Rakeem Cato

Rakeem Cato

refer to caption

Cato while at Marshall
No. 12 Montreal Alouettes
Position: Quarterback
Personal information
Date of birth: (1992-03-28) March 28, 1992
Place of birth: Liberty City, Florida
Height: 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Weight: 181 lb (82 kg)
Career information
High school: West River Village (FL) Miami Central
College: Marshall
Undrafted: 2015
Career history
Roster status: Active
CFL status: International
Career highlights and awards

Rakeem Cato (born March 28, 1992) is an American professional Canadian football quarterback for the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League (CFL). He played college football at Marshall and was the Thundering Herd's starting quarterback from 2011 to 2014.

Early years

Cato attended Miami Central High School in West Little River, Florida. During his career he passed for 9,412 yards with 103 touchdowns and 23 interceptions. He also holds numerous Miami-Dade County passing records.[1][2]

College career

As a freshman in 2011, Cato completed 182 of 304 passes for 2,059 yards with 15 touchdowns and 11 interceptions.

As a sophomore in 2012, leading the nation in passing yards per game, he completed 406 of 584 passes for 4,201 yards with 37 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. With an outstanding season he won the Conference USA MVP.[3]

His 2013 season held much promise with Cato being placed on the 2013 Players to Watch by The Touchdown Club of Columbus, and early on was already in the running of the 2013 Sammy Baugh award.[4] Cato was also on the 2013 Maxwell Award watch list[5] along with the Manning Award watch list.[6] He ended the 2013 season with 39 touchdown passes, matching Chad Pennington's Marshall record for touchdown passes in a single season.[7] Cato was named MVP in the 2013 Military Bowl victory over Maryland.[8]

Cato returned as the starter his senior season in 2014. On October 18, 2014, Cato threw a touchdown pass in his 39th consecutive game, breaking Russell Wilson's FBS record for most consecutive games with at least one touchdown pass.[9] He finished the season with 3,903 yards, 40 touchdowns and 13 interceptions.

Cato finished his career with a school record 14,079 passing yards and 131 passing touchdowns.

Career statistics

Passing
Season GP–GS Comp–Att Pct. Yards TD INT Long Avg/G
2011 13–10 182–304 59.9 2,059 15 11 77 158.4
2012 12–12 406–584 69.5 4,201 37 11 72 350.1
2013 14–14 298–499 59.7 3,916 39 9 58 279.7
2014 14–14 267–451 59.2 3,903 40 13 77 278.8
Totals 53–50 1,153–1,838 62.7 14,079 131 44 77 265.6
Rushing
Season GP–GS Att Yards Avg TD Long Avg/G
2011 13–10 57 32 0.6 0 11 2.5
2012 12–12 57 31 0.5 1 20 2.6
2013 14–14 99 294 3.0 6 23 21.0
2014 14–14 94 482 5.1 8 63 34.4
Totals 53–50 307 839 2.7 13 63 15.8

[10]

Professional career

Despite an impressive college career, Cato went undrafted during the 2015 NFL draft. On May 7, Cato was invited to a camp tryout with the Cleveland Browns. However, he was not signed.[11]

Montreal Alouettes

On May 16, 2015 Cato signed a two-year deal with the CFL's Montreal Alouettes.[12] He started his first game for the Alouettes on July 3 against the Calgary Stampeders after Jonathan Crompton and Dan LeFevour sustained injuries in Week 1 against the Ottawa Redblacks. He threw a TD pass on his first drive as an Alouette. In the first half, Cato went 12–15 for 146 yards and 2 TDs. He continued in the second half with another TD scoring opening drive. Cato finished the game 20–25, 241 yards and 3 TDs for his first CFL win. For his efforts, Cato was named player of the game, with TSN analyst and CFL Hall of Fame quarterback Matt Dunigan characterizing his performance as "phenomenal."[13] He was named Player of the Week by the league for his performance against Calgary.[14]

Cato was one of three players chosen as Player of the Month for July in the CFL.[15]

Personal life

Cato was raised in Liberty City, a neighborhood in Miami, Florida, by his mother Juannese, who had worked two jobs to take care of her seven children. When Cato was thirteen, his mother died suddenly of pneumonia and his eighteen-year-old sister Shanrikia was granted custody of Cato and four other siblings. During his college career, Cato's father was released from prison, allowing Cato to meet him for the first time.[16] Cato is also father to two young girls.[17]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Central's Rakeem Cato looks to cap dream season with Florida championship". MaxPreps.com.
  2. ↑ "UCF prepares to contain Marshall prolific passer Rakeem Cato". tribunedigital-orlandosentinel.
  3. ↑ "C-USA Announces Football Players of the Year". conferenceusa.com.
  4. ↑ "HERDZONE.COM :: Official Athletic Site of Marshall Thundering Herd :: Football". herdzone.com.
  5. ↑ "Clowney, Manziel, Miller part of preseason list of 76 for Maxwell Award - CollegeFootballTalk". nbcsports.com.
  6. ↑ "HERDZONE.COM :: Official Athletic Site of Marshall Thundering Herd :: Football". herdzone.com.
  7. ↑ "WV MetroNews – Cato matches Pennington’s TD mark, earns bowl MVP". WV MetroNews.
  8. ↑ Prewitt, Alex (December 27, 2013). "Military Bowl: Marshall offense too much for Maryland in 31–20 victory". The Washington Post.
  9. ↑ "Rakeem Cato sets NCAA record". ESPN. October 18, 2014.
  10. ↑ "Rakeem Cato". ESPN.com.
  11. ↑ "Cato not signed by Cleveland Browns". The Herald-Dispatch. May 11, 2015.
  12. ↑ Traylor, Grant (May 16, 2015). "Cato signs to play in Canada". The Herald-Dispatch.
  13. ↑ "Cato opens strong for Alouettes". The Herald-Dispatch. 4 July 2015. Retrieved 4 July 2015.
  14. ↑ "Rakeem Cato joueur de la semaine dans la LCF". Radio-Canada (in French). 7 July 2015. Retrieved 8 July 2015.
  15. ↑ "Trevor Harris, Rakeem Cato and Marcus Howard named CFL's top players for July". Canada.com (The Canadian Press). Retrieved 31 July 2015.
  16. ↑ Feldman, Bruce (28 September 2014). "How Rakeem Cato became pride of Liberty City, Marshall's star QB". FOX Sports. Retrieved 4 July 2015.
  17. ↑ http://www.herald-dispatch.com/x1238379775/Cato-shows-its-all-about-family-at-Herds-Fan-Day. Missing or empty |title= (help)

External links

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