Burning questions
DM: What sport would you play if you weren't playing football?
JW: If I had to choose, I'd probably be playing baseball, because I had scholarship offers in baseball too. All my sports are important - I did track too, and the track coach here has actually asked me to come out for the team. That was an option too, but football's always been my greatest choice.
DM: How does the physicality of college football compare to high school?
JW: There's no comparison. In high school, you've got guys just coming out to try it and then in college you've got guys smacking you in the mouth every play from everywhere. It's a lot more physical and a lot more fun.
DM: What was your "I'm not in high school anymore" moment?
JW: The moment I realized it was when I first stepped out on the field at Kansas. Because all through camp I'd been pretty good and then I stepped out at Kansas and realized there were 65,000 people instead of 2,000 for high school. That's the moment it hit me, like 'wow, this is college football.'
DM: You went through an interesting recruitment process (committed to CMU, Minnesota, CMU). What drew you back to Central?
JW: All the big-time schools, they have all their perks and everything, but when you really look at it, you've got to go to a school where you feel like you're a part of the team, and you feel like you can contribute. And here at Central, I felt I could come right away as a freshman and contribute.
DM: At what point in your life did you realize you might have a shot of playing Division I football?
JW: All the way from my freshman year of high school I thought I could. Nobody else thought I could do it, but I thought I could the whole way through. Then my junior year, people started to call, and that's when I really started to notice it, and all the hard work was paying off.
DM: What's something people might be surprised to find out about you?
JW: I was the MVP of the International Tournament for USA Hockey. I was the MVP of a tournament in Germany. Hockey is actually my best sport.
sports@cm-life.com
