| Subject: Size doesn't matter---Bergen Record-02/02/2005 |
Author:
Mike C.
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Date Posted: 03:05:18 02/05/05 Sat
Jerrell Robinson always believed his college choice would serve as validation of his football prowess. That's the main reason the Paterson Catholic lineman became enamored with Stanford and Indiana, programs from Bowl Championship Series conferences.
"If you're one of the top offensive linemen in New Jersey, people sort of expect you go to sign with a big-name school," Robinson said. "If you don't, there's talk that maybe you aren't as good as people say you are."
He paused, then added: "So yeah, I worried about what people would think if I didn't go to a big-name school. Maybe they'd think I wasn't that good."
Only after a visit to Lafayette did Robinson gain some clarity during the clouded and crazed recruiting process.
As much as Robinson is a student of the game, he also has been a student in the classroom.
The coaches recruiting him to Stanford and Indiana were fired. Western Michigan, a Division I-A program without much of a reputation, came out of nowhere to enter the race. He strongly considered Hofstra, too, before finally settling on Lafayette, a Division I-AA school from the non-athletic scholarship Patriot League, simply because it was the right fit.
"For a while, I was worried about what everyone else would think and not how I felt," said Robinson, who will play defense in college. "I want to play football, but I want a good education, too, and I think I can get both [at Lafayette].
"I don't know what I'm going to do after football, but what comes next is important to me, too."
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