Haywarduck Moderator No. 1 Share Posted January 12, 2021 JT Tuimoloau wants to play football at a high level, but he wants more than an opportunity to play on the line. He wants to play basketball, and maybe even on the offense for the football team. What can we offer JT and what is Cristobal doing with his magical abilities as a recruiter? I think he needs to be given the opportunity to play on the basketball team. Arik Armstead was given the opportunity to play on the team and this should be, explicitly, made for JT. I would think it has been. The other thing that would be interesting is to make JT know we want him to play TE too. The guy, as a basketball player, has the hands to be an elite TE. It wouldn't be a stretch to make a commitment to playing him as a two way player. This is what Oregon did with DAT, offer him the ability to play offense. At the time DAT was slotted for playing defense at sc and wanted to play offense, it made the difference. What do you think it would take to get JT in green and yellow? With JT on the line with Thibs, the defense would be formidable and amazing to watch. I also think it would be amazing to see him line up at TE, and maybe as a power forward too! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
30Duck No. 2 Share Posted January 12, 2021 Offering him the opportunity to play basketball, and TE, seem enticing to him as well as both teams. He and Thibs on the line together would give OC's nightmares, Mario has achieved great success in recruiting, unlike anything at Oregon before, landing Tuimoloau would take it even higher. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
idontrollonshobbas No. 3 Share Posted January 12, 2021 I am tempted to say, Tosh Lupoi and his little brown bag.... How about he plays both sides of the ball, Dana adds him as a power forward AND Robert Johnson lets him put the shot in the new Hayward Field! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Marsh No. 4 Share Posted January 12, 2021 Offering him to play basketball is reasonable... HOWEVER the reality of it is that he probably wont see the court too much with ANY of the teams on his list as all have good football teams that will play into January. As we saw with Armstead, he had the chance to play basketball but by the time he could reasonably make it to the team his overall play time was impacted by the fact that he didn't have as much practice time as the full time basketball players. On the basketball front Oregon has had a better team on the whole than Alabama and Ohio State. So if he wants to be apart of teams that have the best opportunities of seeing the most of the post season Oregon is the destination. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
30Duck No. 5 Share Posted January 12, 2021 If he wants to play baseball, he'd be a great DH. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Marsh No. 6 Share Posted January 12, 2021 In truth I think JTT is dreaming if he thinks he will truly be able to play both football and basketball, their seasons overlap too much and the body type he would want for football doesn't necessarily covert to the basketball court. For football he needs to be big, strong and explosive and for basketball he would generally want to be leaner. Now this doesn't always hold true but will he be able to successfully cross train and practice enough to be legitimately good at both sports to play at the Division 1 level? Possible. Much better opportunity to play football and a spring sport... but I know he also loves basketball. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles Fischer Administrator No. 7 Share Posted January 12, 2021 Interesting topic Haywarduck, and thanks for getting it going. (Everyone start a topic!) I am leery of promising other sports because it dilutes the player's potential in both. However offering some fullback/running back opportunities as we've spoken of with Sewell makes sense. I think your idea of tight end is a good one, and he would actually last longer with less body damage, although Cam McCormick might disagree with that. Yet if he can become a dominating defensive tackle--big paychecks await, and I think he should focus entirely on that and become the best that he can. But I see your reasoning for recruiting...interesting stuff to ponder. Mr. FishDuck Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DuckPhan19 No. 8 Share Posted January 12, 2021 Tony Gonzalez was a significant contributor —a starter if I recall correctly—for Cal basketball at 6’5”. Julius Peppers played for UNC as a reserve but is 6’7.” Both obviously freak athletes. Don’t believe Armstead saw much time if any on the court. Could JT run the court like Gonzales and Peppers, and like Altman requires with switching defenses and presses? My take is he’d have to lose 15-20 lbs and play as a TE or WDE. Which would be fine by me if anyone comes asking! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Sousa No. 9 Share Posted January 12, 2021 45 minutes ago, DuckPhan19 said: Could JT run the court like Gonzales and Peppers, and like Altman requires with switching defenses and presses? Herein lies the problem. You can offer a guy the OPPORTUNITY to play both sports, but when both sports are being played at a very high level at the same school, it is difficult to get playing time in both. Armstead got on the court a few times but he was a bench warmer most of the the time. He might have been a starter on a lesser basketball school. He tried to live his dream, but when it became obvious that basketball, that wasn´t going anywhere, was getting in the way of his football development, he announced he was going all in football. His bank account is thanking him. I agree to let him try. It´s his life and his dream. Maybe BB will work out better for him. Be a star on Altman´s team and it´s a sure thing. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haywarduck Author Moderator No. 10 Share Posted January 13, 2021 1 hour ago, DuckPhan19 said: Tony Gonzalez was a significant contributor —a starter if I recall correctly—for Cal basketball at 6’5”. Julius Peppers played for UNC as a reserve but is 6’7.” Both obviously freak athletes. Don’t believe Armstead saw much time if any on the court. Could JT run the court like Gonzales and Peppers, and like Altman requires with switching defenses and presses? My take is he’d have to lose 15-20 lbs and play as a TE or WDE. Which would be fine by me if anyone comes asking! Great point and maybe be straight up with the guy. If you really want to play basketball, you better go after the TE position. We will support you like no other school in reaching your goals, just let us know what they are. You can even be on a NCAA championship caliber Track and Field team at shot put, 3 sport athlete. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
30Duck No. 11 Share Posted January 13, 2021 Jordan (Kent) began playing football when he was a junior in college at the University of Oregon. While at the University of Oregon, Jordan also played Basketball and ran Track for the Oregon Ducks. And now he does play-play for the Blazers. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RatherBe No. 12 Share Posted January 13, 2021 I think the number one thing with JTT is having a chance to play on the biggest stage - in football. That’s why Tracy Ford and the FSP people were calling the CFP championship “The JTT Bowl.” Ohio State and Bama can basically guarantee that opportunity, while Oregon can only promise that it will be a possibility. The young man loves basketball as well. He counts Paolo Banchero, the five star basketball recruit from Seattle heading to Duke, as a close friend. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say JTT loves both sports equally. I do think he and his family understand where the bread will be buttered, and it’s football. Look at the successful football players who were contributors on the hardwood, such as: Tony Gonzalez, Julius Peppers, Jimmy Graham, our own Jordan Kent, and others - they were all more successful on the turf. None of those guys had a real chance at the NBA unless they devoted themselves to that, and they were better high school players than JTT. Antonio Gates was a fantastic basketball player who never played in a college football game, averaged 21/8/4 and was and honorable mention All-American, and he wasn’t NBA material. Julius Thomas, who I got to play some pickup games with before he switched to football for his last year, was another good college player who realized his athletic future was in football. The question is how does Oregon appeal to that love of basketball? Letting JTT talk with Dana Altman and giving him the same chance as Arik had is a no brainer. There is one basketball advantage we have over Ohio State and Alabama, and it’s pretty obvious. Mario has never been shy to play up the Nike angle. The new recruiting graphics for the 2022 kids are Nike ads. At most JTT will probably have the same basketball career as Armstead; a uniform with his name on it and a few minutes of garbage time. But connections with Nike and all the cool basketball stuff, that might appeal to him. I won’t ever count out Mario in a recruiting battle after the last three cycles brought in Penei, KT, and Flowe out of recruiting battles that the Ducks seemed like underdogs in. Here it seems that they are the underdogs and then some. Time to pull out all the stops. Location close to family, the history of Polynesian football success at Oregon and the appreciation of the culture, and the pride he takes in the success of both local PNW and Poly athletes. I have little doubt those are the sales pitches along with the chance to play right away with KT, Noah, Flowe, etc. If JTT comes to Eugene it will be the things other than national title promises. Might as well be the school that can offer it all. The Tuimoloau family knows Joe Salave’a from American Samoa. His dad and Big Joe are from the same village. American Samoa is tiny, 60k people. If you can’t recruit the son of someone you’ve known for so long to YOUR position group, to a successful program with an immediate need at that position, and they’d rather send their kid 2,000 miles away ... That would be a very bad look for Big Joe, no way to spin that. Let’s hope we can beat the odds here, because this defense could be out of this world amazing with another piece like JTT. 1 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
30Duck No. 13 Share Posted January 13, 2021 4 minutes ago, RatherBe said: Antonio Gates was a fantastic basketball player who never played in a college football game, averaged 21/8/4 and was and honorable mention All-American, and he wasn’t NBA material. Great post! I was trying to remember Antonio Gates. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RatherBe No. 14 Share Posted January 13, 2021 20 hours ago, 30Duck said: Great post! I was trying to remember Antonio Gates. Thanks. I’ve always been into following the careers of dual sport stars, and Gates was one of the few that could have been elite in both football and basketball. Terrelle Pryor, Nate Robinson, and Allen Iverson also come to mind. Interesting one degree of separation with JTT and Gates: Antonio Gates originally went to Michigan State to play football for Nick Saban. Saban wanted him to give up basketball, Gates transferred but still credits Saban for convincing him he could be great at football. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Notalot No. 15 Share Posted January 13, 2021 Does this violate NCAA Student Athlete restrictions? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haywarduck Author Moderator No. 16 Share Posted January 13, 2021 13 minutes ago, Notalot said: Does this violate NCAA Student Athlete restrictions? Is Auburn in the hunt? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
