K.C. ALFRED / Union-Tribune
SD's J.T. Rogan needs 47 rushing yards tomorrow to reach 1,000 for the second straight year. |
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When a vertically challenged University of Texas hitter stepped to the plate, a heckler at USD's Cunningham Stadium two seasons ago couldn't resist poking fun at his height.
“Someone forgot to take the helmet out of the batter's box!”
When an opposing player kept booting ground balls in another game, the mouthy USD student yelled, “I've seen better gloves on O.J.!”
One visiting parent had heard enough after the irritant needled her son. So after being lectured by the parent, the fan aimed his vocal cords to the field and said, “You can't pitch, and your mom can't argue.”
“That guy's got great material,” an opposing player told USD pitcher Brian Matusz. “Who is he?”
“He's our running back,” Matusz said.
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ROGAN NUMERALS
Notable numbers for Toreros junior running back J.T. Rogan at USD:
No. 1 – Career TDs (44), rushing yards (2,863), all-purpose yards (4,912)
No. 2 – Scoring (266 points), rushing attempts (557), rushing TDs (30)
No. 4 – Career kickoff return yards (1,092)
CAREER STATISTICS
Rushing: 557 carries, 2,863 yards, 30 TDs
Receiving: 92 catches, 957 yards, 12 TDs
Kickoff returns: 35 returns, 1,092 yards, 2 TDs
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“Our running back” happens to be 5-foot-9½, 195-pound junior J.T. Rogan, who has played a large role in the greatest run in USD football history. Going into tomorrow's season-ending game at UC Davis, the nonscholarship Toreros are 32-3 over the past three seasons.
Much of the attention, and deservedly so, has been heaped upon senior quarterback Josh Johnson. Rogan, too, has chipped in.
If Johnson handles things by air, Rogan supplies the ground assault. With his 31-carry, 154-yard effort last week at Morehead State, Rogan became the Toreros' all-time leading rusher (2,863 yards). With another season to play, he has scored a school-record 44 touchdowns.
Not bad, considering he once was the 111th man on a 110-player team.
Upon graduating from Coronado High in 2004, Rogan, all of 170 pounds, walked into new USD coach Jim Harbaugh's office with a highlight CD in hand.
Harbaugh squeezed Rogan's biceps and neck, asked about his size, slipped the disk into the machine, watched it for maybe 30 seconds and said, “We've got 110 kids coming to camp. If somebody quits, I'll give you a call.”
Days before camp opened, Rogan got the call. Somebody had quit. Rogan redshirted that season, but he made his presence felt.
“He was probably the biggest pain in the butt for the defense,” recalls senior linebacker Ronnie Pentz. “The entire starting linebackers hated him because the way he runs, you can't get a square hit on him (in practice).”
He did earn his peers' respect.
“He kept coming back every time (in practice), the same attitude, the same mentality,” Pentz said. “He would never quit. He would never give up. He made the defense better.”
In 2005, Rogan figured he'd be backing up Evan Harney, who was the Mid-Major Offensive Back of the Year the previous season. But Harney suffered multiple skull fractures and a brain contusion in a freak fall and didn't play.
Rogan took the starting job and hasn't let go.
He compiled 944 yards rushing as a redshirt freshman, 1,002 last season and needs 47 against UC Davis to hit 1,000 again.
He's a complete back, averaging more than 30 receptions the past three seasons. He has scored 30 touchdowns rushing, 12 receiving and two on kickoff returns. First-year Toreros coach Ron Caragher said of Rogan, “He may be the best pass-protector running back I've been around in 13 years.”
Rogan doesn't exactly look good doing it.
Forget his north-south running style, swivel hips and bowed knees that earned him the nickname “Crazy Legs.” If Mr. Blackwell doled out a Worst Dressed football list, Rogan would be the winner.
There's his high-top black cleats, oversized hip pads that flap in the breeze. He has a Thurman Thomas-style facemask featuring a vertical bar down the middle.
“He's horrible,” said Johnson, who likes to dress in style.
Explained Rogan of his sartorial choices: “I've gone for functionality because I'm a big believer in what you see is what you get.”
Rogan sports a scruffy beard and hair that falls far past his collar. When it reaches a certain length, he plans to cut it and donate it to Locks of Love. The organization provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children suffering from long-term medical hair loss.
Reach Rogan's voice mail and you hear “James Tyler Elliott Rogan” in a firm, confident tone.
Knowing the guy's from Coronado, you assume lawyer's son, doctor's son or admiral's son. Somebody's privileged son.
And you are wrong. Rogan's parents divorced when he was 2. He was raised primarily by his mother. In the ninth grade he moved to La Quinta, didn't like it in the desert and told his father he'd move in with him on one condition.
A chef who now lives in the Virgin Islands, his dad had to move to Coronado so J.T. could return to school there. His father, James, rented a second-story, two-bedroom apartment directly across the street from the high school football field.
As for Rogan's toughness, James thinks he deserves partial credit. When J.T. played Pop Warner football for the first time in seventh grade, he absorbed a jarring hit in a scrimmage.
After observing his son and realizing he was OK, James told him, “How does that feel?”
“Dad, I'm seeing stars.”
“Yeah, 'cause you got your (rear end) rolled over. You can turn around and take the punishment or dole out the punishment. When you dole out the punishment, you won't feel it.”
His junior year, in a playoff game against La Jolla High, Rogan suffered a cut above an eyelid, got it stitched at halftime and didn't miss a play.
Last week at Morehead State, the Toreros, leading 27-14, took over on their 3 with 6:54 to play. Johnson handed the ball to Rogan on 11 of the next 13 plays.
He gained 69 yards, USD ran out the clock and on one play, Rogan steamrolled a Morehead State safety, causing the USD sideline to erupt in cheers.
“He's like the Energizer Bunny that keeps going and going and going,” said Caragher, who called Rogan one of the best-conditioned athletes he's coached.
Added Caragher: “I call him a warrior.”
Rogan is not a team captain. But before every practice the Toreros stretch, with Rogan almost always telling a story that leads to him asking a question, his teammates responding by chanting their motto: “If you don't grind, you don't shine.”
“Sometimes other players come up with stuff,” said Pentz.
“But they're not J.T.,” offered Johnson. “He's got a story every day.”
Before the Dayton game, Rogan broke into rhyme, borrowing from Dr. Seuss.
“We can beat 'em at home
We can beat 'em at Dayton
Cause our quarterback's up
For the Walter Payton”
The Player of the Year honor in the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA) is called the Walter Payton Award.
Asked what he wants to do when he grows up, Rogan rattles off a long list. Play on special teams in the NFL. Own a business and become financially independent. Coach. Teach. Maybe politics.
All that, though, can wait. USD's career touchdown leader, rushing leader and most vocal baseball fan still plans on showing up at Cunningham Stadium, exercising his freedom of speech.
When the Toreros win the first two games of a three-game homestand, Rogan drives up the road beside the ballpark before the Sunday game, waving a broom.
About his oversized personality, Rogan said, “I guess I've been raised with no inhibitions. Some may find me obnoxious, but generally when people find out who I am, they like my charisma, my enthusiasm. A lot of people feed off that.”
Said Caragher, “He is truly a dynamic individual.”
Don Norcross: (619) 293-1803; don.norcross@uniontrib.com
