Stars choose UW over scholarships
Anyone who has been to Camp Randall Stadium in the fall understands the appeal of the place.
The packed house. The sea of red. The team. The band. The way the fans make the stadium shake when “Jump Around” blares from the sound system. The gameday experience at the University of Wisconsin is hard to beat.
Now imagine you're a Wisconsin kid who has grown up as a fan of the team and now you're given a chance to be part of it all. How do you turn that down? If you're Amaun Williams, you don't.
“I knew once they offered me I was going to go, regardless of what kind of offer I got because it's the place I know I want to be,” the Milwaukee Riverside senior said. “I've visited there plenty of times. I'm always going. It's like the fans made me come, the coaches, the team. There's just so many people telling you that's the place to be.”
Wednesday marked the beginning of the regular signing period for Division I and II college football programs and Williams, like thousands of players across the nation, celebrated his commitment.
He is part of Wisconsin's 2020 recruiting class and as a preferred walkon, and hopes to join a group of players who have emerged as some of the program's greatest success stories.
He along with Marquette's Riley Nowakowski and Sean Timmis and Delavan-Darien's Ross Gengler are PWOs in the Badgers' recruiting class who are from the area. They're players who bypassed the opportunity to take scholarship money elsewhere for the chance pay their way and make their way at Wisconsin.
Why? The school's football tradition, academic reputation and success of other walk-ons all played a role.
“It's one of those things where you have to decide what is more important: earning the scholarship or having to pay tuition,” said Timmis, an offensive lineman. “I chose the walk-on spot, but for a lot of other people I understand why they go the scholarship route.”
To be a “preferred” walk-on means the player is guaranteed a spot on the team compared to a standard walk-on, who would have to try out to earn a spot.
PWOs might be a little undersized or a step slower than the typical player the school might recruit. Other times the player might having everything a team would look for but gets caught in a numbers game where the team has already filled its allotment of scholarship for that position.
No matter the reason a player ended up as a preferred walk-on, the Badgers' staff made a point of recruiting them hard.
“They were checking in on me all the time, even more than some of the schools that eventually offered me or I'd gotten a scholarship from,” Nowakowski said. “They treated me like any other player.”
Each of the area walk-ons brings impressive credentials..
* Gengler (6-3, 205): The linebacker finished with 112 tackles, 58 solo, for an average of 12.4 per game as a senior. He also made 15 tackles for a loss and six sacks and was the Comets' leading rusher with 476 yards.
* Nowakowski (6-2, 215): The allstate pick at outside linebacker amassed 126 tackles, including 29 tackles for a loss in 12 games. He also received snaps at running back and averaged 8.8 yards per carry on the way to 289 yards.
* Timmis (6-4, 260): A two-year starter on the offensive line, Timmis was a two-time all-Greater Metro Conference pick who brings great footwork and aggressiveness to the field.
* Williams (5-8, 178): The two-time first-team all-state defensive back has great ball skills and has the potential to be a dangerous return man. He picked off six passes last season despite playing part of the year with a broken hand and made 55 tackles, 32 solo.
Wisconsin's history of walk-ons is strong. J.J. Watt started as a walk-on and was an All-American before he left UW. So was Jim Leonhard, who is the team's defensive coordinator.
“He just told me to keep pushing and keep working. It's not impossible to get a scholarship,” Nowakowski said. “It is an achievable goal, just put in the work and don't take days off.”
Closer to home, Marquette alumni Marcus Trotter and Dare Ogunbowale walked on to UW and earned scholarship.
Ogumbowale just completed his third season in the NFL.
And most recent, Menomonee Falls graduate Matt Henningsen walked on and started the 2018 season opener, a first for a freshman in the program since at least 1990.
He was placed on scholarship during his freshman season.
In high school, he played in the same league as Marquette.
“That is one of the reasons I chose to do what I did,” Timmis said of Henningsen's success. “He had Northern Illinois as an offer and that was a school I was really considering and he ended up walking on to Wisconsin and things turned out pretty great for him.”
Nowakowski and Timmis received numerous Division I interest. Williams said most of his interest came at the Division II level in football and baseball. At 5-8 he might not have the prototypical height, but, according to Riverside coach Patrick Wagner, plays with great tenacity.
Don't expect that to wane. When talking about his decision to walk-on, Williams talked about his parents, who were good athletes in high school but didn't have the chance to go to college.
He is ready to make the most of his chance.
“It's that feeling of a fresh start. It's like you wake up and you have that feeling of joy, of happiness,” he said. “You finally made it, but you want to keep moving. When I committed, I had that feeling. When I saw the coaches, I had that feeling. When I got accepted, I had that feeling.
“That good feeling sticks around, just making me more hungry.”