North Carolina State University Athletics
Program Spotlight: Jamelle Eugene
12/2/2009 12:00:00 AM | Football
By Brandon Yopp
Jamelle Eugene almost didn’t make it here. After five seasons at NC State, the redshirt senior’s tenure with the Wolfpack is quickly coming to a close. Set to graduate December 19, the cap-and-gown ceremony will signal the end of a career that almost took place elsewhere.
The second youngest of five children to Yolanda and Paul Eugene, Jamelle grew up in Naples, Fla., woven into the fabric of a close-knit family. His father had seven siblings and his mother had six, extending the family tree and cultivating an unbreakable bond between the families.
That hasn’t changed to this day. Neither has his goal of playing in the National Football League, a goal that he all but etched in stone during the second grade.
“Football was something that was fun,” said Eugene. “I watched it growing up. One day my cousin asked me to come out and play Pop Warner with him, so I went out and played, and took it from there.”
Eugene signed on and joined the Naples Gators, immediately playing running back and nearly every position on defense. Several years later he moved across town to live with his grandmother, shifting school districts and bringing his Pop Warner career to a close because he refused to play against his friends on his former team.
Although the Pop Warner career was cut short, his passion for the game never wavered. He loved carrying the football, a trait he never let go of. Once he set his goal on being a player in the NFL, he knew that running the football would punch his ticket to the prime time.
Instilled with his father’s strong work ethic, Eugene trained relentlessly. He even convinced his mother to let him take the kitchen furniture out into the yard where he would orchestrate an elaborate training method. Eugene would stick chairs on top of the kitchen table, tie a rope around it and the other end of the rope around his waist. He would then pull the furniture all over the yard in an effort to strengthen his legs.
“I would see all these backs training on TV, running into sleds,” said Eugene. “I thought I was doing the same thing. It was all about making myself better.”
Eugene did get better in time, significantly better in fact. At Naples High he had an opportunity to play for one of the top prep programs in the country, where the varsity squad had won a state title during his freshman season while he was playing on the JV team.
Everyone expected a repeat performance the following year, with Eugene playing a major role for the varsity team. But when his knee suffered a colossal injury four games into the year he was faced with massive reconstruction surgery. A devastating blow during a game left him sidelined with tears to his ACL, MCL, PCL, quad and meniscus. The mental anguish arguably surpassed the physical discomfort.
“I had always been an athlete, and now I couldn’t even be athletic,” said Eugene. “It was real hard. God, family and friends - that’s how I got through that injury.”
He returned with brute force the following season, racking up 1,932 yards and 17 rushing scores while leading his team to a state runner-up finish and collecting Class 5A all-state first-team accolades. The word was out on his potential, and letters were flooding his mailbox, but if it wasn’t hand-written then he tossed it into the trash.
His first offer came from Eastern Michigan, but more schools entered the race as the spring semester of his junior year played out. Auburn was the first major program to extend an offer. Alabama, South Florida and numerous others followed suit shortly thereafter. At that point he knew that playing in college was inevitable. Rather than rest on his laurels however, he continued to train and work. He knew that the college game would be a stepping-stone to realizing his ultimate goal.
“My goal was to play in the NFL since the second grade,” said Eugene. “I knew that I would go to college. The best part was that my parents had been saving money since I was a little kid so that I would have an opportunity to go to college, but now I was in a situation where I would be able to make things easier on them by earning a scholarship.”
When Eugene’s senior season finally kicked off the expectations couldn’t have been higher. Naples was ranked in the top 25 nationally and a state championship seemed inevitable.
“The first five games of the year we were killing people,” said Eugene.
He would tote the ball for the first half and one series in the third quarter before sitting the rest of the way. Eugene and company were rolling along quite nicely, and he was even named USA Today National Player of the Week following a game in which he rushed for 273 yards. Then the bubble burst.
“About seven or eight games in I broke a toe and had to sit out until the playoffs,” said Eugene. “We wound up losing in the playoffs to a team we had no business losing to.
“Me being hurt and missing a lot of games, I didn’t put up a lot of numbers and I didn’t take the team to the state championship,” said Eugene. “It hurt.”
The absence of a state championship was beyond stunning to Eugene, who hadn’t even bothered to order a class ring at the beginning of his senior year because he knew that a championship ring was in the works.
“That’s how I wanted to remember my senior year,” said Eugene.
Making matters worse, Alabama pulled its scholarship offer after receiving commitments from two other backs. They told Eugene early on that they only had room for two backs in their recruiting class. Sadly, he was beaten to the punch by another commit, exactly one day before he planned on offering his services to then-head coach Mike Shula.
NC State eventually entered the picture when the Naples staff sent a highlight reel to Raleigh, where former head coach Chuck Amato and his staff had been mining the Sunshine State for talent. An offer was extended within a matter of days, and former assistant Todd Stroud flew down to visit.
At that point, Eugene had trimmed his selections down to South Florida and NC State by process of elimination. USF was an early leader because they offered earlier and had stuck with him through his injuries. But the potential at NC State was giving him second thoughts.
“I didn’t know anything about NC State, but I knew that God would make a way for me and point me in the right direction,” said Eugene.
After visiting both schools all that was left was making the actual decision. His aunt called and offered inspirational scripture, which he read. Following a period of prayer he decided on NC State about a week before signing day. The rest, as the old cliché goes, is history.
Eugene’s playing time in Raleigh hasn’t exactly been handed to him. He’s been forced to compete for snaps with the likes of Andre Brown and Toney Baker, yet he still entered his farewell season with over 1,000 career rushing yards. Last year he led the squad in rushing yards for three games, and was ranked 10th in the ACC in rushing against conference competition, despite missing time with injuries.
When he takes the field against North Carolina on Senior day Eugene will be toeing closer to that NFL line than he has ever been. Starting December 20, the day after he graduates, he will begin preparations for the draft, another step up the ladder in realizing his dream of becoming an NFL player. Along the way Eugene has enjoyed a solid collegiate career with the Pack, while becoming the first member of his family to graduate from college.
“It’s big,” said Eugene. “It’s an event. It shows what our family has come through over several different generations. I don’t know how many tickets I can get, but I have about 40 people that want to come and watch me graduate.”
Of course he wishes he had recorded better numbers while at NC State, but he’s never been the type of person to dwell on the past. Jamelle Eugene has always been, and more than likely always will be, about now. While he’s determined to make it in the NFL, he’s even more determined to provide for his family.
“God has really put things in perspective for me, trying to keep me content,” said Eugene. “He’s made me realize that my goal wasn’t to be an All-American in college. My goal is to play in the NFL and take care of my family. That’s the number one goal.”
Jamelle Eugene almost didn’t make it here. After five seasons at NC State, the redshirt senior’s tenure with the Wolfpack is quickly coming to a close. Set to graduate December 19, the cap-and-gown ceremony will signal the end of a career that almost took place elsewhere.
The second youngest of five children to Yolanda and Paul Eugene, Jamelle grew up in Naples, Fla., woven into the fabric of a close-knit family. His father had seven siblings and his mother had six, extending the family tree and cultivating an unbreakable bond between the families.
That hasn’t changed to this day. Neither has his goal of playing in the National Football League, a goal that he all but etched in stone during the second grade.
“Football was something that was fun,” said Eugene. “I watched it growing up. One day my cousin asked me to come out and play Pop Warner with him, so I went out and played, and took it from there.”
Eugene signed on and joined the Naples Gators, immediately playing running back and nearly every position on defense. Several years later he moved across town to live with his grandmother, shifting school districts and bringing his Pop Warner career to a close because he refused to play against his friends on his former team.
Although the Pop Warner career was cut short, his passion for the game never wavered. He loved carrying the football, a trait he never let go of. Once he set his goal on being a player in the NFL, he knew that running the football would punch his ticket to the prime time.
Instilled with his father’s strong work ethic, Eugene trained relentlessly. He even convinced his mother to let him take the kitchen furniture out into the yard where he would orchestrate an elaborate training method. Eugene would stick chairs on top of the kitchen table, tie a rope around it and the other end of the rope around his waist. He would then pull the furniture all over the yard in an effort to strengthen his legs.
“I would see all these backs training on TV, running into sleds,” said Eugene. “I thought I was doing the same thing. It was all about making myself better.”
Eugene did get better in time, significantly better in fact. At Naples High he had an opportunity to play for one of the top prep programs in the country, where the varsity squad had won a state title during his freshman season while he was playing on the JV team.
Everyone expected a repeat performance the following year, with Eugene playing a major role for the varsity team. But when his knee suffered a colossal injury four games into the year he was faced with massive reconstruction surgery. A devastating blow during a game left him sidelined with tears to his ACL, MCL, PCL, quad and meniscus. The mental anguish arguably surpassed the physical discomfort.
“I had always been an athlete, and now I couldn’t even be athletic,” said Eugene. “It was real hard. God, family and friends - that’s how I got through that injury.”
He returned with brute force the following season, racking up 1,932 yards and 17 rushing scores while leading his team to a state runner-up finish and collecting Class 5A all-state first-team accolades. The word was out on his potential, and letters were flooding his mailbox, but if it wasn’t hand-written then he tossed it into the trash.
His first offer came from Eastern Michigan, but more schools entered the race as the spring semester of his junior year played out. Auburn was the first major program to extend an offer. Alabama, South Florida and numerous others followed suit shortly thereafter. At that point he knew that playing in college was inevitable. Rather than rest on his laurels however, he continued to train and work. He knew that the college game would be a stepping-stone to realizing his ultimate goal.
“My goal was to play in the NFL since the second grade,” said Eugene. “I knew that I would go to college. The best part was that my parents had been saving money since I was a little kid so that I would have an opportunity to go to college, but now I was in a situation where I would be able to make things easier on them by earning a scholarship.”
When Eugene’s senior season finally kicked off the expectations couldn’t have been higher. Naples was ranked in the top 25 nationally and a state championship seemed inevitable.
“The first five games of the year we were killing people,” said Eugene.
He would tote the ball for the first half and one series in the third quarter before sitting the rest of the way. Eugene and company were rolling along quite nicely, and he was even named USA Today National Player of the Week following a game in which he rushed for 273 yards. Then the bubble burst.
“About seven or eight games in I broke a toe and had to sit out until the playoffs,” said Eugene. “We wound up losing in the playoffs to a team we had no business losing to.
“Me being hurt and missing a lot of games, I didn’t put up a lot of numbers and I didn’t take the team to the state championship,” said Eugene. “It hurt.”
The absence of a state championship was beyond stunning to Eugene, who hadn’t even bothered to order a class ring at the beginning of his senior year because he knew that a championship ring was in the works.
“That’s how I wanted to remember my senior year,” said Eugene.
Making matters worse, Alabama pulled its scholarship offer after receiving commitments from two other backs. They told Eugene early on that they only had room for two backs in their recruiting class. Sadly, he was beaten to the punch by another commit, exactly one day before he planned on offering his services to then-head coach Mike Shula.
NC State eventually entered the picture when the Naples staff sent a highlight reel to Raleigh, where former head coach Chuck Amato and his staff had been mining the Sunshine State for talent. An offer was extended within a matter of days, and former assistant Todd Stroud flew down to visit.
At that point, Eugene had trimmed his selections down to South Florida and NC State by process of elimination. USF was an early leader because they offered earlier and had stuck with him through his injuries. But the potential at NC State was giving him second thoughts.
“I didn’t know anything about NC State, but I knew that God would make a way for me and point me in the right direction,” said Eugene.
After visiting both schools all that was left was making the actual decision. His aunt called and offered inspirational scripture, which he read. Following a period of prayer he decided on NC State about a week before signing day. The rest, as the old cliché goes, is history.
Eugene’s playing time in Raleigh hasn’t exactly been handed to him. He’s been forced to compete for snaps with the likes of Andre Brown and Toney Baker, yet he still entered his farewell season with over 1,000 career rushing yards. Last year he led the squad in rushing yards for three games, and was ranked 10th in the ACC in rushing against conference competition, despite missing time with injuries.
When he takes the field against North Carolina on Senior day Eugene will be toeing closer to that NFL line than he has ever been. Starting December 20, the day after he graduates, he will begin preparations for the draft, another step up the ladder in realizing his dream of becoming an NFL player. Along the way Eugene has enjoyed a solid collegiate career with the Pack, while becoming the first member of his family to graduate from college.
“It’s big,” said Eugene. “It’s an event. It shows what our family has come through over several different generations. I don’t know how many tickets I can get, but I have about 40 people that want to come and watch me graduate.”
Of course he wishes he had recorded better numbers while at NC State, but he’s never been the type of person to dwell on the past. Jamelle Eugene has always been, and more than likely always will be, about now. While he’s determined to make it in the NFL, he’s even more determined to provide for his family.
“God has really put things in perspective for me, trying to keep me content,” said Eugene. “He’s made me realize that my goal wasn’t to be an All-American in college. My goal is to play in the NFL and take care of my family. That’s the number one goal.”
Coach Doeren Signing Day Presser (Dec. 3rd)
Wednesday, December 03
FB Players Postgame Presser vs UNC
Sunday, November 30
Coach Doeren Postgame Presser vs UNC
Sunday, November 30
Coach Doeren Weekly Press Conference (Nov. 24)
Monday, November 24