Name: Peyton O'Leary
Height: 6'4"
Weight: 190 lbs.
High school: Byfield (MA) Governor's Academy
Position: Wide receiver
Class: Redshirt freshman
Jersey number: #38
Last year: I ranked O'Leary #124 and said he would redshirt (LINK). He played in one game.
TTB Rating: N/A
I was very impressed with O'Leary when he came out of high school. As a preferred walk-on, he is/was unlikely to every make a huge impact, but he's one of the more impressive wide receiver athletes I've seen come to Michigan as a walk-on. Right now Michigan's wide receiver room is stacked, but if some injuries or blowouts happen, I could see him making a little bit of a name for himself and carving out a role.
Prediction: Backup wide receiver
Thunder. really enjoy your write ups on the walkons and back ups. This may be an obvious question but still gonna ask it. Why is it that Michigan seems to get so many high end walk ons? Is this common at other big time schools? Does it have something to do with Michigan's education and preferred walk ons get a discount on tuition? Just curious.
ReplyDeleteI don't have a concrete answer to this question, and my knowledge of other teams' rosters isn't sufficient enough to make a great guess. I know other teams (Michigan State, Clemson, etc.) have had high-impact walk-ons in recent years.
DeleteIf your premise is correct (Michigan gets a lot/an above average amount) of high quality walk-ons, I would imagine it's because PWOs are smart enough to realize that if they're PWOs, then they should probably focus on academics. And if you're going to make it using your brain, Michigan offers a great education experience and degree.
Recruits say it all the time, but Michigan is the best of both worlds - sports and academics. Very few schools offer the same combination. If you're a PWO level player who doesn't care about academics, you might as well go to a lower level school (FCS, DII, etc.) and hope you can turn enough heads to be a big name, get drafted, etc.
I searched for Peyton's recruiting profile to see if he got any offers from anybody, and I couldn't find any information. Did he have other offers?
DeleteMy guess is a lot of these guys know their future is not the NFL. If they got an offer from a smaller school they could, as you say, take their chances and maybe get lucky. But if that doesn't work out, they're out of football and holding a degree from a lesser school.
So they come to Michigan, they get to rub elbows with top-notch athletes, they get to be part of a big-name program, and they get a Michigan degree as part of the bargain. For someone with a clear-eyed vision about their prospects, it's a sensible move.
The national champions just had a walk-on as their starting QB and schools like Wisconsin and Nebraska have gotten great production too. Michigan isn't alone here, but I think Thunder is spot on about the combination of academics, prestige, and success is going to be pretty attractive for a certain segment of kids.
DeleteAcademics alone don't explain it or else Northwestern, Vanderbilt, Stanford, and other more (generally) impressive schools would be flooded - but Michigan IS a (generally) better academic school than most of the other traditional football blue bloods. The helmets and stadium are still iconic so you're more likely to be on national TV and attending a prestigious bowl game than if you're at Northwestern. Or if you're putting up your playing day's photo in your office that's going to resonate a bit more than you in a Vanderbilt uni, at least outside of Tennessee.
I'd be curious if Notre Dame and Michigan have substantially different outcomes with walk-ons because I think of them as being fairly similar in terms of prestige and academics (though ND gets an edge in both TBF). Perhaps another factor is simply size - Michigan is going to have a lot more kids - and the (relatively) low cost of tuition -- Michigan is an attractive option for families that would probably see sticker shock without a scholarship at some other places.
Here's an interesting article from the NCAA on walk-ons:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.ncaa.com/news/football/article/2015-12-12/college-football-walk-ons-uphill-battle-can-be-won
Thanks to all. That is pretty much what I thought. The elite academic schools with competitive teams should be a better opportunity. Vanderbilt being the exception because they generally suck!!
ReplyDelete