Roper takes meandering route to Montana
7/31/2009 12:00:00 AM | Football
Justin Roper is on his second college in four years, having landed in Missoula to play football for the Montana Grizzlies
after Oregon changed coaches and philosophies and, it appears, quarterbacks.
Roper, a native of Buford, Ga., is taking the change of scenery well, trying his hand at the Grizzlies' summer 7-on-7 workouts, learning the offense at the elbow of holdover QB Andrew Selle.
If a certain amount of awkwardness seems a given - Selle appeared
the heir apparent to three-year starter Cole Bergquist before the
transfer - Roper denies it.
???I think there's a lot of room there for misconceptions,??? he said. ???Andrew Selle, he's been very nice about it, and has helped me out. That's what speaks so well for the program here.???
Roper rooms with Montana's Palmer twins - receiver Ty and defensive end Jace - and receiver Sam Gratton. He's learning as much as he can before the Grizzlies' fall camp opens Aug. 10. He's genial and seems to be having a good time. He's floated either the Blackfoot or the Clark Fork four times already.
He knows he's not a novelty: Josh Swogger, Drew Miller, Craig Ochs, Brandon Neill and Jason Washington all transferred into UM from larger programs before Roper came to town. Perhaps that helps.
???Obviously when you have a high-caliber program like this, they've seen it before and so they know how to handle it,??? Roper
said. ???Andrew's helping me learn the offense and the routes, and throwing me in there in 7-on, and telling me what to do.???
And he knows he has work to do if he's going to play Saturdays at Washington-Grizzly Stadium.
???The only guarantee I was given was a chance to compete,??? said Roper. ???Coach Hauck told me everybody here competes for their
position. That's how it should be.???
To say that Roper was swaddled in Georgia Tech gold and black might be a reach, but it's close.
???Oh yeah,??? the junior quarterback said this week. ???I was a big Georgia Tech fan growing up, through most of my childhood. My dad (Brad), he went there, played there and coached there. My mom (the former Donna Alligood) played basketball there.
???We had season tickets. That was my school growing up.???
But then Roper grew all the way up, reaching 6-foot-6 with a Division I arm. By then the ???Ramblin' Wreck??? was no longer first in line. They'd offered early to another quarterback for one thing, and even though Brad Roper was the recruiting coordinator for the Georgia Tech squad that won a share - as voted by the UPI - of the 1990 national championship, his son wasn't necessarily going to be a Yellowjacket.
In fact until he hit the Elite 11 and Nike camps after his junior season, Justin Roper wasn't getting much notice at all.
???My high school didn't throw the ball all that much at all - we didn't really have to,??? laughed Roper, who threw for 1,423 yards and 18 touchdowns as a senior for Buford High, helping the Wolves to a 12-1 record and the Class 8-AA league title in 2005. ???I was very under the radar.???
He showed up by the time his senior year came around, thanks to the aforementioned camps. Yet he didn't have a clear direction.
???Everything was SEC, SEC,??? he said. ???At that time I was a big Tennessee fan, and I was looking hard at Louisville.???
But everyone had the same spiel: They'd ???offered??? several quarterbacks and were going to see how everything shook out.
???Turns out about six schools had offered the same six or seven guys,??? he noted.
Meanwhile, Brad Roper kept bringing up Oregon.
???My dad watched a couple of their games,??? said Justin. ???He said they throw the ball a lot and they've got a pretty good offense.???
???Honestly, I couldn't place where the state of Oregon was,??? Roper says now. ???Which is funny, because a lot of people in Oregon couldn't place Georgia on a map.???
But in Eugene, Roper felt right at home. He hit it off with then-coach Mike Bellotti.
???You had that homey feeling, where you feel comfy,??? he said. ???Everyone was open and welcoming. It kind of felt like a family
out there.???
You know the rest of the story. Pressed into action as a redshirt freshman, Roper excelled in Oregon's 56-21 win over South Florida in the 2007 Sun Bowl, throwing for 180 yards and four touchdowns. He started the first three games at QB last fall but suffered a knee injury, and after that played sparingly.
When Bellotti stepped aside and Chip Kelly was promoted to head coach, the writing seemed to be on the wall: Oregon would go
full-out to the spread offense, and the wiry, less-mobile Roper would have a hard time winning the starting job.
Roper still felt at home in Eugene, so leaving was tough.
???It didn't go away at all,??? he says now. ???It never did. That's what made it so hard, and that's why it took so long to make that decision. It wasn't that I hated Oregon, or didn't like being there. I loved Oregon.
???They've given me a lot of good times, and treated me well. They were so great and positive about me leaving when they heard, which speaks even more to the atmosphere there.???
Roper looks up at the steep stands and narrow sideline space at Washington-Grizzly Stadium and feels more or less like he did at Oregon's tight Autzen Stadium. Sure, he grew up watching first Georgia Tech play inside 55,000-seat Bobby Dodd Stadium, and later on saw 100,000 fill Tennessee's Neyland Stadium, but this isn't bad at all.
???Really enclosed, really tight,??? he noted. ???That's the thing I love about a stadium. When the fans are right on you, and all that - I love that. It's maybe a little bit smaller, but it's really the same.???
after Oregon changed coaches and philosophies and, it appears, quarterbacks.
Roper, a native of Buford, Ga., is taking the change of scenery well, trying his hand at the Grizzlies' summer 7-on-7 workouts, learning the offense at the elbow of holdover QB Andrew Selle.
If a certain amount of awkwardness seems a given - Selle appeared
the heir apparent to three-year starter Cole Bergquist before the
transfer - Roper denies it.
???I think there's a lot of room there for misconceptions,??? he said. ???Andrew Selle, he's been very nice about it, and has helped me out. That's what speaks so well for the program here.???
Roper rooms with Montana's Palmer twins - receiver Ty and defensive end Jace - and receiver Sam Gratton. He's learning as much as he can before the Grizzlies' fall camp opens Aug. 10. He's genial and seems to be having a good time. He's floated either the Blackfoot or the Clark Fork four times already.
He knows he's not a novelty: Josh Swogger, Drew Miller, Craig Ochs, Brandon Neill and Jason Washington all transferred into UM from larger programs before Roper came to town. Perhaps that helps.
???Obviously when you have a high-caliber program like this, they've seen it before and so they know how to handle it,??? Roper
said. ???Andrew's helping me learn the offense and the routes, and throwing me in there in 7-on, and telling me what to do.???
And he knows he has work to do if he's going to play Saturdays at Washington-Grizzly Stadium.
???The only guarantee I was given was a chance to compete,??? said Roper. ???Coach Hauck told me everybody here competes for their
position. That's how it should be.???
To say that Roper was swaddled in Georgia Tech gold and black might be a reach, but it's close.
???Oh yeah,??? the junior quarterback said this week. ???I was a big Georgia Tech fan growing up, through most of my childhood. My dad (Brad), he went there, played there and coached there. My mom (the former Donna Alligood) played basketball there.
???We had season tickets. That was my school growing up.???
But then Roper grew all the way up, reaching 6-foot-6 with a Division I arm. By then the ???Ramblin' Wreck??? was no longer first in line. They'd offered early to another quarterback for one thing, and even though Brad Roper was the recruiting coordinator for the Georgia Tech squad that won a share - as voted by the UPI - of the 1990 national championship, his son wasn't necessarily going to be a Yellowjacket.
In fact until he hit the Elite 11 and Nike camps after his junior season, Justin Roper wasn't getting much notice at all.
???My high school didn't throw the ball all that much at all - we didn't really have to,??? laughed Roper, who threw for 1,423 yards and 18 touchdowns as a senior for Buford High, helping the Wolves to a 12-1 record and the Class 8-AA league title in 2005. ???I was very under the radar.???
He showed up by the time his senior year came around, thanks to the aforementioned camps. Yet he didn't have a clear direction.
???Everything was SEC, SEC,??? he said. ???At that time I was a big Tennessee fan, and I was looking hard at Louisville.???
But everyone had the same spiel: They'd ???offered??? several quarterbacks and were going to see how everything shook out.
???Turns out about six schools had offered the same six or seven guys,??? he noted.
Meanwhile, Brad Roper kept bringing up Oregon.
???My dad watched a couple of their games,??? said Justin. ???He said they throw the ball a lot and they've got a pretty good offense.???
???Honestly, I couldn't place where the state of Oregon was,??? Roper says now. ???Which is funny, because a lot of people in Oregon couldn't place Georgia on a map.???
But in Eugene, Roper felt right at home. He hit it off with then-coach Mike Bellotti.
???You had that homey feeling, where you feel comfy,??? he said. ???Everyone was open and welcoming. It kind of felt like a family
out there.???
You know the rest of the story. Pressed into action as a redshirt freshman, Roper excelled in Oregon's 56-21 win over South Florida in the 2007 Sun Bowl, throwing for 180 yards and four touchdowns. He started the first three games at QB last fall but suffered a knee injury, and after that played sparingly.
When Bellotti stepped aside and Chip Kelly was promoted to head coach, the writing seemed to be on the wall: Oregon would go
full-out to the spread offense, and the wiry, less-mobile Roper would have a hard time winning the starting job.
Roper still felt at home in Eugene, so leaving was tough.
???It didn't go away at all,??? he says now. ???It never did. That's what made it so hard, and that's why it took so long to make that decision. It wasn't that I hated Oregon, or didn't like being there. I loved Oregon.
???They've given me a lot of good times, and treated me well. They were so great and positive about me leaving when they heard, which speaks even more to the atmosphere there.???
Roper looks up at the steep stands and narrow sideline space at Washington-Grizzly Stadium and feels more or less like he did at Oregon's tight Autzen Stadium. Sure, he grew up watching first Georgia Tech play inside 55,000-seat Bobby Dodd Stadium, and later on saw 100,000 fill Tennessee's Neyland Stadium, but this isn't bad at all.
???Really enclosed, really tight,??? he noted. ???That's the thing I love about a stadium. When the fans are right on you, and all that - I love that. It's maybe a little bit smaller, but it's really the same.???
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