While observers might consider linebacker a position of current weakness, Florida still repealed a scholarship offer to one of the nation’s standout high schoolers last month.
Four-star recruit Deaysean Rippy is a star at Sto-Rox High in McKees Rocks, Pa.
Rippy recorded 77 tackles and seven sacks as a junior, and he holds scholarship offers from top of the line programs like Alabama, Ohio State and Southern California.
But Florida is noticeably absent from that list — no longer an option for Rippy after a tumultuous trip to Gainesville.
The Gators originally offered Rippy while Urban Meyer was still at the helm.
The outside linebacker was close with former defensive coordinator Teryl Austin and said he spoke with Meyer “a lot,” forming a solid relationship.
But on June 18, while on a family-funded unofficial weekend trip to Gainesville, the Gators repealed Rippy’s offer.
The withdraw came a mere three days after fellow outside linebacker Lorenzo Phillips orally committed to UF.
“They really burned the bridge with me, just by the way that they handled everything down there,” he said.
“Instead of calling my mentor or calling me or sending me a Facebook message. Instead of letting me waste $400 on airfare and being miserable in my dorm for two days.”
Rippy was told that with two outside linebacker oral commits — Phillips and Jeremi Powell — the Gators had reached their quota at the position but would continue to recruit him.
With Florida’s offer gone, he said he is now completely open in his recruitment.
He plans to sit down with his mentor — Pittsburgh Steelers employee Ty Ryan — and his family before going forward.
But adversity isn’t new for Rippy. In middle school, a downfall in family finances forced a move into a rough neighborhood.
He fell into bad ways, selling drugs and stealing cars. He spent 12 days at Pittsburgh’s Shuman Juvenile Detention Center when he was just 13 years old.
“It’s like you’re being commanded to do whatever they tell you,” Rippy said of Shuman. “Every time you came back into the room you had to squat and cough to make sure you didn’t have anything. After that, it was like, ‘I could be out playing football.’”
Football and nearly two weeks of hell at Shuman helped turn a once-troubled kid into a motivated athlete.
“If you were to look at me now, you wouldn’t think that I was the same person I was five, six years ago,” he said.
As a freshman, Rippy started at middle linebacker for Sto-Rox and immediately drew attention.
When a visiting college coach asked about No. 11, he was informed that he was inquiring about a 14-year-old.
Before he was a sophomore, Rippy had verbal offers from Maryland, Pittsburgh and Syracuse.
He would also become student body vice president and a positive community figure.
After hearing a young local boy named Nick was a big fan of his play, Rippy surprised him by showing up at his house for family dinner.
“I could never really imagine that I was going to be this big-time national recruit,” the 6-foot-2, 198-pounder said.
“Coming from how I grew up and the place that we live, I guess I look at so many football players and their history … and it’s always the real football players who had a rough lifestyle who grow up and become big.
I tell kids, no matter where you’re from, you can really do anything. I’m kind of big on that.”
