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[QUOTE="CuseLegacy, post: 1471886, member: 469"]
[URL]http://www.tampabay.com/sports/footballpreps/acl-tears-dont-necessarily-derail-the-recruiting-process/2244826[/URL]

[I]Junior quarterback Cade Weldon — one of Tampa Bay's top passers last season and a 6-foot-2, 190-pound Division I-A prospect — carried the weight of those expectations square on his shoulders.

The Dragons hadn't made it very far in the playoffs since winning the Class 3A championship in 2010. But before the season began, coach Jeremy Earle had a gut feeling all of that was about to change.

"Playing 11 games last year and being able to experience all the different scenarios, you can't really simulate in practice. It's just really set him apart as compared to last year," Earle said of his starting quarterback before a preseason practice. "To be able to have the position with the quarterback, it's very eerie the similarities of how 2010, 2009 and all that went down."

But in the first quarter of the season opener, all of that came crashing down.

Weldon tore his ACL against Tampa Bay Tech, becoming the second 2,000-yard passer in Hillsborough County this year to go down with the season-ending injury. In July, Plant's Rex Culpepper tore his ACL during a 7-on-7 tournament at USF.

While their high school teams were left with big holes to fill, Culpepper and Weldon had their college futures to consider.

Culpepper, a 6-foot-3, 220-pound recruit, had committed to Syracuse just weeks before his injury, choosing the Orange over 14 other D-I offers. Still, Plant coach Robert Weiner said, the day of the injury, a million questions — including ones about his recruitment — ran through the quarterback's head.
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