Georgia Sports Blog FanShop

August 20, 2007

Rennie Curran: Inspirational Story


Rennie Curran (Image: Dean Legge. DawgPost.com)

Josh Kendall interviewed Rennie Curran, freshman linebacker for Georgia, about his native home land of Liberia, his upbringing and the opportunity and responsibility of being a Georgia Bulldog.

From the article:
Rennie Curran Sr. and Josie Curran moved to Atlanta from war torn Liberia before their only son was born, but that didn't stop the bloodshed from two separate civil wars that lasted a total of 11 years from reaching their suburban home.

When Rennie Curran Jr., now a true freshman linebacker at Georgia, was growing up, the Curran home was a safe house for friends and family seeking refuge from the strife. At one point, more than 12 people lived in the home, Josie Curran said.

"I had to give up my bed some nights, so it was just a real humbling experience," Rennie Curran said. That experience has never left Curran, nor has the lesson his parents have drilled into him again and again.
Mohamed Massaquoi is also from Liberia. Both of these guys have faced some unusually tough situations on their path to Athens. During Curran's recruitment, I wrote the following on this site.
I read in an interview somewhere that Massaquoi never talks about his Liberian heritage or his family's time there with the media. I don't blame him. After reading the CIA link above and glancing at the Wikipedia entry on Liberia, I wouldn't want to talk about it either.
Back to Rennie...Curran is a power packed, generously listed 5'11" 210 pounds of tackling whoop ass. Although a different continent entirely, his background and stature remind me of Dat Nguyen, the Texas A&M linebacker, who rewrote all the TAMU tackling records.

Nguyen's family immigrated from South Vietnam and he came up pretty hard. Nguyen was also a very undersized linebacker who consistently made play after play after play after play.

(Image: Nguyen. Dallas Morning News)

I can't wait to see how Curran develops.

See Also:
-- Curran won't redshirt - Savannah News (scroll way down to read it)
-- Updating the redshirt candidate list - Columbus Ledger
-- About Liberia - Wikipedia
-- Dat Nguyen Bio - Wikipedia

PWD

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

IIRC, MoMass is also of Liberian ancestry. Maybe there are more Liberians out there that want to be Dawgs. We have certainly had some good results so far, and everything about Rennie is so far is positive. He figures to lead the team in tackles whenever he gets regular PT.

Anonymous said...

Being in Charlotte, RC reminds me of another guy that was too small to play the position - Sam Mills. His career turned out okay.

 
Copyright 2009 Georgia Sports Blog. Powered by Blogger Blogger Templates create by Deluxe Templates. WP by Masterplan