Former Bishop Hendricken Hawk, Xavier Truss, put in the work all season long to break the starting line up with the Bulldogs in their 2021 Peach Bowl appearance vs Cincinnati.
Xavier Truss was the most sought after Blue Chip prospect in Rhode Island high school football. Truss entertained offers from all major BCS schools, eventually ending up in Georgia. Experts and local fans alike had Truss going to Penn State. All the coaches, analysits and writers had the Nittany Lions as Truss's perfect match. No one expected Athens, GA to be the final destination.
Georigia's football program is a perenial powerhouse and in the hot bed of southern football and have produced some of the biggest NFL names and highest draft picks in the last 25 years. Wynn, Michele, Chubb and Gurley to name a few of the recent players. Stafford, A.J. Green, D''andre Swiftaa little less recent. Then if we want to talk early 2000's and further there are Champ Bailey, Ben Watson, Richard Seymore, Garrison Hurst and before that the infamous Herschel Walker. So Truss chosing the Bulldogs was a big time power move coming out of little Rhody.
Truss earning his first start for the eighth ranked Bulldogs in the 2021 Peach Bowl is not only a huge moment for him and his family, but possibly for his career. Truss represented Rhode Island and Hawk's football well in the game. Eye test told me his overall performance should've received a high grade and was enough, with the play of his teammates to pull out a last second 24-21 victory over the Bearcats. The one point victory was scratched by a game ending safety of Cincinnati's QB with time expiring.
"We were so excited to see Xavier playing today in a New Years bowl game" Said Bishop hendricken High School head football coach Keith Croft.
Coach Croft has sent the last few years doing film clips, getting interviewed and hob nobbing with some of the biggest BCS football coaches in the country. The Hawk's football program has helped send Paye to Michigan, Truss to Geaorgia, Picard to Villanova and countelss others to URI, prep schools and other programs around the country. So on top of a fulltime day job and coaching the winningest football program in Rhode Island in the last two decades, Croft now has to spend even more free time keeping track of his former player's careers.
"It just goes to show how hard he worked. I am confident if he continues to work hard and learn from his coaches and teammates he will be an impact player at Georgia and have a bright future" said Croft.
During the game I posted on socila media about how awesome it was to be watching "X" on the field with the Dawgs on national TV, saying congrats to his Father, Steve Truss. Steve proceeded to facetime me from the stands at at the Peach Bowl with Xavier's Mother and a couple of others. You could tell how exicted they all were to be watching Xavier do work out on the field. He also showed me the desolation in the stands, fans scatttered like buck shot all of the staidum. I thought is was sad to see, but then again atleast Truss's parents got to experience this monumental event with him. I asked him how he tought Xavier was doing. In tough Dad fashion , he said he thoguth he got beat up a little in the third quarter... I was laughing so hard because it sounded like me talking about any of my kids when they are playing, it was funny to hear.
"I'm Just impressed with his composure through all this. Then to have his first start be in a bowl game is amazing. I couldnt be more proud of my son for representing our hometown and our state on a big stage like this" said Steve Truss