There’s a different side to JJ Watt‘s story that is never told at the banquets for recruiting. The highly rated prospect doesn’t get to choose from a long list of schools that have offered him a spot. People are quieter and less comfortable in this version. A kid from Pewaukee, Wisconsin, has two stars next to his name on a recruiting website and gets the attention you’d expect for that. Not a lot.
Rivals.com didn’t put him in the top ten tight ends in the country. Scout.com didn’t do it either. No one had him on their short list of must-have prospects. He went to Central Michigan, Colorado, and Minnesota, which aren’t exactly the most important states. He finally chose to play for Central Michigan under coach Butch Jones in January 2007. It wasn’t a happy beginning. But then, the best ones aren’t always that way.
A promise, or at least something that felt like a promise, drew Watt to Central Michigan. Afterward, he said that he had been told that as a tight end, he would have real chances to score touchdowns. He caught 8 passes for 77 yards in 14 games for the Chippewas. The touchdowns didn’t really happen. The coaches then told him he should switch positions and play offensive tackle. That turned things around for a player who was already driven by ambition and didn’t need much outside approval. It was possible for him to accept it, settle down, and make the best of things.
He didn’t. Watt instead gave up his scholarship and beginning spot to become a defensive end on the football team at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. When you look back, it sounds like a brave choice, but at the time, it was really scary. No promise of playing time. No safety net for money. He only knew that he belonged somewhere better, even though no one else had told him that yet.
While he was at Wisconsin, he didn’t play his first season until 2008. He watched from the sidelines, led scout team drills, and won Wisconsin’s Scout Team Player of the Year award. That is an honor within the program, but he was still a long way from the main stage. They need to be patient during that time of year, which most people don’t realize. Watt sat down with it.
His first real look came in the 2009 season. As a defensive end for the Badgers in 13 games, he began to show what the recruiting services had missed. In December of that year, he had six tackles, two sacks, and three tackles for loss against Hawaii. It wasn’t a fluke. He had 15.5 tackles for loss and 4 and a half sacks by the end of the year. In that case, coaches will pay attention.
By 2010, it was clear that something strange was going on. Watt had the most tackles for loss, quarterback hurries, blocked kicks, and forced fumbles for Wyoming. He had seven sacks, 21 tackles for loss, and an interception by the end of the season. He was named team MVP, won the Lott Trophy, and made the All-Big Ten first team. Both the Associated Press and Sports Illustrated put him on their second-team All-American list. A lot of people didn’t rate that kid in high school, but now he was one of the best defensive players in college football.
He didn’t finish his senior year because he was in the NFL Draft in 2011. He did really well at the Combine in almost every way that could be measured. He was the first defensive end picked in the first round that year, by the Houston Texans, who picked him 11th overall.
How badly the recruiting machine can miss is what the JJ Watt college story really shows. A 6-foot-5, 220 pound kid with real athleticism and an insane motor walked into a room full of coaches and judges and got two stars. The tools might not have been made to measure what he had. A 40-yard dash time doesn’t show how determined someone is. It’s not on a scouting card that you’re willing to give up a scholarship to go after the right opportunity.
When you look back, you can tell that Watt’s time at Wisconsin wasn’t just about improving as a football player. They made the player that would win three Defensive Player of the Year awards and change the way defensive ends are used in the NFL today. The walk-on who didn’t get much attention came in and left as a first-round pick. That side trip through Central Michigan wasn’t a waste of time. That was the whole point.
