Anyone here have experience with walking on a D1 football team?
- Thread starter Cadet35
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If I remember correctly you said you were going to Syracuse, correct? Last year Syracuse had 5 walk-ons make the team. All of them had high school accolades at regional or state level. Three had played for other college programs before transferring to Syracuse. One of them wrestled D1 at Cornell for 4 years before transferring to Syracuse. Two of them were red-shirted.
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Stealth_81
Syracuse Football: Camp storylines, new roster additions
Syracuse football has started training camp. Here are all the top storylines and some details on new Orange roster additions. With the 2019 Syracuse footba...
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Stealth_81
Cadet35
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My brother was all state 1st team and received a full D2 scholarship for Football but then later decided to transfer to a D1 school and walk on.
He made the practice team the first year and over the years he eventually made his way onto the depth chart and suited up for games and played some his last years but was never a starter and never received a D1 scholarship but still loved it. After receiving his undergraduate degree he stayed to pursue his MBA and was employed by the team as a team trainer (mainly in the weight room) during his masters and he loved that also.
Even though he was never a starter in D1 like he was at D2 he never regretted the decision to walk onto D1 and to keep trying to be a starter those remaining years of his eligibility. This may be in part because our family has a passion for the D1 school he transferred to (our dad also played football there).
Bottom line is that if you love football and want to go for it you should and even if you are not a starter you can be a valued member of the team.
He made the practice team the first year and over the years he eventually made his way onto the depth chart and suited up for games and played some his last years but was never a starter and never received a D1 scholarship but still loved it. After receiving his undergraduate degree he stayed to pursue his MBA and was employed by the team as a team trainer (mainly in the weight room) during his masters and he loved that also.
Even though he was never a starter in D1 like he was at D2 he never regretted the decision to walk onto D1 and to keep trying to be a starter those remaining years of his eligibility. This may be in part because our family has a passion for the D1 school he transferred to (our dad also played football there).
Bottom line is that if you love football and want to go for it you should and even if you are not a starter you can be a valued member of the team.
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Same goes for any other D1 sport at the academies. I've seen people walk on to many/most and there are some who stay through graduation even though never becoming a starter or even high on the depth chart. At a USNA reunion a few years ago, the Football guys reenacted a picture that they had posed for just before we graduated and it struck me that at least half of them never had much if any playing time. This plays out across many teams with walk-ons and even with recruits. I was never a starter or particularly high on the depth chart in my sport but pushed and tried every day which made me better and also pushed the top folks to get better or else.
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It seems that so much of the value of being on a varsity or intercollegiate club team at an SA is not the playing time. It’s about enjoying camaraderie, finding a tribe beyond your company, pursuing your athletic passion, getting away from campus, having an emotional/mental outlet. All are good reasons to participate even if you don’t get into the game much or at all.
Those are the very reasons DD loves her club team. She’s one of the better ones, so gets plenty of playing time, but would probably do it even if she wasn’t. Several of her teammates who don’t see playing time stick around for all the above reasons.
Those are the very reasons DD loves her club team. She’s one of the better ones, so gets plenty of playing time, but would probably do it even if she wasn’t. Several of her teammates who don’t see playing time stick around for all the above reasons.
Cadet35
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Thanks for sharing. What D1 school did he play at?
I'm going to provide some input on this because I'm currently a walk-on at P5 FBS program that finished in the top 25 this past season. I am also a civilian looking to commission upon graduation, and I am currently looking at the different officer accession programs. Walk-on is a VERY ambiguous term as far as roster spot/recruitment. As the posters mentioned above, walking-on isn't as easy as it may seem, and certainly not as glamourous as the movies put it. Simply put, a majority of walkons spend their first few years a glamorous tackling dummies, helping run the scout cards and help out on drills for the guys that actually play on Saturdays. A few end up seeing the field on special teams and garbage time, and every now and then one will crack the starting lineup.
Walking-on means different things in different places. For some places (like my school), all the walk-ons are preferred walk-ons (PWOs) that all had scholarships offers elsewhere (including other P5, Group of 5,FCS, D2) but chose to play for their some state. Three of the PWO guys in my class have started in games, and two are now on scholarship. The PWOs here are treated the same as the scholarship players (free meals, training room, tutoring, locker room, clothes etc etc), aside from the fact that we have to pay tuition.
Other schools have a more "traditional" walk-on program, where they invite tons of really good HS players to summer school and weed out who really wants to be there. No promises for making the 110 man fall camp roster, but you might get invited back onto the team when classes start. A lot of these kinds of schools have varying levels of treatment for their walk sons, such as a separate locker room, not having access to the dining facility, and less clothing/swag/gear. Sometimes your name won't even be on the roster.
All schools have walk-on tryouts, but it depends on where your at if you actually have a shot. I think (I could be wrong) that all programs are required to have tryouts, it's just some don't advertise them (and you actually have to reach out to the staff to find out when they are), and it's more of a thing to check a box. I know one guy that made it to the team from a tryout and he is no longer on the roster. I am certain anyone would have a better shot making team as a tryout walk-on at a school like VMI than it is at Alabama. Both are D1, but there is definitely a talent gap between these teams.
Regardless, if you end up making a D1 squad, forget about the possibility of doing ROTC. I know there is the NCAA 20 hour limit, but it's really a 40+ hour weekly commitment when you account for all the "optional" things in addition to showing up early, treatment, meals, and travel. It is certainly worth the experience, D1 football is certainly not up to its hype as a player (especially for a majority of walk-ons). The football team owns you for about half the day during the week, all day Friday and Saturday (if you make the travel squad) and all summer, so attending summer training is impossible unless you want to jeopardize your camp spot.
Let me know if you have any questions. I was not an All-State/Region/League player in HS, but I certainly played my cards right during the recruitment process.
Walking-on means different things in different places. For some places (like my school), all the walk-ons are preferred walk-ons (PWOs) that all had scholarships offers elsewhere (including other P5, Group of 5,FCS, D2) but chose to play for their some state. Three of the PWO guys in my class have started in games, and two are now on scholarship. The PWOs here are treated the same as the scholarship players (free meals, training room, tutoring, locker room, clothes etc etc), aside from the fact that we have to pay tuition.
Other schools have a more "traditional" walk-on program, where they invite tons of really good HS players to summer school and weed out who really wants to be there. No promises for making the 110 man fall camp roster, but you might get invited back onto the team when classes start. A lot of these kinds of schools have varying levels of treatment for their walk sons, such as a separate locker room, not having access to the dining facility, and less clothing/swag/gear. Sometimes your name won't even be on the roster.
All schools have walk-on tryouts, but it depends on where your at if you actually have a shot. I think (I could be wrong) that all programs are required to have tryouts, it's just some don't advertise them (and you actually have to reach out to the staff to find out when they are), and it's more of a thing to check a box. I know one guy that made it to the team from a tryout and he is no longer on the roster. I am certain anyone would have a better shot making team as a tryout walk-on at a school like VMI than it is at Alabama. Both are D1, but there is definitely a talent gap between these teams.
Regardless, if you end up making a D1 squad, forget about the possibility of doing ROTC. I know there is the NCAA 20 hour limit, but it's really a 40+ hour weekly commitment when you account for all the "optional" things in addition to showing up early, treatment, meals, and travel. It is certainly worth the experience, D1 football is certainly not up to its hype as a player (especially for a majority of walk-ons). The football team owns you for about half the day during the week, all day Friday and Saturday (if you make the travel squad) and all summer, so attending summer training is impossible unless you want to jeopardize your camp spot.
Let me know if you have any questions. I was not an All-State/Region/League player in HS, but I certainly played my cards right during the recruitment process.