It's Rudy time!
It's Rudy time!
While Notre Dame, Michigan, Ohio State. Clemson at this time are at 85 scholarship players, other schools have begun awarding walkons scholarships. Some schools have a long history of walkons with scholarships - Stanford and Clemson to name a couple. Clemson had eight players, originally walkons, who were on scholarship last year. (Stanford, Penn State and Clemson awarded walkons scholarships earlier this year. (I am not counting blueshirts, but include grayshirts and PWOs.)
Joe Schmidt, Charlie Fiessinger, Montgomery Van Gorder, Chris Finke, Austin Webster, Josh Anderson are a few Irish walkons that have recently earned scholarships.
Nationally, Heisman winner and Number 1 draft pick Baker Mayfield at Oklahoma was a walkon. Saban at Alabama has over the years awarded walkons scholarship, including current RS Sr Jamie Mosley, younger brother of All-American C.J. Mosley. Major Ogilivie, QB for the Tide, was a walkon and his son, Morgan Ogilivie, walked on at Alabama. JJ Watt, Antonio Brown, Jordy Nelson, Clay Matthews, T.J. Ward, Ziggy Ansah were walkons to name a few.
This year,
Oklahoma awarded Myles Tease a scholarship, who said:
“I was excited,. You know, I’m kind of like a laid back person, but I was kind of excited. I was just like relieved. I just felt like all the hard work that I’d done paid off. Like it was just amazing to see that I can do something like this and then it pay off, and it’s like an inspiration to other people, just seeing that you can come out here and bet on yourself to do better on the field and just know that you can put it all down field and just work hard every day.”
Two USC walkon players have been awarded scholarships - a Punter and a Kicker. Oftentimes, special teams players accept a PWO status and are rewarded later when scholarships open up. Recovering from NCAA sanctions, USC accepted a number of players as PWOs and Blueshirts who earned scholarships later.
Kentucky awarded three walkons with scholarships. Mark Bouvier, who played at Lexington Catholic, describes calling his mom.
“My mom was crying. She was about to make me cry,. It was hard talking to her. My parents have done so much for me and being able to get this scholarship for them that meant a lot.”
RB Zach Johnson said:
“I called my dad right after the meeting. He almost had tears in his eyes. Just a huge accomplishment for me and my family.”
Ball State awarded a walkon with a scholarship and the team chanted “Rudy! Rudy! Rudy!”
P.J. Fleck always enjoys putting on a show in awarding a scholarship to a walkon.
Minnesota Football: U.S. Marine parachutes in to award Bailey Schoenfelder a scholarship
Troy had a player's mom award him his scholarship.
Indiana University awarded a scholarship in a one-on-one drill.
Florida State football scholarship, according to a very reliable source, is at 79 scholarship players. So expect some walkons there to get scholarships.
