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Sunday, July 2, 2023

Four-star tackle JacQawn "Shaq" McRoy a slam dunk for Dan Lanning, A'lique Terry and the Ducks

 



Everyone will tell you that Shaq McRoy is big, but that isn't the heart of his story. 

Although McRoy is 6-8, 345, the number three offensive tackle in the country, his "why" can be found in his family, beginning with his eight-year-old sister, Rosa, who accompanied him on several of his recruiting trips.

He said to Richard Davenport of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, “We have different dads, but I still love her as if we had the same one. She is very goofy."

He calls her his little angel, the reason he works so hard at developing his gifts.

Football is a gateway to Shaq, a gateway to an education and a better life. A 3.3 student, he plans on majoring in business.

The SEC schools came knocking because of his rare frame and size, yet that isn't the only thing that sets him apart. He's athletic, mobile for a big man, and he has a sense of humor about it. His weight has been reported at 340, 350, 365. “Me and the scales have a long-distance relationship,” he told Davenport, with a laugh.

Even so, he can glide across the lane and slam it.

In football, that athletic ability translates to rare power and effectiveness. McRoy can stuff a defender inside, move out in front of a sweep, or box an edge rusher out of play, even all the way to the sideline or halfway back to the bus.

Even though Arkansas, Tennessee, Georgia, LSU, Auburn, Mississippi State, Louisville, Missouri, Nebraska and Kentucky all offered him, Shaq chose Oregon because of relationships, the confidence he had that A'lique Terry, Mike Cavanaugh. Cutter Leftwich and Dan Lanning would develop him, teach him how to refine his game and sharpen the techniques that will make him successful at the next level, but they also cared about him as a person. "It felt like family," he said. A big guy from Pinson, Alabama, he also liked the idea of escaping the southern heat. "I like the cold."

If he applies himself to this new opportunity in the weight room and the classroom, football will allow him to go anywhere he wants and live in a fine house. Rosa too.

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