Watch Me Stride
2/19/2008, 03:36 PM
pictureRussell Shepard (6.2-5 195) out of Cypress Ridge High School in Houston, Texas is one of the top junior quarterbacks in the nation. Last season Shepard threw for 794 yards and had eight touchdowns and four interceptions. He also rushed for 1,525 yards and 18 touchdowns. Currently, he has 23 offers and has a list of six favorite schools.
“My top schools are Michigan, Oklahoma, LSU, Texas A&M, Texas, and Florida,” Shepard said.
While he has a list of six schools that are subject to change, Shepard expressed what he liked about each school.
Michigan: “I love that Coach Rodriguez is there and is the face of the spread offense. It has been a school that has been running the pro style offense for over two decades. If I was to attend that school, I look forward to being the first to change that school’s history in such a long time and putting that program back on the map. This past year they kind of fell to the hill and I would look forward to going there and playing for a young and talented coach that has done well in his career.”
Oklahoma: “They have a very good winning tradition. Coach Stoops wins all the time and is known for winning and he doesn’t lose much at all. At the same time, they don’t have a very healthy quarterback depth chart so after Bradford leaves; I could go in and make an immediate impact at the quarterback position. Oklahoma has a really good quarterback tradition and I could come in and compete for a starting position right off the bat. The fans in Norman love their town and their football team and I love that.
LSU: “You could say the same thing about Oklahoma that you could about LSU. They don’t have a healthy quarterback position with Perrilloux next year and Flynn leaving this year. Ryan Perrilloux will be gone next year, so if I chose them I’d look forward to coming in and competing for the starting quarterback position. I think they have one or two quarterbacks after Perrilloux that are on scholarship. I know one is Jarrett Lee out of Brenham, Texas and I forget the other guy’s name. My girlfriend goes to LSU and it would be great to play for a team like LSU who is fresh off a national championship. Coach Miles is a really good dude and a talented coach that is also a rising star in the coaching field.”
Texas A&M: “The coaches are amazing. Coach Sherman (Head Coach) and Coach Rossley (QB Coach) are the two most prolific coaches probably at the college level right now. They’ve coached some of the best players in the NFL, like Brett Favre, Matt Hasselback, and Aaron Brooks. Coach Rossley has coached Warren Moon and that tells you a lot about his knowledge of the game and his knowledge of the quarterback position. He’s fined tuned and coached some of the best players who had never played the quarterback position before. I was impressed with them; they are kind of like the old school godfathers of the NCAA right now. They are going to bring their pro style offense to A&M and there’s only two colleges running that type of offense right now in NCAA with USC being one of them. If I was going to play in their offense, I would have a step ahead of the competition when I got to the NFL because I played in that offense. Coach Sherman and Coach Rossley had some very good things to say about me. They said they’ve never seen somebody with such a quick release as me and nobody in the country and in my class had the same release as me. He said I kind of reminded him of Brett Favre because he can throw it from all angles and has a very quick release. He can get the ball out in a hurry and that’s very important in that style of offense. It’s made up of timing and the receivers are getting to their landmarks with the quarterbacks going off their rhythm throws.”
Texas: “They are the favorite school down here in Texas and I love the atmosphere. The coaches are amazing from Coach Brown to even Sally Brown his wife. He’s the best recruiter at that school and I really love their program. Coach Greg Davis has coached some very good quarterbacks from Applewhite, to VY (Vince Young), even to Simms. He’s kind of like the quarterback coach here in Texas and everyone wants to be offered and invited to play at that school. It’s an honor because everyone in the state wants to play for him. When I went over there, Coach Brown said it’s amazing that I’m 17 and everyone there knows who I am and wants me to be there. It was kind of crazy how that worked out.”
Florida: “It seems like Coach Meyer (Head Coach) and Coach Mullen (QB Coach) play to the strengths of every quarterback they have there. With Tim Tebow, he’s a mule that can do it all. He can run the ball 25-30 times a game, but he also can throw the ball 25-30 times a game. They showed him off and were the backbone to him winning the Heisman. They played to his strengths and made the offense fit around him as well. Then you have somebody like Chris Leak who was very talented and accurate at the intermediate routes, the quick dump out routes, and throws a beautiful deep ball. They played to his strengths by having him throw the ball 35-40 times a game and that was very impressive to me. At Utah, they had Alex Smith and he didn’t do anything amazing, but he was a field general and knew how to play the game. They put the game in his hands and put the offense around him from the protection, to the route running, and even all the plays. I was really impressed with how they play to each quarterback’s strengths and let them do what they do best and not change too much in their game.”
Despite having these six on top, there’s one school in particular that is recruiting Shepard the hardest.
“Texas is recruiting me the hardest,” he said. “Everybody in the country thought I was going to go to Texas and commit. With me liking Texas and making some statements early in my recruitment that Texas was the favorite and with me not committing, I think it came as a shock to them. I have contact with Texas through emails; I call Coach Giles as well as Coach Brown. Texas sends me letters all the time and is recruiting me a lot. At the same time, recruiting is kind of different for me compared to other kids in my class. Everyday, I get 15-20 letters from different universities. Sometimes I get letters from each coach on the coaching staff, so it really goes to show you how hard they are all recruiting me.”
Every year, the state of Texas produces a ton of talent. Houston is one of the cities that has a lot of talent and Shepard isn’t the only player in Houston that is getting a lot of attention. In fact, one of his family members is a top recruit in Houston and is interested in the same schools as Shepard.
“My cousin Craig Loston and I both love the University of Florida, from a defensive standpoint in the SEC; they produce very good defensive players,” Shepard said. “Coach Meyer and Coach Mullen develop quarterbacks and if you are in that system, the offense revolves around you. We both love that university as well as LSU, Oklahoma, and Texas. We’ve talked about going to the same school, but we aren’t a package deal. If it happened it wouldn’t be a surprise if we went to the same school because if you looked at our school selection they are very similar.”
On the field, Shepard uses his 4.44 40 time speed to model his mobility after Donivan McNabb and he models his release after Brett Favre, his mechanics after Peyton Manning, and his accuracy after Tom Brady. He just hopes that the school that he ultimately chooses gives him a real shot to compete for the starting quarterback position.
“I tell every coach and every school that I will not commit to a university that won’t let me compete for the quarterback position,” he said. “Sometimes my athletic ability works against me. With me being athletic as well, I know I can go out there and play receiver, defensive back, or any skill position. I want to be a leader and a field general, so I want to be a quarterback. To be honest with you, I tell every coach that I just want a chance to compete for the starting quarterback position. I’m fine if I get beaten out or if it’s a situation where myself and the coaching staff don’t feel like I am progressing as a quarterback and then I wouldn’t mind playing another position. Also, all the schools I have listed have amazing marketing and business programs. I’m definitely interested in every school right now because they have my major for communications and marketing and that’s very important to me as well. I want to meet every coach and the two most important coaches to me are the head coach and the quarterback coach. Every university has a good head coach and quarterback coach. I want to be around coaches that have good connections and that are going to develop me and help my progression as a quarterback. The last thing is that every school I am interested in has a great school atmosphere. Every school has an amazing student body and fan base and they all play on national levels and are good universities. The alumni love their schools and spend all kinds of money to make sure they are the best.”
Despite it being early in the process, Shepard has connected with a few coaches and likes how they have developed their quarterbacks in the past.
“With Coach Mullen from Florida, I love his development of quarterbacks from Alex Smith and Chris Leak to Tim Tebow,” he said. “Coach Greg Davis at Texas has coached some great quarterbacks like Applewhite, Simms, and Young. Coach Sherman and Coach Rossley at A&M have coached Brett Favre, Matt Hasselbeck, Aaron Brooks, and even Warren Moon who is a hall of famer. Those 3 quarterback coaches I’ve definitely gotten close to because they know what it takes. For them to recruit me is a big honor and I love it.”
Over the last couple of weeks, Shepard has visited two Texas schools and plans on visiting LSU next weekend. During the summer, he hopes to attend a couple of camps and see what every school has to offer.
“I went to Texas and it was a good atmosphere and I love the school,” he said. “The staff is amazing and family orientated. It was pretty much perfect, but the quarterback position is so heavy right now since they have six quarterbacks. Nobody in this world can coach six quarterbacks, no matter how talented the coach is. With so many quarterbacks, they don’t know if they can give me an opportunity to come in and compete. That was a big thing and I’m talking with them and seeing how they will handle that. They had me for a while if they would have told me I could come in and play quarterback. With them second guessing me like that, I had some negative things on my part and I didn’t like that. I visited Texas A&M and Coach Sherman and Coach Rossely are amazing. They both coached in the NFL and they compare me to Brett Favre. They said I wasn’t exactly like him or as accomplished as him, but I had the same traits like my quick release, and my ability to have such a short step and get velocity on the ball. You see those traits in yourself, but when you hear it from a coach it speaks volumes and I feel really good about it. I love A&M; the only thing is the program hasn’t been doing really good. I know Coach Sherman will do a good job of getting that program back to a national level and a national base. If they do that, A&M would definitely be a school that I would be more interested in. I have LSU this coming week on the 23rd. I’ll go over there and see Coach Miles and get to see the program, the athletic facilities, and see what it takes to win a national championship. I’m also looking forward to going to Michigan’s 3 day camp as well as going to Florida and Oklahoma’s camps in the summer.”
“My top schools are Michigan, Oklahoma, LSU, Texas A&M, Texas, and Florida,” Shepard said.
While he has a list of six schools that are subject to change, Shepard expressed what he liked about each school.
Michigan: “I love that Coach Rodriguez is there and is the face of the spread offense. It has been a school that has been running the pro style offense for over two decades. If I was to attend that school, I look forward to being the first to change that school’s history in such a long time and putting that program back on the map. This past year they kind of fell to the hill and I would look forward to going there and playing for a young and talented coach that has done well in his career.”
Oklahoma: “They have a very good winning tradition. Coach Stoops wins all the time and is known for winning and he doesn’t lose much at all. At the same time, they don’t have a very healthy quarterback depth chart so after Bradford leaves; I could go in and make an immediate impact at the quarterback position. Oklahoma has a really good quarterback tradition and I could come in and compete for a starting position right off the bat. The fans in Norman love their town and their football team and I love that.
LSU: “You could say the same thing about Oklahoma that you could about LSU. They don’t have a healthy quarterback position with Perrilloux next year and Flynn leaving this year. Ryan Perrilloux will be gone next year, so if I chose them I’d look forward to coming in and competing for the starting quarterback position. I think they have one or two quarterbacks after Perrilloux that are on scholarship. I know one is Jarrett Lee out of Brenham, Texas and I forget the other guy’s name. My girlfriend goes to LSU and it would be great to play for a team like LSU who is fresh off a national championship. Coach Miles is a really good dude and a talented coach that is also a rising star in the coaching field.”
Texas A&M: “The coaches are amazing. Coach Sherman (Head Coach) and Coach Rossley (QB Coach) are the two most prolific coaches probably at the college level right now. They’ve coached some of the best players in the NFL, like Brett Favre, Matt Hasselback, and Aaron Brooks. Coach Rossley has coached Warren Moon and that tells you a lot about his knowledge of the game and his knowledge of the quarterback position. He’s fined tuned and coached some of the best players who had never played the quarterback position before. I was impressed with them; they are kind of like the old school godfathers of the NCAA right now. They are going to bring their pro style offense to A&M and there’s only two colleges running that type of offense right now in NCAA with USC being one of them. If I was going to play in their offense, I would have a step ahead of the competition when I got to the NFL because I played in that offense. Coach Sherman and Coach Rossley had some very good things to say about me. They said they’ve never seen somebody with such a quick release as me and nobody in the country and in my class had the same release as me. He said I kind of reminded him of Brett Favre because he can throw it from all angles and has a very quick release. He can get the ball out in a hurry and that’s very important in that style of offense. It’s made up of timing and the receivers are getting to their landmarks with the quarterbacks going off their rhythm throws.”
Texas: “They are the favorite school down here in Texas and I love the atmosphere. The coaches are amazing from Coach Brown to even Sally Brown his wife. He’s the best recruiter at that school and I really love their program. Coach Greg Davis has coached some very good quarterbacks from Applewhite, to VY (Vince Young), even to Simms. He’s kind of like the quarterback coach here in Texas and everyone wants to be offered and invited to play at that school. It’s an honor because everyone in the state wants to play for him. When I went over there, Coach Brown said it’s amazing that I’m 17 and everyone there knows who I am and wants me to be there. It was kind of crazy how that worked out.”
Florida: “It seems like Coach Meyer (Head Coach) and Coach Mullen (QB Coach) play to the strengths of every quarterback they have there. With Tim Tebow, he’s a mule that can do it all. He can run the ball 25-30 times a game, but he also can throw the ball 25-30 times a game. They showed him off and were the backbone to him winning the Heisman. They played to his strengths and made the offense fit around him as well. Then you have somebody like Chris Leak who was very talented and accurate at the intermediate routes, the quick dump out routes, and throws a beautiful deep ball. They played to his strengths by having him throw the ball 35-40 times a game and that was very impressive to me. At Utah, they had Alex Smith and he didn’t do anything amazing, but he was a field general and knew how to play the game. They put the game in his hands and put the offense around him from the protection, to the route running, and even all the plays. I was really impressed with how they play to each quarterback’s strengths and let them do what they do best and not change too much in their game.”
Despite having these six on top, there’s one school in particular that is recruiting Shepard the hardest.
“Texas is recruiting me the hardest,” he said. “Everybody in the country thought I was going to go to Texas and commit. With me liking Texas and making some statements early in my recruitment that Texas was the favorite and with me not committing, I think it came as a shock to them. I have contact with Texas through emails; I call Coach Giles as well as Coach Brown. Texas sends me letters all the time and is recruiting me a lot. At the same time, recruiting is kind of different for me compared to other kids in my class. Everyday, I get 15-20 letters from different universities. Sometimes I get letters from each coach on the coaching staff, so it really goes to show you how hard they are all recruiting me.”
Every year, the state of Texas produces a ton of talent. Houston is one of the cities that has a lot of talent and Shepard isn’t the only player in Houston that is getting a lot of attention. In fact, one of his family members is a top recruit in Houston and is interested in the same schools as Shepard.
“My cousin Craig Loston and I both love the University of Florida, from a defensive standpoint in the SEC; they produce very good defensive players,” Shepard said. “Coach Meyer and Coach Mullen develop quarterbacks and if you are in that system, the offense revolves around you. We both love that university as well as LSU, Oklahoma, and Texas. We’ve talked about going to the same school, but we aren’t a package deal. If it happened it wouldn’t be a surprise if we went to the same school because if you looked at our school selection they are very similar.”
On the field, Shepard uses his 4.44 40 time speed to model his mobility after Donivan McNabb and he models his release after Brett Favre, his mechanics after Peyton Manning, and his accuracy after Tom Brady. He just hopes that the school that he ultimately chooses gives him a real shot to compete for the starting quarterback position.
“I tell every coach and every school that I will not commit to a university that won’t let me compete for the quarterback position,” he said. “Sometimes my athletic ability works against me. With me being athletic as well, I know I can go out there and play receiver, defensive back, or any skill position. I want to be a leader and a field general, so I want to be a quarterback. To be honest with you, I tell every coach that I just want a chance to compete for the starting quarterback position. I’m fine if I get beaten out or if it’s a situation where myself and the coaching staff don’t feel like I am progressing as a quarterback and then I wouldn’t mind playing another position. Also, all the schools I have listed have amazing marketing and business programs. I’m definitely interested in every school right now because they have my major for communications and marketing and that’s very important to me as well. I want to meet every coach and the two most important coaches to me are the head coach and the quarterback coach. Every university has a good head coach and quarterback coach. I want to be around coaches that have good connections and that are going to develop me and help my progression as a quarterback. The last thing is that every school I am interested in has a great school atmosphere. Every school has an amazing student body and fan base and they all play on national levels and are good universities. The alumni love their schools and spend all kinds of money to make sure they are the best.”
Despite it being early in the process, Shepard has connected with a few coaches and likes how they have developed their quarterbacks in the past.
“With Coach Mullen from Florida, I love his development of quarterbacks from Alex Smith and Chris Leak to Tim Tebow,” he said. “Coach Greg Davis at Texas has coached some great quarterbacks like Applewhite, Simms, and Young. Coach Sherman and Coach Rossley at A&M have coached Brett Favre, Matt Hasselbeck, Aaron Brooks, and even Warren Moon who is a hall of famer. Those 3 quarterback coaches I’ve definitely gotten close to because they know what it takes. For them to recruit me is a big honor and I love it.”
Over the last couple of weeks, Shepard has visited two Texas schools and plans on visiting LSU next weekend. During the summer, he hopes to attend a couple of camps and see what every school has to offer.
“I went to Texas and it was a good atmosphere and I love the school,” he said. “The staff is amazing and family orientated. It was pretty much perfect, but the quarterback position is so heavy right now since they have six quarterbacks. Nobody in this world can coach six quarterbacks, no matter how talented the coach is. With so many quarterbacks, they don’t know if they can give me an opportunity to come in and compete. That was a big thing and I’m talking with them and seeing how they will handle that. They had me for a while if they would have told me I could come in and play quarterback. With them second guessing me like that, I had some negative things on my part and I didn’t like that. I visited Texas A&M and Coach Sherman and Coach Rossely are amazing. They both coached in the NFL and they compare me to Brett Favre. They said I wasn’t exactly like him or as accomplished as him, but I had the same traits like my quick release, and my ability to have such a short step and get velocity on the ball. You see those traits in yourself, but when you hear it from a coach it speaks volumes and I feel really good about it. I love A&M; the only thing is the program hasn’t been doing really good. I know Coach Sherman will do a good job of getting that program back to a national level and a national base. If they do that, A&M would definitely be a school that I would be more interested in. I have LSU this coming week on the 23rd. I’ll go over there and see Coach Miles and get to see the program, the athletic facilities, and see what it takes to win a national championship. I’m also looking forward to going to Michigan’s 3 day camp as well as going to Florida and Oklahoma’s camps in the summer.”