Former Walk-on Sends Note to McCollum

Blue Raider Football, You don't know me but I am a 35-year old executive living in the state of Texas who is a proud alumnus of MTSU's class of '88. I walked onto the football team in 1984 as a hot shot young QB from Kentucky who had not been recruited at my little private school in Louisville. I never amounted to much of a college football player around the likes of Mickey Corwin, Tony Burse, Vince "Flea" Hall, and future NFC Defensive Rookie of the Year...Don Griffin. These leaders anchored what should have been the OVC Co-Champions (we lost 12-8 against a 1-9 Tennessee Tech Team to miss out). But, the reason that I am writing is not to relive my college football exploits but rather to comment about a certain WR/TE coach named Andy McCollum. In only his first year at MTSU...he had a profound affect on a young man still trying to figure out so much more than just the game of college football. When I found myself way down the depth chart at QB, Coach McCollum pulled me aside one day in mid- season of my freshman year and laid it to me straight. I would never amount to much of a college QB but that maybe I should try my hand at another position. He suggested that with a little bulking up and the mentoring of our ALL-OVC tight-end Mike Clark...maybe I could find a new opportunity for earning a scholarship. While I never did make that transition fully...I still think fondly of the manner in which Coach McCollum was both painfully candid with me..yet took measure to not destroy a young man's confidence. As I watch from the perverbial sidelines a half country away, the development of both my favorite coach from Boots Donnelly's staff and of my alma mater's maturation into 1-A college football...I cannot help but cheer that much harder for both when I think back of that fall day in 1984. I think a young football player turned into a man that day and a young football coach turned into what one day will be the greatest coach (and recruiter) in MTSU history! I wish the Blue Raiders tremendous success in their inaugural year of Sun Belt Conference Play. Please feel free to pass along this story if you wish...and always remember that proud Blue Raider fans everywhere will be cheering every play on the field and wishing that off the field the players relish their time at our great school as much as those before them. Good luck in 2001! Faithfully Blue, Mike Weimann Austin, TX

Middle Tennessee State University Athletics

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