“They kind of try to kill you to see what
your motivation is,” Whitfield said. “You have
to do 5 a.m. workouts for a full year and kind
of get your butt kicked just to show that this is
something that you want to do, instead of just
going out there and saying ‘I’m on the football
team, look at my jersey.’ ”
Most actually do quit. But, already behind
in conditioning and game planning, even those
who stay have virtually no shot at becoming
champions that season. Instead, they’re
automatically delegated to the scout team. It’s
still Michigan football, but the agency is lost.
Rather than having a jersey number, they wear
their opponents’.
“I hated scout team. I openly hated it,”
Whitfield said. “But you have to channel
that, and I tried to channel that into basically
kicking the ass of anyone who lined up against
me or trying to make the defense look as bad as
possible whenever I got the ball.”
Earning respect is equally hard. Players are
skeptical of newcomers without a full summer
of practicing and do their best to test out the
new guys.
Whitfield remembered this clearly. During
practice, he broke through a hole in the line
with plenty of daylight. That daylight was
sealed quickly by linebacker Jake Ryan, now
a linebacker for the Green Bay Packers. The
6-foot-3 Ryan crushed the 5-foot-4 Whitfield’s
body, but not his spirit.
“A lot of people were looking at me seeing
how I would handle being popped like that,”
Whitfield said. “I got right back up, and after
that, people kind of joked about it, but I think
they saw then that I wasn’t going to quit — I was
a part of the team.”
Getting hit by Ryan is tough, but the mental
perseverance of pushing yourself even though
you won’t see the field all season, maybe ever,
is the tougher challenge. If you can’t find the
motivation yourself, you don’t have to look far
at Michigan.
***
Michigan has been among the premier
collegiate football programs in the country
for some time, and its walk-on players are no
exception.
Former Michigan coach Bo Schembechler
famously pushed his scout team and walk-ons
harder than other schools, even chasing down
scout team quarterback John Paciorek in 1985
when he heard Paciorek planned on quitting.
He eventually gave the gunslinger his
blessing to leave the program, but the message
was clear.
“That Bo would even take the time out for
a guy like me means more than you could ever
imagine,” Paciorek told The Michigan Today in
2011.
Astute Michigan fans will know that the
starting quarterback the year Paciorek quit
was current Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh.
Though a scholarship player, Harbaugh himself
spent 1982 on the scout team and never lost
track of the importance of the walk-ons.
This came to fruition after Harbaugh’s first
win as a coach at Michigan. After defeating
Oregon State, 35-7, Harbaugh took all of
30 seconds in his press conference before
mentioning the key to success.
“I thought this (game) was won with the
week of practice,” Harbaugh said. “Everybody
contributed. The look team, the scout team,
had its best week. Guys really challenging (the
starters) made those practices extremely good.
“Hopefully this shows our team that these
games can be won during the week. ... Our
look squad was playing inspired. They were
challenging, not just out there.”
Harbaugh’s boss, interim Athletic Director
Jim Hackett, stood off to the side, beaming.
Schembechler once called him “the best demo
team center in the whole
country.”
Never mind that it had
been decades since Hackett’s
playing days. The effort
bubbled
through
to
the
surface for Schembechler,
and Harbaugh was having
similar sentiments with his
2015 team.
Some may dismiss the
words as coach talk, but Whitfield, who went
through the coach’s famous ‘submarine’
training camp, insists Harbaugh practices what
he preaches, and that walk-ons and future NFL
draft picks have a chance to shine.
“During this fall camp, it was the only time
I’ve seen or heard of a scout team that had
so many moving parts and so many starters
taking reps on the scout team,” Whitfield said.
“Literally any day, anyone could be on scout
team, so we were constantly competing and
constantly rolling that depth chart.”
***
The dream for every walk-on is to shed
that title. With players retiring, graduating or
not making it to campus,
occasional
scholarship
openings come up.
Just before the Oregon
State game, Allen and senior
linebacker
Dan
Liesman
were the fortunate ones to
live that dream.
Through
gimmicks,
surprises and viral videos,
other programs make a fuss
about walk-ons getting scholarships. Under
Harbaugh, who avoids gimmicks like the
plague, it’s nothing more than a brief meeting
and a handshake.
It may seem callous or unappreciative, but on
the inside, it’s simply the recognition that walk-
ons were a part of the team all along.
Fifth-year senior fullback Joe Kerridge,
who earned his scholarship two years and one
day before being named team captain for this
season, thinks this is the way to go. Kerridge
nearly ended his career in high school due to
a knee injury, but he earned an opportunity at
Michigan. From then on, he was a nameless
face sweating it all out in training camp, finding
motivation in the quotes his father sent him
every day.
Among them:
Lead with silence, let your success do the
talking.
For Kerridge, the light turned on. Suddenly
the seemingly futile scout-team reps, the Friday
workouts while the team traveled and the lack
of scholarship meant something: The success
doesn’t come from being noticed, it comes from
contributing every day.
“It’s been a climb for me over these years,”
Kerridge said. “Starting out as a walk-on, I tore
my ACL in high school, I came in and had to
fight through everything, finally was awarded
that scholarship.”
It may seem like a lot of effort to be on the
team, but that’s just how the walk-ons like it.
Walk-ons savor
opportunity on Michigan
football team
By ZACH SHAW
Daily Sports Editor
The road to glory is paved with AstroTurf
and illuminated by early-morning streetlights.
If you want to walk onto the Michigan
football team, you’ll find that out quickly.
You’ll also find out that practice starts at 4:45
a.m., not the listed 5:00 start time. You’ll only
make that mistake once.
You’ll soon realize that the road to glory
is also paved with pain. Maybe it’s getting
blown up on the scout team by a future NFL
linebacker, maybe it’s holding a 45-pound plate
over your head just because coach said so, or
maybe it’s sitting in your room at home while
your teammates enjoy a trip to Salt Lake City.
Regardless, without a scholarship, the coaches
don’t owe you anything, and they aren’t afraid
to remind you.
Walk-on football players are buried in
pads, buried in student loans and buried on
the depth chart. Free time and energy are as
scarce as playing time and recognition.
But the largely anonymous Wolverines
lace up their cleats and savor it anyways,
and Michigan simply wouldn’t be the same
without them.
***
There’s no way to offer someone a walk-on
opportunity without it being awkward.
You can try to tell a linebacker that he’s
undersized, or assure a cornerback that you just
want to see how he recovers from injury, or tell
a fullback that fullbacks don’t get scholarships
anymore.
You can tell them whatever you want, but
every walk-on can read between your lines:
Your team has a limit to how many scholarships
it can give out, and you didn’t make the cut.
“When you go in as a walk-on, you don’t
expect anything,” said ex-linebacker Mark
Lawson, who walked onto the 2012 team after
being an all-state linebacker in high school.
“You really start from the bottom. You’re on
the team, but you have the extra motive that,
technically, you weren’t good enough for them
to give you a scholarship, and you have to prove
to everyone that you deserve to be there.”
Even with the slight, it was tough for Lawson
to consider anywhere but Michigan. Few
schools can offer a top-flight education, are
close to his Grand Rapids home and happen to
boast a football team he grew up rooting for.
Lawson is hardly alone, either. Of the 38
walk-ons on Michigan’s latest roster, 25 are
from the state of Michigan. Many of them
turned down financial aid elsewhere to don the
winged helmet.
Among those to make such a decision was
kicker Kenny Allen, a senior from Fenton. The
kicker had scholarship offers to Oregon State
and Central Michigan and was in talks with
other Big Ten schools, but he was drawn to Ann
Arbor after years of spring games and football
Saturdays.
“For me it was pretty easy — I always knew
I wanted to come here,” Allen said. “It’s my
dream school. I’ve always wanted to play for
Michigan.
“It’s always in the back of everyone’s mind
who’s still paying tuition, but
I don’t think it was my first
priority. I’m fine paying my
student loans. I just want to
play football and contribute.”
Fueled by pride with
an
opportunity
in
tow,
Allen, Lawson and dozens
more make the trek to
Schembechler Hall. They
know they’re the underdogs
yearning for playing time,
but they’re prepared to go after the starters’
jobs anyway.
***
The term ‘walk-on’ is an overstatement these
days.
Generations ago, Michigan would carry as
many scholarship football players as it could
afford, often over 150, so any player on the
team who didn’t earn a scholarship joined only
by walking to practice one day and making a
tryout — literally walking on.
But with many schools facing budget crises
after the advent of Title IX and smaller schools
struggling to make it in a sport dominated by
dynasties, the NCAA limited scholarships to
105 in 1973. They ruled to bring that total down
to 95 in 1978 and 85 in 1992, a cap that remains
in place today.
Suddenly
the
walk-ons
were
players
previously offered scholarships, and the days
when an athlete could literally walk on to the
Michigan
football
team
were effectively over.
Today, players have to
hustle their way through
discussions with coaches
and recruiters, run through
drills at camps and jump
through hoops just to get
noticed enough for a spot at
practice.
“I felt like I really had to
sell myself,” said one former
player who spoke to the Daily on the condition
of anonymity. “I was a three-star recruit, and
(Michigan) State was ready to welcome me with
open arms, but I had to heckle Michigan with
my highlight video before they even noticed.”
The vast majority of walk-ons at Michigan
could have taken a scholarship elsewhere,
but instead took the uphill option with the
Wolverines.
If they’re talented enough to play but not
talented enough to earn a scholarship, they join
20 or so others — known as preferred walk-ons
— who make the initial 105-man roster.
Preferred walk-ons join the team in
June, and are able to train with the team all
summer and attend training camp with the
scholarship players. They receive access to
facilities, training tables, tutors and most other
scholarship benefits — except the free tuition.
Despite the distinction, the preferred walk-
ons are welcomed by the rest of the team, on
one condition: effort.
“Once you’re on the team, they don’t care
about your title,” Allen said. “They care about if
you are going to put in effort. You could be from
Alaska, you could be a negative-five-star recruit
for all they care. But if you come in and you give
everything you’ve got, they respect you.”
Added senior Antonio Whitfield, who played
for the team from January 2014 until last week:
“As a walk-on, your opportunities might not
be as as frequent as guys with a scholarship,
but you’re going to get opportunities. … If you
look at scout team as an opportunity to prove
yourself, they’ll notice that, and they’ll find a
way to get you onto the field.”
Respect is earned in football. But what if you
never get that chance?
***
For the non-preferred walk-ons, life isn’t as
easy.
The “regular” walk-ons aren’t allowed in
training camp and preseason, so they have to
wait for the roster limit to be removed at the
start of the school year to formally try out. Even
then, gaining acceptance is no picnic.
“They make you go through the worst
workouts, both physically and mentally,”
Lawson said. “Like seeing how long you can
hold up a 40-pound plate.”
And that’s just on the first day.
5
TheMichiganDaily — www.michigandaily.com
FootballSaturday — September 19, 2015
4
JAMES COLLER/Daily
Fifth-year senior fullback Joe Kerridge walked onto the team and eventually earned a scholarship. Two years and one day later, he was named a team captain.
Senior Kenny Allen kicks off in Michigan’s opener at Utah. Allen earned a scholarship this season after three years as a walk-on.
ALLISON FARRAND/Daily
“Once you’re on
the team, they
don’t care about
your title.”
“I hated scout
team. I openly
hated it.”