GETTING NOTICED
August 14, 2011 08:05 AM | General
Willie Milhouse always wanted a chance to play Division I football. Milhouse, from Waldorf, Md., had set his sights on West Virginia University when the Mountaineers were winning all those bowl games a few years ago, once even attending a WVU football camp during the summer hoping to get noticed.
He wasn’t.
So he was forced to go to Duquesne, which plays in the Northeast Conference in the Football Championship Subdivision. To those of us still confused about the classification, the FCS is what we all once knew as I-AA football.
Willie played a variety of positions at Duquesne, mostly on defense, finishing his sophomore season in 2008 with 58 tackles and a pair of interceptions and then having an outstanding junior year in 2009 when he was second on the team in stops with 70 while picking off a team-best four passes.
But the desire to play on a much bigger stage in front of more than just high school crowds had always lurked in the back of his mind. Could he do it? Were the guys he watched on TV that much better than him? Those were questions he needed to get answered.
“I felt I could play at this level so I wanted to at least test the waters because you only get four-to-five years of playing college football, and I wanted to enjoy it all,” Milhouse explained. “I never played in an atmosphere like this; Duquesne is a very small campus and the football field was right inside the campus, and not many people came to the games.
“Here everybody wants to be a part of the Mountaineer family.”
Including Milhouse, who got on the Internet and filled out an online application to a several different schools, one of them being the school that had spurned him the first time around.
“As soon as West Virginia said I was accepted I said I am coming to West Virginia,” Milhouse noted.
Getting into school was the easy part. Getting an opportunity to play for a Top 25 football program was another story.
“I came and I met with (football administrator and former WVU assistant coach) Donnie Young and my mother was my biggest recruiter,” Milhouse chuckled. “She came and she said my son is good, blah, blah, blah. ‘When is the walk-on tryout? He’s going to make the team and he’s going to surprise you.’”
Because Milhouse had met with Young so late in the process, there wasn’t even time for the coaching staff to review his highlight tape. All Willie had was one shot to impress the coaches during the walk-on tryouts held on the first day of classes in the fall.
In the past, the walk-on tryout was basically an early morning adventure comprised of an assistant coach or two who ran a bunch of kids through some drills (assistant coach Daron Roberts has now been assigned the role of walk-on coordinator and the football staff has already reached out to the student body with an email notifying them when this year’s walk-on tryouts are going to be held).
Milhouse was obviously a guy with some athletic ability and former Mountaineer assistant coach Lonnie Galloway, running the walk-on tryouts that morning, could see right away that Willie had played some college football.
“There were multiple people there and he saw what he liked,” Milhouse said. “He moved six of us to the front of the line and put us through workouts and by the end of the session he was telling me, ‘Hey, you’ve got one strike, you’re a walk-on and a lot of people are going to be thinking that you are not here to work as hard as everyone else, so you have no room for error.’ I haven’t made any errors yet, and I’m still here.”
Indeed he is, and today he finds himself on the depth-chart as Tavon Austin’s backup at H receiver. That’s right, wide receiver, a position he last played in high school.
“I’ve always known how to catch from my father throwing me a baseball and a football really hard to my mother telling him, ‘You can’t throw him the ball that hard!’ I guess that has developed my hands and I’ve always been able to catch the ball,” Milhouse said.
He shined in the spring game, catching six passes for 98 yards and displaying a willingness to mix it up with the DBs when he had the football in the open field. Milhouse admits that performance was a big confidence booster for him.
“I came out there and I wasn’t expecting to have as many receptions as I had and perform like I did, but when you get under the lights and all of the fans are screaming, you want to perform well and that’s what I tried to go out there and do,” he said.
Dana Holgorsen and the new offensive staff coming on board were also beneficial to Milhouse because everybody on the team now has a clean slate – scholarship players, walk-ons, backups and even the scrubs. All that matters is production – the new coaches were not bound to any promises made to recruits or any preconceived notions or opinions about the current guys on the roster.
And naturally, that made it easier for walk-on players such as Milhouse and Ryan Nehlen to get much closer looks.
“Everybody has the same opportunities to do things,” Milhouse explained. “There weren’t any favorites. You can’t show any favorites – it’s about what you do on the field.”
Playing wide receiver was also a big benefit to Milhouse because Holgorsen needs a bunch of them to make his high-flying offense go. Ten different players caught at least 10 passes in Holgorsen’s offense last year at Oklahoma State.
“It’s a great offense; I like the scheme,” Milhouse said. “It’s equal opportunity. Everybody is getting the ball and the quarterback just sees who is open and he throws us the ball.”
The question now becomes: How can Willie Milhouse keep from becoming another spring game wonder - the player who has a phenomenal spring game only to never be heard from again?
Milhouse has an answer.
“You just keep working hard every day,” he explained. “You go to lifts. You go to meetings. You watch your films. You ask the coaches questions and you work hard on the field, and it won’t be just a spring-game wonder.”
Perhaps a hint of Milhouse’s immediate future was provided by Holgorsen during his Friday evening post-practice remarks. Holgorsen was asked about the wide receivers - a unit that has been inconsistent at times during camp so far - and he listed a bunch of guys who he thought could get the job done.
One of the guys he mentioned was Willie Milhouse.
It has taken a few years, but Willie has finally been noticed by a West Virginia football coach.
He wasn’t.
So he was forced to go to Duquesne, which plays in the Northeast Conference in the Football Championship Subdivision. To those of us still confused about the classification, the FCS is what we all once knew as I-AA football.
Willie played a variety of positions at Duquesne, mostly on defense, finishing his sophomore season in 2008 with 58 tackles and a pair of interceptions and then having an outstanding junior year in 2009 when he was second on the team in stops with 70 while picking off a team-best four passes.
But the desire to play on a much bigger stage in front of more than just high school crowds had always lurked in the back of his mind. Could he do it? Were the guys he watched on TV that much better than him? Those were questions he needed to get answered.
“I felt I could play at this level so I wanted to at least test the waters because you only get four-to-five years of playing college football, and I wanted to enjoy it all,” Milhouse explained. “I never played in an atmosphere like this; Duquesne is a very small campus and the football field was right inside the campus, and not many people came to the games.
“Here everybody wants to be a part of the Mountaineer family.”
Including Milhouse, who got on the Internet and filled out an online application to a several different schools, one of them being the school that had spurned him the first time around.
“As soon as West Virginia said I was accepted I said I am coming to West Virginia,” Milhouse noted.
Getting into school was the easy part. Getting an opportunity to play for a Top 25 football program was another story.
“I came and I met with (football administrator and former WVU assistant coach) Donnie Young and my mother was my biggest recruiter,” Milhouse chuckled. “She came and she said my son is good, blah, blah, blah. ‘When is the walk-on tryout? He’s going to make the team and he’s going to surprise you.’”
Because Milhouse had met with Young so late in the process, there wasn’t even time for the coaching staff to review his highlight tape. All Willie had was one shot to impress the coaches during the walk-on tryouts held on the first day of classes in the fall.
In the past, the walk-on tryout was basically an early morning adventure comprised of an assistant coach or two who ran a bunch of kids through some drills (assistant coach Daron Roberts has now been assigned the role of walk-on coordinator and the football staff has already reached out to the student body with an email notifying them when this year’s walk-on tryouts are going to be held).
Milhouse was obviously a guy with some athletic ability and former Mountaineer assistant coach Lonnie Galloway, running the walk-on tryouts that morning, could see right away that Willie had played some college football.
“There were multiple people there and he saw what he liked,” Milhouse said. “He moved six of us to the front of the line and put us through workouts and by the end of the session he was telling me, ‘Hey, you’ve got one strike, you’re a walk-on and a lot of people are going to be thinking that you are not here to work as hard as everyone else, so you have no room for error.’ I haven’t made any errors yet, and I’m still here.”
Indeed he is, and today he finds himself on the depth-chart as Tavon Austin’s backup at H receiver. That’s right, wide receiver, a position he last played in high school.
“I’ve always known how to catch from my father throwing me a baseball and a football really hard to my mother telling him, ‘You can’t throw him the ball that hard!’ I guess that has developed my hands and I’ve always been able to catch the ball,” Milhouse said.
He shined in the spring game, catching six passes for 98 yards and displaying a willingness to mix it up with the DBs when he had the football in the open field. Milhouse admits that performance was a big confidence booster for him.
“I came out there and I wasn’t expecting to have as many receptions as I had and perform like I did, but when you get under the lights and all of the fans are screaming, you want to perform well and that’s what I tried to go out there and do,” he said.
Dana Holgorsen and the new offensive staff coming on board were also beneficial to Milhouse because everybody on the team now has a clean slate – scholarship players, walk-ons, backups and even the scrubs. All that matters is production – the new coaches were not bound to any promises made to recruits or any preconceived notions or opinions about the current guys on the roster.
And naturally, that made it easier for walk-on players such as Milhouse and Ryan Nehlen to get much closer looks.
“Everybody has the same opportunities to do things,” Milhouse explained. “There weren’t any favorites. You can’t show any favorites – it’s about what you do on the field.”
Playing wide receiver was also a big benefit to Milhouse because Holgorsen needs a bunch of them to make his high-flying offense go. Ten different players caught at least 10 passes in Holgorsen’s offense last year at Oklahoma State.
“It’s a great offense; I like the scheme,” Milhouse said. “It’s equal opportunity. Everybody is getting the ball and the quarterback just sees who is open and he throws us the ball.”
The question now becomes: How can Willie Milhouse keep from becoming another spring game wonder - the player who has a phenomenal spring game only to never be heard from again?
Milhouse has an answer.
“You just keep working hard every day,” he explained. “You go to lifts. You go to meetings. You watch your films. You ask the coaches questions and you work hard on the field, and it won’t be just a spring-game wonder.”
Perhaps a hint of Milhouse’s immediate future was provided by Holgorsen during his Friday evening post-practice remarks. Holgorsen was asked about the wide receivers - a unit that has been inconsistent at times during camp so far - and he listed a bunch of guys who he thought could get the job done.
One of the guys he mentioned was Willie Milhouse.
It has taken a few years, but Willie has finally been noticed by a West Virginia football coach.
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