Jordan Dizon Named BigXII Defensive Player of the Year
filed in Awards on Nov.27, 2007 by Skye
Way to go Island boy! Dizon is the first Buff to receive this honor. He was also (obviously) named to the All-Big XII first team.
Dizon has been a rock for 4 straight years, and I really don’t know if I can express to you how amazing it is for me to see him doing this. I was born on the same island, in the same hospital. It’s a SMALL island. To put things in perspective, Kauai’s year round population at the time of Dizon’s birth could have been seated at Folsom field… Twice! If you drove to Denver from Boulder, you would have traveled the entire width of the Kauai.
Even now, Folsom could almost sit everyone on the island of Kauai down for a little football. That Kauai has produced such a physically talented prospect (I don’t care if he isn’t big, the man can PLAY) continues to astound me. That is not even the most impressive thing about Dizon. The most impressive thing about Dizon is that he has the brains and dedication to take advantage of everything that is given to him. The islands produce many impressive physical specimens. Sadly, many of them get “island fever” and soon head home when winter hits and the realization that its actually COLD overwhelms them. You cannot travel very far in Hawaii. Any trip farther then 30 miles or so gets very expensive as it will require either a boat or a plane. The expense of traveling to and from Hawaii after leaving makes it even worse, as once you are gone, it is not easy to just visit home to recharge your batteries. This guy was strong enough to leave paradise and continually improve himself despite some of the darkest times this program has faced in its history.
Dizon was a very lightly recruited 2-star RB coming out of High School. Within 3 months of graduating, Dizon was a starting linebacker for CU after having never played the position. He never relinquished his job and was named the BigXII Defensive Freshman of the Year. With an impressive final game against Nebraska, Dizon clinched his second BigXII award with the much more prestigious overall Defensive Player of the Year award.
Let us hope he continues to have awards plastered to his name (Butkus? Butkus? Dick Butkus anyone?) I look forward to seeing him put onto our ring of fame in a few years.
Weird fact of the season: After watching the game and hearing Dizon’s named called on about 2000 tackles, my mom gave me a call. She let me know that she was the Doctor that oversaw the delivery of Dizon all those years ago. I told her: “Mom, thank god you didn’t screw that one up!”
True Story. I told you, it is a SMALL island. It even gave Stitch fits (Disney reference).
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November 27th, 2007 on 11:13 pm
congrats Jordan! i hope to see him with the butkus trophy here real soon!!! but way to go buffs it is looking like we will be fighting for our Independence! if all the projections are right Shreivport here we come! i dont understand how OSU gets the 6th seed ahead of us to go to Tempe??? can n e one explain that to me? i mean we both have 4-4 conf records….
November 28th, 2007 on 9:36 am
The bowl seedings are not based on records, they are the order in which the bowls pick the teams. When it is the bowl’s turn, they can pick any eligible team that they want. That being said, don’t worry too much until the bowls are actually chosen. There’s still a good chance that the Insight.com bowl will pick us. No matter where we end up, the extra practices are the best part.
November 30th, 2007 on 1:13 pm
Jordan Dizon is a STUD. I hope he wins the Butkus award, but I won’t be surprised if he doesn’t. If he doesn’t, I will just chalk it up to the “out of our time zone ignorance” that costs the Rockies gold gloves, Rookie of the year and NL MVP. I look for good things from him on Sundays in the near future.