Oklahoma State University Athletics
Loyal and True: Dillon Rake
March 21, 2014 | Cowboy Football
March 21, 2014
STILLWATER, Okla. – “Loyal and True” is a feature that details the stories of walk-on players and other key contributors to the Oklahoma State football program who embody what it means to be a Cowboy. This edition features an interview with Southlake, Texas native Dillon Rake. His comments:
Linebacker Dillon Rake
On how he made the decision to walk-on at OSU
"It was a lot of Coach Gary Calcagno, who is the strength trainer at Oklahoma State. I played baseball my first semester, my fall semester in 2013. After playing baseball for a semester I decided that football was more my calling. It took Coach G and Coach Spencer and Coach Gundy talking to me right after Thanksgiving of my freshman year. They decided and I decided that walking on would be my best option for the team and the best option for me to get better and the best option for me to play football.”
On the walk-on process
“I found out I made the team pretty much right off the bat. They told me right after Thanksgiving. After that you go through the normal walk-on process where we ran a 40 and did all of our testing. Then they pretty much took me and three other guys straight into the off-season. The other walk-ons waited until spring ball to join the team, but they put the four of us straight into off-season and we started going from there.”
On if his family was excited about him playing football
“Absolutely. I come from a football-oriented family, especially coming from Texas and growing up in Southlake, Texas, which is a high school football powerhouse. My family definitely loves the fact that I'm playing football and they are very proud of me and they're always there at every game and practice they can be at.”
On the daily life for an OSU walk-on
“At a lot of schools it's very segregated between walk-ons and scholarship players. Here I feel like I'm treated like I'm on scholarship and there's really no difference. People call me the walk-on and talk to me like a walk-on and stuff like that, but when it comes to the team and it comes to the camaraderie of everybody, nobody treats any of us any differently, and we don't treat any of the scholarship players any differently. We're a team and we play as a team and everyone realizes that.”
On if he has always played linebacker
“I was a quarterback at first, but I've been a linebacker ever since my eighth grade year.”
On his goals
“My short-term goal is getting on the field. I'm in the special teams spots here in spring ball, so my short-term goal for next year is starting in that special teams spot and be on the traveling roster. Of course my long-term goal, as every walk-on would say, is to be able to achieve a scholarship. That's something I think that every walk-on has in the back of his mind and is striving for every day. That's where we get a lot of our motivation and a lot of our 'want to' in everyday workouts – knowing there's more for us to achieve and to be able to get that scholarship.”
