Walk-on Wednesday: Wisconsin’s Zander Neuville settles in at tight end
Walk-on Wednesday: Wisconsin’s Zander Neuville settles in at tight end:-Zander Neuville likes to fancy himself a protein shake connoisseur.
The junior on the Wisconsin football team has spent most of his career either adding or cutting weight from his 6-5 frame, so he knows which ingredients to include and which to leave out depending on if he needed to add (peanut butter) or subtract (berries, spinach) pounds.
After coming to Wisconsin as a walk-on linebacker, then moving to defensive line and finally transitioning to tight end last year — and dealing with the different weights necessary to play those varying positions — Neuville finally feels settled.
Wisconsin, 5-0 overall and the leader in the Big Ten West, has a rich history of walk-ons who came to Madison in hopes of getting a shot and ultimately became an integral part of the team. Neuville, who grew up two hours north of Madison in Waupaca, Wis., and had always been a Badgers fan, wanted to be one of those guys.
Though he had scholarship offers from a handful of Division-II schools and FCS powerhouse North Dakota State, Neuville figured the path from walk-on to scholarship player had been well-traveled at Wisconsin, so he might as well chase his dream of being a Badger. So he showed up, and right before the start of his first fall camp, was told he’d be moving to defensive line and oh yeah, could he pack on about 50 pounds? Enter peanut butter. Lots and lots of peanut butter.
“You know, gaining the first 10-20 pounds wasn’t bad, but after that I had to be pretty strict, eating four or five meals a day,” he said, adding that the women in his life expressed no sympathy for his plight.
In 2015, as a redshirt freshman, Neuville played in all 13 games, recording one pass breakup. The next offseason, coach Paul Chryst warned Neuville that they were thinking about moving him to tight end. But Neuville stayed with the defense through 2016 fall camp, so he figured a move to offense was just a fleeting thought for the coaching staff. Then, the week before Wisconsin’s opener against LSU, he got word that they’d like him to play tight end. Just one problem: Neuville had almost no idea how to block.
“As a defensive guy, you just launch yourself at people but that doesn’t really work as a tight end,” he said. “I’d get really frustrated because I wanted to be as physical as possible but because I didn’t understand the footwork at first and had no base, guys were just tossing me aside. Looking back on it, it wasn’t that big of a deal because I learned, but man, it felt like a big deal.”
‘I’m sure it wasn’t as bad as he thought,” laughed tight ends coach Mickey Turner. “It’s tough because with defense guys you’re trained to get off blocks right away and now we’re telling him to stay on them and stick to them. There were definitely growing pains but anytime you have guys that naturally have a great work ethic and are smart, you’re pretty confident wherever you put them. And that’s Zander.”
It took all season for Neuville to feel at ease in the offense, as he played a little more each game. His first start came against Western Michigan in the Cotton Bowl. He even had a few games where he played offense, defense and special teams, a rarity for even the most versatile athletes in college football. Neuville has caught only three passes in his career, but his first catch went for a touchdown, when he hauled in a 28-yarder against Utah State on Sept. 1. That was especially meaningful for his dad, Jeff, the person who took him to all those Badgers games growing up.
“You know before that game I said to our family, wouldn’t it just be nice if they could throw him one pass, so he could prove he’s a weapon on offense,” Jeff recalled. “Well he caught it and turned the corner and oh my gosh.”
But it didn’t top Jeff and Zander’s favorite memory: The day Zander called home to tell his parents his name would be added to the list of Wisconsin kids who had gone to Madison as a walk-on and earned a scholarship.
“That was probably one of the greatest nights of our lives,” Jeff said. “When he called and said, ‘Guess what?’ I knew. And then, for about two minutes after he told us, he couldn’t talk. We just heard him sniffing and crying, and then of course I started crying, too.
“He had always talked about how everyone treated him the same, even though he was a walk-on but when he got put on scholarship, it was validation for him.”
Zander celebrated the scholarship news a couple days later, when he went out for dinner with teammates, including fellow former walk-on Ryan Connelly, his roommate. To indoctrinate him into being a full-time scholarship player, teammates insisted Neuville pick up the check — because now they had the money to do so.
A biology major, Neuville plans to go to medical school whenever football’s done. But in the meantime, he figures he should make the most of the season and a half he has left. And he believes there are still other ways he can contribute.
“Honestly, I’ll do whatever the coaches and team needs,” Neuville said. “But I am always asking, ‘When are you guys gonna get me in the Wildcat formation and let me run for a touchdown?’ ”
Source:-https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2017/10/10/walk-on-wednesday-wisconsin-tight-end-zander-neuville/752359001/
