The Wrigh-Stuff
Junior tight end George
Wrighster has stepped out
ofjustin Peeled shadow
eariy and often this season
Peter Hockaday
Sports Editor
In the 2002 Oregon football media
guide, under George Wrighster’s
name, it says that the tight end “im
proved leaping ability with 28-inch
vertical jump during off-season test
ing as well as lower-body strength,
bettering squat best 60 lbs. to 405.”
Anybody who saw Wrighster leap
over an unfortunate Mississippi State
defender for a touchdown last week
knows that the vertical-leap number
might be slightly unforgiving.
“That figure is wrong,” Wrighster
said. “My vertical is bigger than that.
It’s, like, 30 (inches), I think.”
The junior from Van Nuys, Calif.,
needed every inch of that vertical
leap to score his second touchdown
of the contest on Saturday, and he’s
needed every inch of his 6-foot-4,
249-pound frame to handle the full
time duties of being the starting tight
end for the Ducks. But it’s a chal
lenge faced head-on by Wrighster,
who could become the best in a line
of standout Oregon tight ends.
And if it hadn’t been for George
Wrighster Sr., George Wrighster Jr.
may never have made it to Eugene.
Wrighster’s father got all over him af
ter a call from an Oregon coach, who
said he was going to send over some
Duck information during Oregon’s
recruiting period. Wrighster, a top
prospect in the nation at that point,
got the Ducks’ package but left it in
his locker. His father pestered and
pestered.
“I didn’t really care,” Wrighster
I_!
Adam Amato Emerald
George Wrighster runs for one of his two touchdowns against Mississippi State last
Saturday. The junior tight end picked up where NFL-bound Justin Peele left off.
said. “It was from Oregon, and I did
n’t know anything about Oregon.
They were never on television. The
only thing I knew about them was
that they played in the Rose Bowl
against Penn State in ’94. My dad
told me that if I didn’t bring that in
formation home, he wasn’t going to
let me drive.
“Then he took my car.”
That did it. Wrighster’s father read
him the information, which prompt
ed Wrighster to take his next recruit
ing trip to Oregon, where he bought
into the Ducks’ team philosophy and
was sold right away on the program.
Still, with offers on the table from
“everywhere,” as Wrighster put it,
the tight end still needed a sign
pointing north.
“I was sitting on the plane (back
from the recruiting trip), and I
prayed about it,” Wrighster said.
“And I shook my head, and my mom
said, ‘What’s wrong with you?’ be
cause my mom and dad came on my
trip. And I said, ‘I think I’m going to
Oregon.’ And she said, ‘That’s what I
think, too.’”
Turn to Wrighster, page 5
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