A night watching Greg Rogers shows Arbor View lineman’s future is limitless
#TAOS
The Art of Success.
Greg Rogers wears the motto on a shirt tucked into his Arbor View High football uniform, a reminder of those qualities he believes it takes to be special.
Which, you have to think, includes not losing one’s mind after every chop block.
Our eyes follow the ball. It’s as natural a human reflex as yawning. But in hoping to understand what makes Rogers one of the nation’s top prep defensive linemen, I was determined to watch only him for every snap he was on the field against visiting Orem (Utah) on Friday night.
First impression: Rogers is really, really big, very much within range of his listed 6-foot-3, 310 pounds.
His aren’t legs as much as they are sequoia trunks.
Rogers transferred to Arbor View from Centennial for his senior season and will choose from a list of UCLA, Oklahoma, Colorado, Arizona State and Southern California on where to attend college.
He had his pick of, well, anywhere.
The Aggies beat Orem 31-6 — it removed some of the sting from a season-opening loss to Liberty the previous week — and yet you know things are sloppy when a high school game lasts nearly three hours.
At one point, I thought Arbor View had been flagged for every possible infraction except roughing a kicker.
Then it ran over the Orem punter.
Despite undisciplined play defined by a sea of yellow on both sides, Arbor View should emerge as one of the town’s best teams this season, assisted by that mammoth presence along the defensive front.
I’m not sure what scouting report Orem coaches viewed beforehand — it would seem Rogers is fairly tough to miss on film — but in choosing not to double-team him and instead oppose him one-on-one with kids who gave up as much as 85 pounds was a curious decision.
Funny. It actually didn’t hurt the Tigers as much as you might imagine.
A night of aiming my binoculars at No. 56 in red:
Rogers is like most great defensive tackles in that most of what he does well doesn’t show up on a stat sheet. The pressure he applies. The plays he alters and disrupts. He wasn’t dominant against smaller folks Friday, not by any stretch, but his presence is undeniable when the ball is snapped and he powers forward.
“He’s an amazing athlete with amazing gifts,” said Arbor View assistant Dave Crete, who has coached locally for more than two decades. “His first three steps are remarkable. We’ve worked with him on playing more under control. He is used to being so aggressive, but sometimes he needs to be patient and let the ball stay in front of him. We tell the kids all the time — if we keep the ball in front of us, we win.
“That’s the big challenge (for Rogers) — the finesse part of defense. But he has every gift God could give somebody to play defensive line, and he’s going to play it as long as he wants.”
The aggressive part gets him in trouble sometimes, like when Rogers jumped offside twice in the same second-quarter series and was replaced for a play, or when he was flagged for a personal foul that gave Orem a first down after being stopped short on third-and-9.
But when you are that much bigger and better than most, frustration will undoubtedly set in each time those across the line chop at your knees or, as happened on one snap Friday, simply give up the idea of blocking and instead tackle you, choosing a penalty over allowing one’s quarterback to get crushed.
Sometimes, it’s as much about controlling one’s emotions for Rogers as it is pursuing the ball.
“I get chop blocked a lot, but it’s something I just have to play through,” he said. “My goal is to always dominate the man in front of me. I wasn’t really happy with my performance (Friday). I can do much better, but we won and that’s what matters. I need to be better with my hands. I feel like I can overpower anyone in the state, but the technical side needs to continue improving.
“We play assignment football and yet the coaches give me a lot of freedom. They trust me to control the line of scrimmage. When (transferring from Centennial), I just wanted to be another piece to an already great team.”
Said Crete: “I tell him to consider it a compliment if all they can do is cut you. They can’t block you. But he gets upset because he’s still a kid.”
Rogers’ motor was there most snaps Friday and not others, which is hardly a huge revelation for a kid so young and big and constantly having his knees taken out. But he had a sack and tackle for loss on the final series he played late in the fourth quarter, and by then the poor Orem lineman listed at 225 pounds had seen far too much of Rogers to put up much of a fight.
A final impression while aiming my binoculars at No. 56 in red: Greg Rogers hasn’t scratched the surface of his immense potential. He doesn’t know yet how good he can be. He can play harder more often, but possesses every conceivable physical tool.
The sky is his limit, apparently guided by all the qualities of #TAOS.
Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be a heard on “Seat and Ed” on Fox Sports 1340 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. On Twitter: @edgraney.
