forums

UVA signs a German QB

Advertisement
DMoney said:
Slightly OT, but it involves a Coastal team. Virginia signed a QB/WR from Germany named Luke Wentz. He's a real German, not an American with parents stationed over there.

Eventually, one of these skill guys will make it. That will be very interesting for the growth of the game.

Click to expand...

He should run for governor.
 
RightSaidFred said:
Interesting, but I don’t see it working out.

I can think of one analogy:

US has been sending young soccer players to Europe for decades, and we haven’t had even one player make it big over there in soccer.

And a lot more Americans play soccer than Europeans play football.

It’s not that easy when you don’t have decent competition around you every day, great coaching, and when you’re not around football all the time.
Click to expand...

Americas best athletes don't play soccer. They may when their younger, but surely don't as they approach high school. Our best athletes are all playing "other than soccer."
 
M35_helmet.jpg

He’s bringing his own helmet.
 
Advertisement
I had no idea German high schools had American football teams. Good for him.
 
Advertisement
DMoney said:
Slightly OT, but it involves a Coastal team. Virginia signed a QB/WR from Germany named Luke Wentz. He's a real German, not an American with parents stationed over there.

Eventually, one of these skill guys will make it. That will be very interesting for the growth of the game.

Click to expand...


By "real German," I think you meant to say "native German."

But I understand your point. I think it's difficult for European kids to make it in D1 football, at least for now as the consistency of good coaching, competition, and off season camps/training are limited, but also given the pull to other primary sports.

All that being said, UM would benefit greatly from that sort of potential pools of developing kids. Large cosmopolitan city, but smaller suburban campus, name recognition outside the USA, great access to the continent and elsewhere, high quality private education with a growing and established international student body .... we have a lot to sell to that market. Not seeing a kid from places where they play American Football like London, Frankfurt, Amsterdam thinking, "oh yeah, Tuscaloosa Alabama is the place for me!"
 
DTP said:
I had no idea German high schools had American football teams. Good for him.
Click to expand...
Well, there are no such things as "high school teams" as you're used to in the states. Most of the teams were founded by some pioneers back in the 1980's when American football still was fairly new to Europe. I am from Switzerland, and I by myself play for a team called the "Bienna Jets" and we have two youth teams U-16/ U-19 and a 1. Team (19 years & up). We play an annual fee to play football and get all of our equipments by ourselves. This is the model of European football and there will always be some natural gifted athletes heading over to the states to pursue a career and eventually get a scholarship, but I still think the gap between coaching in the states and over here is still huge. The raw talent would be there, but the coaches are not able to properly develop players.
 
FSU had a German on the 2013 team right? It’d be pretty funny to see Germans start flooding college football, but football fits their culture very well. They’re big on discipline and no-nonsense toughness, right?
 
As I mentioned some weeks ago, in the '60's, we had a German WR, Dieter Matthes. A real German, born in Germany, family moved to the U.S. and he was a star player at Norland. One of our better players in the '60's.

Some years ago Georgia had a pretty good DE from France, I think, Richard Tardits.

They play American football in Mexico at the college level, but I've yet to see a Mexican who was a legitimate prospect for American football.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organización_Nacional_Estudiantil_de_Fútbol_Americano

In the early sixties, when freshmen weren't eligible for varsity, our freshman team would travel to Mexico City to play Mexico Poly, and get beat.

There was a legendary story about how George Mira, our QB, received a dirty hit by a Mexican, and how George cursed him out in Spanish. George was a descendant of Spaniards (hence the nickname "Matador") who settled in Key West and spoke Spanish at home.
 
Advertisement
PanteraCanes said:
I wonder why you didn't pick the NBA for your analogy?
Click to expand...

Because basketball is way more popular in Europe than football.

Basketball in europe is like hockey over here....minor, but people do watch it.

Football in Europe is like cricket in the US. Most people have heard of it, but nobody knows the rules, have never seen it on TV, and have little interest in playing or getting involved in it.
 
***-e-skr said:
Americas best athletes don't play soccer. They may when their younger, but surely don't as they approach high school. Our best athletes are all playing "other than soccer."
Click to expand...

I agree. But do you think Germany’s best athletes are playing football?

**** no. Germans hate everything about the USA. They hate our culture, our way of life, and our sports.
 
Advertisement
Can we get a ****** secondary so he won’t be allowed to throw against them?
 
20EReedboii said:
FSU had a German on the 2013 team right? It’d be pretty funny to see Germans start flooding college football, but football fits their culture very well. They’re big on discipline and no-nonsense toughness, right?
Click to expand...

bjorn werner. turned into a massive first-round bust for the colts.
 
Advertisement
Back
Top