2008 Woodie Awards
Freshman Lineman To Transfer
Football: Former 2-Star Recruit Seeks Education Opportunities At Ivy League School
Justin Verrier
Issue date: 4/30/08 Section: Sports
But while he still enjoys playing, he said he wants to focus on preparing for things other than football after college.
"[Football's] a business," Russell said. "If you're not in it to play for the NFL, it's kind of hard."
While his parents didn't attend Ivy League schools, education is a "big, big deal" in Russell's household. He said a few of his family members attend colleges such as MIT and Yale.
"I actually can't think of a person in my family that hasn't gone to college," he said. "It's just expected as soon as you get out of high school. I still, myself, expect to go to graduate school."
Russell said he tried to take education into account when choosing a college, using a scale he and some of his high school teammates created to make sure they chose a school that had more than just football.
But since then, Russell's scale has teetered in a new direction.
"Maybe my values have changed a little over college," Russell said. "I love UConn. I love the people here, love my teammates, the coaches are great, the professors have been great … It's not like I hate it here, but it's just different from what I want."
If Russell does transfer into the Ivy League, he won't have to sit out a year because it is a FCS school.
Contact Justin Verrier at
Justin.Verrier@UConn.edu.
"[Football's] a business," Russell said. "If you're not in it to play for the NFL, it's kind of hard."
While his parents didn't attend Ivy League schools, education is a "big, big deal" in Russell's household. He said a few of his family members attend colleges such as MIT and Yale.
"I actually can't think of a person in my family that hasn't gone to college," he said. "It's just expected as soon as you get out of high school. I still, myself, expect to go to graduate school."
Russell said he tried to take education into account when choosing a college, using a scale he and some of his high school teammates created to make sure they chose a school that had more than just football.
But since then, Russell's scale has teetered in a new direction.
"Maybe my values have changed a little over college," Russell said. "I love UConn. I love the people here, love my teammates, the coaches are great, the professors have been great … It's not like I hate it here, but it's just different from what I want."
If Russell does transfer into the Ivy League, he won't have to sit out a year because it is a FCS school.
Contact Justin Verrier at
Justin.Verrier@UConn.edu.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 2
T
posted 5/01/08 @ 12:38 AM EST
Good riddance.
I don't appreciate the way Russell makes it seem like there's no way he could get a quality education if he stayed at UConn. UConn isn't exactly a bottom of the barrel academic institution. (Continued…)
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