Xavier Restrepo blog: Football at age 4, a family-instilled work ethic, and a Miami Hurricanes WR room that needs to step up

Presented by Gonzalez & Cartwright

Miami Hurricanes WR Xavier Restrepo will have a weekly blog all season at CaneSport.com. In this edition, Restrepo talks about his background, where he gets his work ethic from, how his Miami recruitment didn’t quite go as planned and how the receivers are performing so far this fall:

Growing up football was always my sport. I started playing when I was 4. My parents actually went to sign me up for flag football, and the coach with the Coconut Creek Eagles, he stopped my family and I don’t know why he did but obviously just things happen for a reason.

He stopped my parents, said he should come play tackle football. And I played on the Mighty Mites over there, the Peewee division. The first year, I didn’t really play much. But as I grew into football and started knowing football, I started playing more and more. That’s how I started playing football.

As a kid I was a running back and linebacker until I got to eighth grade when I started playing safety and running back. I didn’t start playing receiver till my 10^th grade year at Monarch. In ninth grade, I was only on defense at corner, would play receiver, running back, and quarterback here and there. My sophomore year, I grew into more of an athlete, played quarterback a lot, running back and receiver on occasions, defense as well.

Looking back, no one’s ever told me `Oh, you’re going to be that guy’ except my parents. Even them, they were harsh on me, always kept me grounded. They never told me `Oh, you’re going to be the best thing since sliced bread.’ I just always had that competitive nature in me, knew internally that I had what it took. So I’d say my third year of football, it was a preseason, I was seven years old. I had 14 carries, 11 touchdowns in preseason scrimmages and stuff like that.

I wasn’t always the biggest, fastest or strongest but have always been super competitive in everything I’ve done. And my intelligence of the game, that’s what has separated me, my IQ.

My whole life I grew up playing Madden and my uncles used to play high school football. So just being around football 24/7, it just comes naturally.

HOW I LEARNED THE VALUE OF HARD WORK

Ever since I was 6, 7, my dad would train me before school, like 5 o’clock in the morning. After school I’d have practice, then do sprints after practice with him, just a whole bunch of stuff.

My dad has always been very involved with my athletic life, my other life as well. He’s been harsh on me my entire life about athletics. Ever since I could walk he had some type of ball in my hand. When I played Little League, words can’t describe what we went through. Just me and him, late nights, early mornings, crying – blood, sweat, tears, all that. It was running, falling, scrapes on my knees. We got after it.

I have zero regrets about it. My whole entire life, I have zero regrets. Even in high school, he was training me super hard. And from sixth to eighth grade, I’d wake up at 4:30 in the morning, he’d take me to go train super early in the morning. It was so early that I was able to take a shower, eat and make it to class by 8 o’clock. I’d go through school, get good grades – I had a 4.0 GPA in high school, 1300 on the SAT. I’d do that in the morning, then right after school I’d train again, go to practice after that.

My dad’s always been hard on me, and my mom with school, stuff translates. Coach Cristobal even says it: How you do anything is how you do everything.

My mom, she’s an insurance broker, and she’s just always been hard on me, really cared for me. My mom had me when she was 15. She had a full ride scholarship to FSU for softball at the age of 14, then had a baby so all that ended.

Me and her always had a close relationship. She’s been like my best friend my whole life. With her, school projects, we stayed up till 12 at night. She always made sure I was on deck with everything.

THE HIGH SCHOOL YEARS

When I got to high school, everybody was like `Don’t expect to play,’ this and that. Deep back in my mind I’m like `I’m playing no matter what.’

I just have that competitive nature about me where I can’t just sit down. I can’t just sit on the side and just watch, you know? So freshman year we went through, were going in preseason and I got in a month before our first preseason game and all the coaches basically treated me like a freshman. But I came in there, I’d been lifting, so I skipped that newbie lifting program for freshmen. As soon as the ball got placed down, it was over. I started on varsity as a freshman.

I got my first college offer going into my junior year when I transferred to St. Thomas. It was Jan. 4 when I got it, my first offer from Vanderbilt. I was actually sleeping because I had training that day and Coach Roger Harriott was at the high school coaches convention. I had two missed calls from Coach Harriott. I’m like `Should I be worried?’ because I was just transferring there, had my transcripts and all that. So I call him, he’s like `Did you know you had an offer from Purdue and some other school when you were at Monarch?’ I’m like, `No, I didn’t know.’ He’s like `Well, I’m at this coaches convention, and showing these guys your sophomore tape, and I wanted to let you know you just received an offer from Vanderbilt. It just took all the breath out of my lungs. I had the phone on speakerphone, my mom and dad were sitting right there. I’d never seen my dad cry a day in my life and he just started breaking down in tears.

I got four offers in 24 hours, it was Vanderbilt, Louisville, Kentucky and Purdue. Those were my first four offers. My dad was driving me to training and I was getting calls every 15 minutes from coach Harriott. It was pretty funny. I was just blessed and thankful.

MY DISAPPEARING MIAMI SCHOLARSHIP OFFER

Miami was my seventh offer, actually. It’s ironic since I wear No. 7. It was on Feb. 1 of my sophomore year. I originally got offered by Coach Banda to play nickel back and safety with coach Diaz as defensive coordinator. When Diaz was defensive coordinator they gave me that offer, then they switched positions for me because I was more of an offensive threat and he became head coach.

All four years of high school I played both ways – at Monarch, St. Thomas and Deerfield. I’d always been in contact with coach Diaz. Just one day he swung by the school and he was like `We want to give you an offer.’ It was crazy, it was my seventh offer, was just crazy.  I wound up with 30 offers, eight from Ivy League teams.

That summer before my junior year I went to a junior day over here (at Miami) and I tried to commit and they said `Oh, something happened with the old offensive coordinator, they had one spot left and they didn’t want me necessarily.’ That’s what they said, they don’t want me without saying it.

A few months later, – because coach Hickson ended up coming to my high school practice at Deerfield – Coach Diaz was like `This is who we need.’ Coach Diaz called me later that night, explained the whole situation, that the old offensive coordinator didn’t like me, then Dan Enos sat down and said, `Yeah, we want this kid.’ That was spring of my senior year. So it took a while.

It was definitely devastating when they initially didn’t want me. Knowing you want something, everything is at the tip of your fingers and not being able to go there, it was kind of confidence crushing. But at the end of the day, that just taught me a lesson that you have to know your value. That’s just basically what I came to a conclusion on, just knowing your value and knowing what you’re worth.

I’ve grown up in Miami, it was just my dream school. Plus the coaching staff, I was super comfortable with them and felt this was the place for me. Miami was my only official visit.

THE WORK AS A MIAMI HURRICANE

I’ve been doing this (working hard) my entire life, so it’s nothing new. What my dad always told me is `You want to prepare now so nothing catches you off-guard later.’

This is my third year here. I haven’t had a real chance to do a lot before this, which definitely was hard. But every mentor I’ve talked to, I’ve talked to so many people that have been through this entire process, and they are like `Look, I know the type of competitor you are, but just trust the process.’

That’s what I’ve been doing, just working my tail off, trying to be the best version of me, the best version of what the coaches want. I’ve been grinding and just adapting to the culture. I’m finally going to get an opportunity this year, and I can’t wait for it.

I’ve studied a lot of film, all the time on NFL guys. I watch dudes that have come from here that are straight dogs – Andre Johnson, Santana Moss. All those guys. They have highlight tapes and film, and whenever I’m not doing something, I’ll just sit down in the receiver room and just watch.

With coach Gattis’ offense, watching what he did at Michigan, it’s exciting to see how they worked around coach Gattis’ play calls. Coach Gattis, I can’t wait to play for him. He’s just awesome, a down-to-earth person. What I love about him most is everything is not football. Sometimes we have receiver meetings, and he sits us down and talks about life. That’s what I respect most about him. It should just be a fun year.

WR ROOM HAS LONG WAY TO GO, BUT WE’LL GET THERE

People ask if the receivers are living up to the Miami standard? Oh, absolutely not. We have a long way to go. But I feel if we just buy in, we’ll get there within these next two weeks. We just need to get better overall. Mindset, physical, mentally obviously. Just everything. Emotionally, taking constructive criticism. Just everything. But I’m really happy with the guys we have in the room right now and I can’t wait to take the field with them because I know we’ll be ready.

We’re all ballers, everybody in the receivers room. It’s just a matter of time for when we all buy in as a group and just put it all on the table, say we’re going to trust the process and whatever happens, happens.

ME, AT MY CORE

In Xavier Restrepo you’ll get the most passionate football player/student-athlete/person. Just know that every time I step on the field that I’m going to give everything I have whether I risk my body or not. And just know that I’m going to try to win every single game. When they hear `Xavier Restrepo,’ just know that it’s a person you can come up to off the field, just an all-around good person.