At the root of every mid-major recruit turned NFL prospect is the lingering feeling of something to prove. Undersized, under-fast, under the radar, under a rock somewhere – doesn’t matter, the kid never forgets.
Even when the last name is one that no football fan ever could.
Somehow Ian Seau slipped through the cracks, ending up at the end of the train tracks, Nevada, his own one-man Wolf Pack. He started his college career at Kansas State, arriving there from La Costa Canyon High School in San Diego, where that last name meant a little something.
It didn’t in Manhattan, Kansas, even if it was The Little Apple. Seau left and enrolled at Grossmont College. He stayed with an uncle, took more than 20 credits in one year to acquire his associate’s degree, and he was a force in his hometown, totaling 19 sacks en route to all-state and All-America honors. The hybrid linebacker/end thought he’d be hot on the market once more.
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He was wrong.
“A lot of teams didn’t know who I was as a person,” Seau said. “I didn’t get kicked out of Kansas State. People weren’t sure what I was capable of. I thought I should have been in a better position coming out of Grossmont.”
He sums it up in curt terms: “I thought I’d go somewhere better,” and he means it as no knock on Nevada, and it isn’t. Some kids believe in their heart of hearts that the three-letter designation means everything: SEC, ACC, etc.
The words are candid, but the play has made them true.
He’s been a beast for Nevada, maturing from a valuable role player as a sophomore into a force as a junior, with 8.5 sacks and all-Mountain West second-team honors to show for them.
As a senior this year, he’s taken it a step further with an all-league first team selection after totaling 15.5 tackles for losses and nine sacks, the first player in Wolf Pack history with consecutive all-MWC nods.
Entering his senior year, he refined his technique and added some tricks to his repertoire. The almost-month’s worth of bowl practices has been used for much the same. He is a legitimate NFL prospect and could go in the middle rounds.
“This was my last go-round,” Seau said. “I wanted to leave nothing on the field. This was the last time I could show people I could play. Hopefully I’ve given scouts a chance to look at me.”
The National Football League, it seems, is his “biggest dream.”
You can imagine.
Just look at the bloodlines.
“To us, he was just another uncle,” Seau says about Uncle Junior, his mother’s brother and a legend to those inside of San Diego and out. “He was a great man, and a great player, and whenever he was on TV, we got together. But he didn’t want us to see him as an NFL football player.”
Funny thing is, the younger Seau sees himself as one.
“When you’re a kid and you see him play, you want to add to that legacy,” Seau said. “We all respect what he did.”
