PI EXCLUSIVE: A Q&A with Oregon OL Transfer Dawson Jaramillo

NC State picked up a commitment from Oregon Offensive Lineman Dawson Jaramillo on Monday. I caught up with Dawson to get his thoughts on choosing to run with the Wolfpack, and what his experience was like on his Official Visit this past weekend.

Honestly, I didn’t have a lot of interest coming from the East coming out of High School. I had an offer from Virginia, which is how I met Coach Tujague. When I was coming out of High School, I don’t think I was mature enough to move across the country. Eugene is an hour from where I grew up. My family was able to come down to all of the games. I did 5 years at Oregon, and I loved it. It was the best thing I could have done. As I have gotten older, I don’t think I want to live in Oregon, and I wanted to try somewhere new. 

When I hopped in the Portal, and Coach Tujague hit me up, he was like ‘I’m at NC State’, and I was like ‘That sounds really cool. That’s right in the sweet spot of where I wanted to potentially live. 

I came on the visit not knowing a ton about NC State, but I learned a ton. I think the Research Triangle is really interesting and unique. I just really enjoyed the visit and love the people there. Coach Doeren and Coach Tujague were amazing. I got to talk football with Coach Tujague, and it was an easy decision for me to choose there. 

I got a business degree from Oregon. They are famous for their Sports Business. I got a General Business degree with an emphasis on Sports. I graduated in June, and started a MBA there. I’m really interested in Business, and sales, and relationships. I’m really passionate about golf. I think working in the golf world would be really cool. I think organizing golf tournaments would be really sweet. I found a Masters program I can do at NC State that I’m really excited about. We went to Lonnie Pool and had dinner there. I’m wearing a Lonnie Pool hat right now. Hopefully I’ll be able to play there a bunch. 

I think in my 5 years at Oregon I matured a ton. I came to understand what’s important in life. That’s how I’m able to come across the country and go to a new school. Also, my little brother got to come and play football with me at Oregon, which was really cool, because we didn’t get to play together in high school. I’ve learned that relationships are the most important thing. As someone who has influence, you can really impact people in a positive or negative way. Understanding that, you can really do a lot of good stuff for people, whether that’s fans, or going to sports camps and helping kids out. For me to be able to do that for kids is really cool, and something I enjoy. 

The highlight of my visit was sitting down with Coach Tujague and watching film. Talking about calls and plays. Him and I were jiving talking ball. The way that he coaches is the way that I enjoy to be coached. I’m really excited to have all of those coaches pouring into me. I think I’m going to get a lot better. It’s going to be the perfect storm, if you will. I’m excited to get there and get to work. 

Something else that stood out that Coach Tujague mentioned to me, was that the guys in the O-Line room love football, whether it’s getting in extra work, or doing individual drills in the offseason, or watching film. I’m thankful to be coming into an environment where guys love football. 

I think my dad had a mullet when he was younger. My little brother has one. I started growing it, because I used to play baseball in high school, and I liked the way it came out the back of my hat. There were some prominent baseball players like Troy Tulowitzki and Charlie Blackmon that had filthy mullets. They were kind of an inspiration for me. Overtime I was introduced to John Daly and his whole aura. He had a nice one back in the early 90’s. I literally went to my mom’s hair dresser, and I showed her a picture of John Daly from 1992, and said ‘make me look like this.’ 

My girlfriend played volleyball at UNC for 2 years. She’s been giving me flack and making fun of me, but I was like ‘Jokes on you, because you have to wear Red and Black now when you come to my games.