Oregonian writer Mike Tokito has a great piece on C.J. Giles, "Leaving his Troubles Behind", one of the better stories written on C.J. to date.
Among other things, the article points out that C.J. came knocking on OSU's door, not the other way around.
"We've always had respect for coach John and his program," Jurdy said. "Trust me, he had a lot of other choices, but we wanted to send him to a place we felt was squeaky clean."
When practice for this season started, John kept Giles out for the first two weeks, saying Giles had fallen behind academically and needed to catch up.
"I think the influences that the coaches have had in holding him accountable and what they've done as far as helping him has made a big difference in his life," Jurdy said.
John took a good dose of criticism for signing Giles, but says he understood the facts better than his critics.
"I still fundamentally believe that whatever that line is where you go from deserving a second chance to, 'You blew all your chances,' wherever that arbitrary line is, in my view, he hadn't gone on the other side," John said. "Certainly I took a lot of heat on that, but I also felt that we had an infrastructure where things could work."
The article also talks about C.J.'s journey through high school and the first few years of college, and how he ended up back in Seattle after things didn't go right at Kansas. It's a good read for someone who wants some reassurance that C.J. has everything headed in the right direction, and will make a difference at Oregon State.
GO BEAVERS!
--JB--