Iowa State captain O'Connell too smart to ever doubt himself

AMES - Michael O'Connell finished his high school career with a 3.3 grade-point average at Iowa City Regina.

Nice job, young man. Keep up the good work at college.

Except the state university he wanted to attend, with the football program he wanted to join as a walk-on, wouldn't take him. Because O'Connell didn't finish in the top half of his high school class.

“Three kids in our class went to Notre Dame,” said O'Connell's Regina teammate, Iowa kicker Daniel Murray. “We had a real smart class.”

I think we all know many a scholarship football player has gotten into a state university with less than a 3.3 GPA at schools less demanding than Regina.

“I believed I could play there,” O'Connell said last Thursday after Iowa State's football practice, “so that was tough to swallow.

“Meeting with certain people in the admissions department and them telling me that based on their past history, they thought I wouldn't make it a semester at Iowa.”

He was told wrong. Way wrong. O'Connell, a business major, was a first-team Academic All-Big 12 player last year as an ISU junior. It was the fourth straight year (he's a fifth-year senior) had earned league academic honors.

And he's a ballplayer, too. He has worked his way up from walk-on grunt to starting safety and team captain. He started five games in 2009. He recovered a fumble and picked off a pass in the second-half of the Cyclones' 9-7 win at Nebraska.

“He's earned everything he's received here,” ISU Coach Paul Rhoads said.

“It starts with intelligence and work-ethic, and then you have to develop that into skills necessary to get on the field. A lot of guys can work hard and can be where they're supposed to be. You've got to be productive to go along with that, and he's done that.”

O'Connell was a four-year, two-way starter at Regina. But he broke his foot during his senior season, and that hurt his status as

a recruit. So began the arduous road from walk-on to scholarship player, which he became a summer ago.

“This is the moment I've been waiting for in my career,” O'Connell said. “Now that I'm a captain, I'm embracing that role.

“I'm not satisfied yet, but it has been satisfying in the sense that all the hard work is starting to come together and pay off. To be in the position I'm in right now, I feel very fortunate, extremely blessed.

“I remember in the fall of ‘06 I would be getting dressed for practice in the visitors' locker room here. Now to be where I'm at, I feel very thankful.”

The adversity didn't stop at just being a walk-on. O'Connell was recruited to Iowa State as a walk-on by Dan McCarney, but McCarney was fired after O'Connell's red-shirt year.

“It is tough when you're a walk-on,” O'Connell said, “to have the coach that brought you in be replaced. It's like you've got to start from scratch again.”

But Gene Chizik's staff gradually put O'Connell to use. He played in all 12 games as a sophomore, making 21 tackles and returning nine punts. Then Chizik left for Auburn, and O'Connell said “I was in the same position for the third time.”

Luckily for him, he said, “Coach Rhoads gives walk-ons every opportunity.”

Rhoads played O'Connell a lot last year. The player had 43 tackles last year, 11 against Texas A&M.

“Now he finds himself as the regular starter,” Rhoads said. “Being a captain, that circles back around to his intelligence and work-ethic.”

“I've been in a lot of adverse situations,” said O'Connell, “but that's what I'm thankful for. That's what's going to shape me as I move on in life. As tough as it's been here, I've always believed. I've never given up my dreams and aspirations.”

Murray, who spoke by phone to his old Regina teammate just a few days ago, said O'Connell's captaincy “shows a lot about his character, what he's been able to accomplish, and his leadership.”

And something else.

“He's always loved proving people wrong.”