JJ Diluigi and the NFl.

[mattharper]

JJ Diluigi is kind of an enigma to me. I heard a black announcer last year say DiLuigi is definitely going to get drafted. Then of course he called him the next Danny Woodhead. We all know he is a good receiver out of the backfield but if you compare his running from high school to college there is a huge difference. His high school video shows a guy that can just cut either way with in a blink. Ive seen him in about 5 BYU games and he has the speed and quickness but he rarely uses his change of direction skills. I think hes going to play on Sundays and he will rush for at least 600 yards as somebodys backup. It will be nice to have him, McGuffie, Line and Burkhead to crack this caste system a little more.

 

[White Power]

You will see more white hopefully in the future because of guys who are kicking down the door.

 

[ToughJ.Riggins]

I hope so WP. It always bothers me the most to see the truly ELITE white RBs get screwed that could really open eyes and put a dent in caste thinking.

Guys like Justin Beaver, John Howell, Nile Knapp, Marc Mauro and Eric Gerber have that jaw dropping ability that disproves that whites can't make good NFL speedbacks/ scatbacks. Hey at least we have Woodhead!

Hey, Matt Harper- I hope we can add Wegher, Howell, Knapp, Gerber, Langer, McDaniel and Bourbon to your list someday of players who get a shot in the NFL. Beaver is already a gym teacher now and long enough out of football that an NFL career is basically out of the question. Keep hope alive!Edited by: ToughJ.Riggins

 

[mattharper]

Dont forget Manfro from UCLA Tough. IMO you have shown the best ability on this site to dissect rb talent. To be honest Im not sure about Langer or Bourbon but my views of them are limited. Its been said Bourbon runs a 10.4 100 meters. He isint that fast obviously but I think if he can outplay 2 very highly touted true freshman rbs he will do very well. But as we all know Bourbon yet is no Sharp and Sharp obviously got screwed.

 

[ToughJ.Riggins]

Thank you Matt Harper. I consider myself a RB specialist! I must say that you have a great knack for finding great white H.S skill position players. Thanks for your hard work and the interesting reads.

 

[mattharper]

Thanks TJ. I hope Langer and Bourbon pan out. If Cam McDaniel gets any playing time this year it will be awesome. Notre Dame is famous for recruiitng highly ranked rbs and they never pan out. I think McDaniel is going to be a featured back before the end of the 2011 season. Hes not ever going to rush for 1500 yards but Notre Dame has enough talent and an easy schedule outside of their last game with Stanford where they will probably run the table and play for the National title. So he will get some exposure.

 

[dwid]

Not every elite white skill player is going to get a shot. We have seen this with receivers that are elite and capable of being number 1 receivers get buried on the depth chart or no shot at all while someone like Lance Long is getting playing time. It still isn't going to stop me from rooting for white players who aren't elite, they are still better than many affletes taking up roster spots.

Having said that, JJ is much better than you give him credit for. Hes very shifty and I have seen him make some nice cuts, great hands out of the backfield, not elite top end speed but great initial burst. I think he is one of the better 3rd down backs coming out next year. I think he could easily put up 1,000 yards from scrimmage in the NFL rush/rec. He is also decent on kick returns. He needs to work on his balance, there are a couple of plays where he was tripped up by shoestring tackles, but its not that bad. It also wouldn't hurt to work on power, he was a few yards short of a td on some runs, if he just worked on lower body strength maybe he couldve driven through the defender. It didn't matter that much at BYU, he usually got the td on the next play ,or Kariya.

Just give it a year. in 08 I didn't think Toby Gerhart was elite, I wouldve given him a 4th round grade (which is what I have on JJ right now), then he looked like a top 10 back the next year. Remember whites tend to peak later than blacks, it could be possible that JJ hasn't even reached his full potential, most of our guys do around their senior year, some don't even reach their full potential by then. Clay Matthews was average his last season and then lit up the combines, now he is lighting up the NFL. Not to mention the qb play was pretty shaky at times last year for BYU, they had a freshman out there that was still learning the ropes.

[TUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMVE-7-4kP4[/TUBE]

check out the cut he makes right after the 9 second marker

He should get a chance as a rb in the NFL but looking at his skills they might try to switch him to the slot.

Edited by: dwid

 

[mattgianone]

Thanks for the video DWID. I knew he was talented but I cant watch every game and even when you try and youtube his highlights it looks like a lot gets left on the cutting room floor.

 

[mattgianone]

Theres bad news in the BYU camp. Coaches are aleady stating DiLuigi is going to start this Fall but its going to be a rb by commitee approach. I dont think Johnny Quezada could carry Diluigi's jock strap let alone take carries away from him. Its nice to see Brian Kariya a chance to play but as he is quick to the whole he dosent have the cutting skills or speed to get to the outside. I just dont want DiLuigis draft stock to drop because hes not going to reach 1,000 yards this year with the shared carries emphasis.

 

[Colonel_Reb]

Theres bad news in the BYU camp. Coaches are aleady stating DiLuigi is going to start this Fall but its going to be a rb by commitee approach. I dont think Johnny Quezada could carry Diluigi's jock strap let alone take carries away from him. Its nice to see Brian Kariya a chance to play but as he is quick to the whole he dosent have the cutting skills or speed to get to the outside. I just dont want DiLuigis draft stock to drop because hes not going to reach 1,000 yards this year with the shared carries emphasis.

I'm not in Provo to see what the coaches are seeing, but I can't imagine a RB by committee approach working very well for them. J.J. needs a decent amount of carries to really show what he has. I hope I'm wrong, but I just don't believe this is the right approach for them.

 

[dwid]

They said the same thing last year about using a rbbc and he had like 1300+ from scrimmage. Only two other players had at least 880 rushing and 380 receiving last year. One of them was Sam McGuffie. JJ had 917 rushing 8 tds and 443 receiving 1 td. Quezada can barely outperform Kariya with only 2 plays over 20 yards with a long of 26, and Kariya is a powerback. Not to mention the fact that BYU likes to pass and Quezada has shown little ability to catch. I predict he and McGuffie will be the top 3rd down backs coming out. McGuffie has the higher upside though.

 

[Thrashen]

JJ Diluigi is kind of an enigma to me. I heard a black announcer last year say DiLuigi is definitely going to get drafted. Then of course he called him the next Danny Woodhead. We all know he is a good receiver out of the backfield but if you compare his running from high school to college there is a huge difference. His high school video shows a guy that can just cut either way with in a blink. Ive seen him in about 5 BYU games and he has the speed and quickness but he rarely uses his change of direction skills. I think hes going to play on Sundays and he will rush for at least 600 yards as somebodys backup. It will be nice to have him, McGuffie, Line and Burkhead to crack this caste system a little more.

I’ve seen JJ Diluigi play many times. He has some talent, but nothing remotely close to that of Danny Woodhead. Also, I’ve never been certain that he’s fully white. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was an octoroon or some other mut…

 

[whiteathlete33]

I’ve seen JJ Diluigi play many times. He has some talent, but nothing remotely close to that of Danny Woodhead. Also, I’ve never been certain that he’s fully white. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was an octoroon or some other mut…

I questioned if he's 100 % white some time ago and Colonel confirmed that he's a full blooded Italian.

 

[mattgianone]

His grandparents are all from Sicily. He is dark but so are a lot of Sicilians.

 

[white is right]

I have seen much darker Italians than this guy. While it's rare for even a Sicilian to be even this dark. He plays football and is in the sun all day. The swarthy singer from Hall and Oates comes to mind for even swarthier Italians(He is half Spanish too).

 

[Jimmy Chitwood]

perhaps these two profile pieces on JJ DiLuigi will put an end to the debate. then again, perhaps not.

JJ DiLuigi: Italian connections

JJ DiLuigi: an exclamation mark, no periods

each of these two short pieces talks about how close his family is and his Italian heritage.

hopefully JJ will revive his career soon, starting with tonight's game against San Jose State. he's due for a breakout game, and BYU needs him if their offense is going to stop being so impotent.

 

[white lightning]

I've had many italian friends in my life and they are white. If you call an italian guy black, you might not live to talk about it. JJ is white. People here often forget that there are so many different shades of europeans. We are not all really lightskinned like Irish and English are. Let's celebrate JJ and remember that he is one of us! You can also tell that but his lack of scholarship offers.

 

[Highlander]

This might explain everything:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXjcf47y-zk&feature=related

 

[whiteathlete33]

After reading the posts about his Italian roots, I was convinced his father was white, but it didn't mention his mother. So, based on some of his photos posted by Thrashen I figured she was some sort of "exotic" from Mexifornia...Quick net search has yielded her photo and she looks real white:

http://www.facebook.com/people/Meribeth-DiLuigi/1259846366



You know, back in the mid 1990's I used to see some photos of New York area stars Wayne Chrebet & Jason Sehorn and both looked fairly dark-skinned in some photos -- clearly white in others. Anthony Becht of the Jets was another. I know Wayne is clearly white -- seen his parents on TV. Sehorn claims to be full white, too.

I don't know how anyone could see Chrebet as anything other than white after looking at his pictures. He's from my hometown of Garfield, NJ and I've followed his career from the beginnings. Sehorn is also 100 %. My local paper ran an article on him back in the 90's about how he was the only starting white cornerback in the league and mentioned his impressive athleticism.