Dante Rosario in his own words

"Well, I have not committed yet," Dante Rosario said. "Cause the coaches are not there. They are on vacation."

It is just technicality and time will solve the formal verbal commitment.

"It is my plan to commit," Rosario said. Coach Ferrigno is his recruiting coach and he won't be back until another 12 days. He may call back to coach Bellotti.

His reasons to commit to Oregon are firm in his mind and he will be a solid commitment.

"They have a really good football program," he said. "I'm pretty sure that I'm going to major in business. I went up there for student orientation and they have a really good business program. I have had it planned. I want to be a Duck. I like the atmosphere up there and definitely a good football program."

He is expecting to red-shirt the first year to allow himself to hit the weights and get stronger.

"I think they will red-shirt me and actually it doesn't matter. I can see why. It will give me another year to get into more weight training and speed training."

Rosario will play outside linebacker at Oregon. As a junior and again this coming saeson he will be playing combination safety-linebacker position on defense and running back on offense.

"Closing speed on the ball-carriers," he said about his strong points. "And my coverage on the tight ends and receivers."

Rosario was not familiar with all of his statistics from last season, but he had "eight to 10 tackles a game", which would translate into approximately 100 tackles for his junior year. He only had one sack, as his team did little blitzing and the one time that he did, "I got the sack."

"I rushed for over 700 yards and 14 rushing touchdowns. I had another 153 yards in receiving and five receiving touchdowns."

His only formal written offer was from Oregon, but he was hearing from Oregon State, Portland State, Arizona State and some Ivy League teams.

Rosario is 6-foot-4 and 225 pounds. He has run the 40-yard dash in 4.62 seconds at his high school. His best bench press was 260 pounds and his best squat has been 345 pounds. He carries a very good 3.4 grade point average. He will qualify academically without any problems.

Rosario made first-team all-league for both as a running back and as a linebacker and first-team all-state for 2-A Oregon football.

His goal for the coming year is to lead his team to the state championship and "have fun with my teammates." At Oregon it will be to "be the best I can be, as far as football and with my education."

What would you say to the Duck fans?

"I would just say it is an honor for me to play at Oregon and hope I don't disappoint them. I hope to succeed in my goals."

He will not be taking any other official visits to any other colleges.