Giants' Cam Skattebo's toughness began during his childhood in Rio Linda, California
Arizona State's Cam Skattebo reacts after throwing a pass for a touchdown during the fourth quarter against the Texas Longhorns in the Peach Bowl on Jan. 1, 2025. Credit: Getty Images
Mike Morris still gets teased by his wife, Debbie, about stepping down as football coach at Rio Linda High School in California after the 2013 season.
Morris, who was coaching his son Matthew for his senior season, also had a fullback and linebacker on his team named Leo Skattebo. Debbie Morris attempted — unsuccessfully — to convince her husband to stay on the sidelines by issuing a warning about Leo’s younger brother.
“[She] said you need to keep coaching until Cameron gets here because he’s going to win everything and go to the NFL,” Mike Morris recalled. “‘They’re going to interview his head coach and it’s not going to be you.’ ”
Cameron is Arizona State running back Cam Skattebo, whom the Giants selected in the fourth round of the NFL Draft last Saturday. General manager Joe Schoen called Skattebo “one of our favorite players” to evaluate during the pre-draft process.
Skattebo’s journey took him from zero FBS college offers after his senior year of high school in 2019 to an Associated Press first-team All-American selection five years later. In between came a stop at Sacramento State in 2001-02.
“He’s a 220-pound back who runs with power, toughness, and has the type of personality we are looking for,” Giants coach Brian Daboll said. “I think Joe and the scouts did a great job of bringing in guys that have a lot of toughness.”
Morris said that in order to understand that toughness ahead of the Giants’ rookie minicamp (May 9-11), people need to know about where Skattebo comes from.
Rio Linda is about 30 minutes north of Sacramento and has a population of nearly 17,000. It’s a blue-collar town in which the high school football team isn’t always the most talented but takes pride in wearing teams down physically.
Skattebo surely fit that mold, but he also was a different caliber of athlete.
Not only did his brother Leo play at Bowling Green, but his father, Leo Sr., was a baseball and football player. The two passed those gifts on to Cam, whom Mike Morris called a “freak of nature,” even as a child.
“Cam just dominated at the youth level,” said Morris, who also coached Leo Sr. in high school and was Rio Linda’s athletic director when Cam Skattebo enrolled. “His dad was his youth coach and it was basically [run] Cameron left, [run] Cameron right and win a whole bunch of football games.”
Even then, Skattebo didn’t shy away from contact. It wasn’t surprising to see him barrel over defenders in a fashion similar to the way he did in college.
“Since the age of 6 years old, I’ve been doing the same thing,” Skattebo said on a recent conference call. “Throughout my life, I’ve stuck with the path that I’ve put myself on, and it’s working out.”
Skattebo lived up to expectations in his junior year of high school in 2018. He ran for 3,550 yards and 42 touchdowns and led Rio Linda to the California Interscholastic Federation 5-AA state championship.
Jack Garceau, Skattebo’s coach for three seasons at the school, sensed something was different the year before. From Skattebo’s first practice as a sophomore, Garceau saw he was gifted but also was determined not to just rely on his talents.
“It was his competitive fire. It was the unwillingness to be beaten by anybody and the willingness to take extra reps until he won,” Garceau said. “That was something that carried all the way through. That never stopped.”
That was clear in that 2018 state championship game on a play that went viral last season during Arizona State’s run to the Big 12 championship.
On Rio Linda’s second play from scrimmage, Skattebo shook off nearly all 11 defenders at various points during a 67-yard touchdown run. Defenders grabbed at his legs and his shoulders but couldn’t bring him down. Three defenders converged to tackle him at one point, but Skattebo pulled himself away and left them on the turf while he raced to the end zone.
“All our guys, they rallied around what he did and that just changed the complexion of the game,” Garceau said. “They realized how special and tough he actually was.”
Skattebo amassed 393 yards and three touchdowns that day.
That big-time performance foreshadowed what happened at the Peach Bowl with Arizona State in January. Skattebo struggled early in the game and was seen vomiting on the sideline. He still finished with 143 rushing yards, 99 receiving yards, two touchdowns and a 42-yard passing touchdown on a trick play. Despite the Sun Devils’ 39-31 loss in double overtime to Texas, Skattebo was named the game’s most outstanding player.
It was just another example of the toughness he learned in Rio Linda. Garceau and Morris expect more of the same with Skattebo in the NFL as he competes for carries behind the Giants’ Tyrone Tracy Jr. and Devin Singletary.
“He’s never backed down from work. That’s the one thing I can tell you 100% for sure,” Garceau said. “If he knows there’s work to be put in, he’s going to do more than what you ask him to put in. That’s just always the way that he’s been.”
Skattebo noted after being drafted that he’s been doubted before in his life. With no FBS college offers, he had to prove himself at Sacramento State. He had to do it again at Arizona State, where he ran for 1,711 yards and 21 touchdowns and had 605 receiving yards in his senior season.
Skattebo had to earn respect at each stop, and he expects to do the same with the Giants, carrying on the lessons he developed back home.
“The journey that I’ve been on has been a long one, but we’re here now, and to be a Giant, I’m blessed to be here,” Skattebo said. “I can’t wait to get to New York and start playing ball.”
Evan Barnes covers the Giants for Newsday. He previously covered the Brooklyn Nets, Memphis football and the Memphis Grizzlies and also covered prep sports in Los Angeles.
