes and celebrated with a swagger.

Right around then, he told his mother to scrap her plans to move West to be with him.

And as Jarrett finished with a strong kick that included 102 receiving yards and 2 scores in a blowout of Notre Dame, the calls were less frequent and his tone was much more positive.

And as he prepares to play for the B.C.S. title, Jarrett knows he could not have gotten to this point without his mother's support from the other end of the phone.

"She definitely told me to stick it out and stay out here," Jarrett said. "I think as it went along, it got easier for me. I can go back home now and not feel a certain way when I leave there now."

[Buckskin86]

http://pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-.../s_289209.html

Jarrett overcomes struggles

By Rob Biertempfel
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Monday, January 3, 2005

MIAMI -- The weather in southern California is sunny, the people are friendly, and the streets are clogged with gorgeous celebrities.

At the center of it all is Dwayne Jarrett, the flashiest receiver on the hottest college football team in the nation.

It's hard to believe that, for his first few weeks on USC's campus, the freshman from New Brunswick, N.J., was nearly KO'ed by culture shock. Jarrett missed his family, his friends and everything else that was familiar on the other side of the country.

"It was a struggle," Trojans recruiting coordinator Ed Orgeron said. "We never like to think we're going to lose anything, but it sure looked close with him. It was a fight to keep him here."

The homesickness bordered on depression, and it stuck him in a funk on the field. Jarrett thought hard about transferring.

"I didn't really have a specific school in mind," Jarrett said. "I just wanted to go back East."

On Sunday, Jarrett was indeed back East -- but in Florida, not New Jersey. And he was still with the top-ranked Trojans, preparing for Tuesday's Orange Bowl game against No. 2 Oklahoma.

And he knows this is where he wanted to be all along.

"He's gone full-circle now to where he's standing up and he's sure of himself," USC offensive coordinator Norm Chow said. "But to see him down like he was and then see the improvement ... yeah, it was a little bit of a surprise."

Jarrett was recruited by every top program in the East, including Miami, Ohio State, Pitt and Penn State. He was lured to Southern Cal by the chance to play early -- he figured he'd be the third receiver -- for a team that is favored to win its second straight national championship.

"When I told my mom I wanted to come all the way out (to USC), she was like, 'Oh, no. You can't go that far,' " he said. "But as time went on, she got behind me 100 percent."

When standout Mike Williams was declared ineligible this season after a failed bid to enter the NFL draft, Jarrett's role was increased. Yet, he had just eight catches through the first three games and moped around off the field.

Jarrett's teammates and coaches rallied around him. His mother flew out for a visit. The best advice came from tailback LenDale White, who battled the same demons his freshman year.

"You can't take mom with you all the time," White said. "There comes a time when you have to grow up. After he caught a couple touchdowns, he came over to me smiling and I was like, 'See? I told you so.' "

Jarrett appeared in all 12 games this season and has started the past seven. He made a team-high 50 catches for 734 yards, and his 12 TD grabs are the second-most by a freshman in USC history.

"Once he fought through it, I knew he'd be all right," White said.

By midseason, it was clear Jarrett was establishing his star credentials. The only negative came in early November, when he was the unnamed target of a verbal shot from Penn State coach Joe Paterno.

Paterno, under fire for another sub-.500 season, made the reference as he was defending his recruiting practices.

"There is a great wideout playing for one of the best teams in the country," Paterno said. "A kid from New Jersey who we never even looked at because of the academics and things like that."

Paterno's quote traveled 2,000 miles from Happy Valley to the Left Coast.

"I heard that thing Paterno said about me," Jarrett said yesterday, smiling as the sun poked through the clouds above Pro Player Stadium. "I don't have any words, no reaction, to that. None at all.

"Penn State (offered) me a scholarship, but I wasn't too interested in going there," he said.

As it turned out, Jarrett knew where he was going all along.

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/st...p-229448c.html

A fresh prince for USC
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - When Southern California athletic director Mike Garrett, who has a Heisman Trophy vote because he won college football's biggest award in 1965, began filling out his ballot a month ago, it didn't take him long to show his hometown bias.
1. Matt Leinart, quarterback, USC

2. Reggie Bush, tailback, USC.

3. Dwayne Jarrett, wide receiver, USC.

Leinart and Bush were no-brainers. But writing Jarrett's name in was an indication of the growing celebrity status the 6-5 freshman wide receiver from New Brunswick, N.J., has attained during the Trojans' 12-0 season.

"It was an honor," Jarrett said. "I saw that and felt real good about myself. Thanks to him and Carson Palmer. He also gave me a vote, so that was a privilege."

Jarrett has caught 50 passes for 734 yards and 12 touchdowns for the top-ranked Trojans, who play No. 2 Oklahoma tonight in the Orange Bowl. He has become USC's big-play receiver, replacing All-American Mike Williams, who was ruled ineligible by the NCAA after declaring for the NFL draft and signing with an agent.

"I think the whole state of New Jersey is wearing Southern Cal gear," he said. "I get a lot of love back there."

The 18-year old Jarrett has been one of two true freshmen, along with guard Jeff Byers, to crack the starting lineup at USC and shown he can be an impact player on a national contender. Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops has also embraces a similar philosophy as Carroll and will start three freshman prodigies at critical spots - tailback Adrian Peterson, cornerback Marcus Walker and placekicker Garrett Hartley.

Peterson has been a relevation, rushing for 1,843 yards and 15 touchdowns and finishing second in the Heisman balloting. Walker, who was redshirted until November, has helped cement the Sooners' secondary. Hartley is more of a mystery because he has yet to attempt a field goal, but Stoops had enough faith in him to move Hartley ahead of Trey DiCarlo, a Groza Award finalist last year, at the end of the season.

More freshmen in elite programs have been playing because of the 85-scholarship limitation and because more juniors are defecting to the NFL. The talent gap is closing. USC has 10 freshmen and redshirt freshmen in its two-deep on offense and defense. Oklahoma also has 10.

"Freshmen should get the same chance to play as juniors and seniors, as long as they've got the skills," Jarrett said. "We just need an opportunity and they gave it to me. If you can play, you play."

Jarrett chose USC over Ohio State, Virginia and Pitt. When USC coach Pete Carroll recruited him, he told Jarrett he would get a chance to play as a freshman if he was good enough. Jarrett originally thought he would be learning on the job as a third receiver in Norm Chow's sophisticated offense. But when Williams lost his NCAA appeal just days before the opener with Virginia Tech in Washington, D.C., Jarrett suddenly became an integral part of the game plan.

"I think it would have been easier for Dwayne if Mike had been there," Carroll said. "I know he would have taken him under his wing. I think there was a lot put on Dwayne earlier we couldn't avoid. There was a lot of pressure on him. Imagine, as a kid, we're playing Virginia Tech in front of 91,000 fans and he's got to catch the first ball. It's all you could put on a kid. But he did it, survived it and has had a wonderful season."

Jarrett had the second best freshman season of any USC receiver in history behind Williams: four multiple-TD games and three 100-yard receiving games, catching six passes for 102 yards and two TDs of 12 and 57 yards during a 41-10 victory over Notre Dame.

But there were some bumps along the road. Jarrett, who left home for the first time a day after high school graduation, developed a bad case of homesickness after spending three months by himself in L.A.; there was some thought he might transfer closer to home.

"I wasn't used to being away from home, so it was definitely severe," he said. "But I had the help of my teammates - from Matt Leinart on down - and the coaches, telling me to stick it out. My mom came out to visit, She didn't want me to leave, either. As the year progressed, I started school, started to make more friends, started to get more comfortable. I still miss the pizza, but I've discovered Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles."

[AnnArborBuck]

Can you image what we would have been with Holmes, Ginn, and Jarret. Wow, now that would have been scary. He seems like a good kid, hope things work out for him, unless we play him that is.