Former Evans defensive star earns scholarship after walking on at Georgia
During the 2008 football season, Evans High School cruised to a perfect 10-0 regular season. One of the main reasons for Evans' success was the play of a pair of talented defensive ends, Nigel Charles and Reuben Faloughi.
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The duo was simply dominant for the Knights. Though Charles put up better numbers with 10 sacks and 16 tackles for loss, Faloughi drew raves for his potential, thanks to his speed and disciplined play.
As expected, Faloughi caught the eye of football recruiters. He had offers from a host of Division I-AA teams, including Furman University in Greenville, S.C.
However, there was another school monitoring Faloughi. The University of Georgia was also interested in the athletic defensive end. UGA wanted Faloughi as a preferred walk-on with the possibility of earning a scholarship the following year.
Georgia assistant Jon Fabris visited Evans nearly a half-dozen times. Showing that much attention to a potential walk-on was extremely rare, but apparently, it worked. Faloughi turned down the scholarship offers for a chance to suit up in the SEC.
From the moment he stepped foot in Athens he impressed the coaching staff with his work ethic. However, while UGA had offered the potential of a scholarship in year two, that is a rarity for walk-on players.
Faloughi, as it turns out, is not your average walk-on. He parlayed his hard work into two big things: Faloughi, now an outside linebacker, was named the Bulldogs' top defensive walk-on during spring drills and, at the conclusion of spring practice, head coach Mark Richt announced that Faloughi would now be on scholarship.
"We knew he was a very good player out of high school," Richt said earlier this week. "We knew he had other opportunities coming out of high school, but he really wanted to come to Georgia and prove he could do it. He's doing very well."
Faloughi will be a red-shirt freshman this fall for UGA. The 6-foot-5, 240-pound outside linebacker and UGA's newest scholarship player will wear No. 95 when the Bulldogs open the 2010 season in Athens on Sept. 4 against Louisiana-Lafayette.
Rowland continues to raise his average
Former Greenbrier High School standout Jeff Rowland had a monster game Wednesday night as Georgia Tech blasted Georgia 25-6. The 25 runs, and the 19-run margin of victory, set records in the series that dates back 112 years.
Rowland played a key role in the blowout win. The speedy centerfielder reached base seven times for the Jackets, going 4 for 5 at the plate with a pair of walks.
He drove in two runs and scored three, giving him a team-leading 51 runs scored in 32 games this season. He also leads Georgia Tech with five triples.
Rowland raised his season batting average to .331, with eight homers and an impressive .440 on-base percentage.
Georgia Tech improved to 28-5 on the season, while the Dogs drop to 11-22.