It's true for any college football player of note: as the number of games remaining on his final schedule decrease, questions about his legacy are sure to increase. In the shadow of his Senior Day, Michael Caputo is content to let history write its own conclusions on his career; his focus remains, as always, on being a better leader. In that context, it's hard to qualify the captain's run at Wisconsin as anything but a stellar success.  |  From Varsity Magazine

MIKE LUCAS Senior Writer Related Content • Varsity Magazine

BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer

The family album snapshot could have been taken from Cindy and Richard Caputo's kitchen in Pennsylvania.

Instead, it was staged in a sports lounge at the team hotel in Maryland.

Wisconsin safety Michael Caputo sat at a table with his mom, dad, grandfather and uncle.

He was apt to answer to "Michael" or "Mike" or "Mikey" in their company.

"My dad also calls me Mick," he confided. "I have no idea why. It doesn't matter. It works."

His two older sisters call him "Spike" after a character in the movie Little Giants.

Lately, his Wisconsin teammates have been referring to him as "Mike" and not "Michael."

Shrugging his shoulders, Michael/Mike Caputo said, "It is what it is."

Family is everything, though. That's why this reunion in Maryland was special. They all are.

"I don't see them very often, so I always like to catch up with how things are going in their lives," said Caputo, a fifth-year senior. "I kind of owe my mom and dad everything."

Richard Caputo, who played football at Bucknell in the late '60s, owns an insurance agency. The family moved with the business from Beaver Falls to North Fayette, 15 miles outside of Pittsburgh.

"I trust my dad with anything," Caputo said. "I know he's going to be on my side in any situation so I go to him with anything that's bothering me; any decision I have to make, I get his opinion."

Cindy Caputo recently went back to school to pick up a degree in medical coding. She got straight A's, too, according to her son, who's intimidated by "so many of the big words" that she uses.

It's the only intimidation that he has ever known. 

"My mom is always taking care of me no matter what; she's so motherly even now," said the 23-year-old Caputo. "I'm the baby of the family."

He's the youngest of two boys and two girls. Christopher Caputo works for Epic Real Estate Solutions. "My older brother and my dad coached me when I was young," he pointed out proudly.

"I wasn't always the most athletic; I wasn't the fastest; I was never anything really. I had to really work."

One of his sisters, Christina, is working at the insurance agency with their dad. His other sister, Julianna, is finishing up her degree and taking care of a young son, who's 3.

"I'm Uncle Mike to him," said a grinning Caputo. "It does make me feel old."

So does the thought of senior introductions before Saturday's game against Northwestern at Camp Randall Stadium. His mom, dad, brother, sisters and nephew will all be there.

"I haven't thought about it yet," said Caputo, slipping into his game face. "Usually on Saturdays, I get game-focused. I guess that I get into a zone.

"I've experienced that every Saturday when we've had a game where nothing else really matters. I guarantee you it is going to hit me -- but not until after the game or after the season."

The family album will expand with snapshots from his final home appearance.

"I'm really happy that they get to come out there," he said of Caputo clan. "And I'm happy with the way things have been going with. My journey? I could tell you that it has been …"

Caputo stopped to collect his thoughts and, then, he started over.

"Even when I was little, it has been a long, rocky road; an uphill battle," he said. "I wasn't always the most athletic; I wasn't the fastest; I was never anything really. I had to really work.
"I had a lot of situations and scenarios where I was really lucky to come out of them. I think I'm lucky because of the amount of injuries accumulated over the years."

In the first game of his senior year at West Allegheny High, he fractured his ankle. The opponent was South Park. And to his day, he still can't watch the animated sitcom of the same name without thinking about it.

One date that has been committed to memory is Feb. 6, 2013. That's the day that his football career was put on hold. That's the day that he had surgery on his neck to fuse two vertebrae.

Caputo will never forget that day because the doctor dutifully informed him that his reluctance to say anything about the injury -- Caputo kept it to himself for the longest time -- could have been costly.

"The doctor said, 'You were about three hits away from being paralyzed from the waist down,'" Caputo has related with a clarity not lost on anyone, especially him. "That was an eye-opener for me."

The psychological ordeal, pre- and post-surgery, called for some family intervention.

"That's when I would talk to my dad, my mom and my brother," he said. "What am I supposed to do now? They always kept my head on straight. That's how much influence they had on me."

They kept him focused. "I trusted them," he said.

After the surgery, he changed the way he tackled -- making sure to not lead with his head down "Football is only going to last so long," he said then. "I've got to live with my neck the rest of my life."

So, yes, it was a little scary when Caputo was hurt while diving at a ball-carrier in the season opener against Alabama. He sat out the rest of the game with a head injury.

It could have been so much worse. He didn't miss a start.

"You can measure all the things that you want when it comes to being physical, and having speed and all of those things," he said. "But when it comes down to it, the intangibles take over."

This was his way of explaining what fuels him -- what motivates him to be who he is.

"There's always a saying that I've kept in the back of my head the past years," said Caputo, who delivered this line with ownership, "Hard work succeeds over talent when talent fails to work hard.

"I've seen it 100 times where guys have all the gifts, all the talent, all the skills. And they just throw it away because they have a terrible work ethic.

"So I kind of focused all of my energy on the work ethic part and I got to where I am because of that and because of how much I was pushed by family members, friends and close mentors.

"I owe everything to them really."

•  •  •  •

Wisconsin outside linebacker Jesse Hayes pulled up a chair and sat down with the Caputos on the eve of the Maryland game. He was welcomed to the table like a family member by Michael Caputo.

In return, Hayes said, "That's my brother."

He feels like a Caputo. "They treat me like a son," Hayes added. "They can't wait to hug me up."

Caputo and Hayes, a fifth-year senior from Cincinnati, roomed together as freshmen in the dorms. They also lived together the following summer and school year.

"Ever since then, we've just been boys," said Hayes. "I don't know what it is. But it's just one of those meant-to-be things. He's a Pittsburgh guy and I used to live in Pittsburgh."

His father, Jay Hayes, is a Pittsburgh native and a former special teams coach of the Steelers. (1999-2001). For the last 13 years, he has been coaching the defensive line for the Cincinnati Bengals.

Jesse's uncle, Jonathan Hayes, is the tight ends coach for the Bengals. During his playing days, he was a first-team All-American at the University of Iowa. Barry Alvarez recruited him to the Hawks.

Prior to Jay Hayes moving up the coaching ladder to the NFL, he spent 11 seasons at the collegiate level, including a stint at Wisconsin on Alvarez's staff (1995-98).

"I remember Jesse from my junior year of high school," Caputo said. "Whenever I would come to visit (the UW), he would be here at the same time. Coach (Joe) Rudolph was our recruiter.

"I grew a friendship with him and Jesse's entire family -- with his mom, dad, sister and brother. They're just great people and our families have become real close. It's actually real cool."

Jesse Hayes' sister Jazmin played basketball at Lafayette College before a knee injury cut short her career. His brother, Miles, is a freshman safety at William and Mary. He's redshirting this year.

"He felt like he could play," Jesse Hayes said, "But I just told him to relax and take his time."

Easy for him to say -- as someone who has been waiting five years for his "time" to play.

"Speaking on my own experiences, it can be tough," said Hayes, who has appeared in 26 games and has 12 tackles, eight this season. He missed all of 2013 with an injury.

"You feel like you should be doing this or doing that (as an individual contributor). But sometimes it's more about the team and doing what you can to help.

"I've loved my journey. I've loved the guys here. That's what matters. The things that you remember are those relationships with Tanner (McEvoy), D-Hill (Darius Hillary) and my brother Mike."

Hayes' whole family traveled to Maryland. The Bengals had played on Thursday night.

"When he speaks," Chryst said, "they know he's speaking because he cares about the team and he cares about the people."

"After I saw my family that night, I was talking to them a long time," said Caputo, who has respected the way Hayes has dealt with his lack of playing time. "He has handled it extremely well.

"He has really taken ownership of what he needs to do to become successful. It's getting his degree, it's maintaining relationships and networking. It's all the intangible things he has worked on.

"It's really cool to see how much both of us have grown. If football was not going well for me, it was really easy to go and talk to Jesse. That's kind of our balance in the relationship that we have."

Following Wisconsin's 2014 spring practice, Caputo, Hayes, McEvoy and Joe Schobert embarked on an adventure together. They traveled to Italy as part of a study abroad trip for one of their classes.

In addition to touring the ancient ruins in Rome, they explored the Amalfi Coast and took side trips to Naples and Mount Vesuvius, where Caputo purchased some lava rock as a souvenir.

Caputo has family living in northern Italy. (Interestingly, he has traced a Caputo to Madison; he was a businessman who owned some buildings on State Street, he has learned.)

Most people spoke English over there," Caputo said. "But in the remote areas where they didn't speak it, the main language was basically gesturing and pointing at stuff."

The travel party included over 20 UW students, a professor of Roman Antiquity and local guides. On one of their days off, Caputo, Hayes, McEvoy and Schobert chipped in and rented a boat.

"We drove around the island of Capri," Caputo said. "We all climbed up on rocks on the island and we were jumping off (into the Gulf of Naples). It was just the perfect day.

•  •  •  •

Wisconsin head coach Paul Chryst wasn't sure how to respond to the question. If someone had never met Michael Caputo -- or seen him play -- how would you go about describing him?

"It's funny because there's a part of me that wants to go with, 'He's old-school tough,'" Chryst said. "He's a guy that loves competition, loves the game and loves being a significant contributor to a team."

Caputo seemingly has the temperament to be from the two-platoon era. A throwback maybe?

"Yeah, that's what I was thinking," Chryst said. "He's a guy who truly loves playing the game and he loves the toughness factor. He is a throwback."

That applies to areas of his life outside of football.

"I don't really play video games," Caputo confessed. "I don't have an Xbox. I don't have a PlayStation. I'll watch guys play. That's all right. But I just don't get it.

"They (his teammates) used to laugh. It's like, 'Oh, wow, you're actually serious. You don't really do this.' I don't. I'm terrible at them. Never was good, so I gave up on them."

Caputo used to draw and/or sketch in high school. He was a boxer, too, which he gravitated to after losing his senior year of football to injury. It helped fill a competitive void in his life.

"I like to read a lot now," he said. "One of my hobbies is reading history. I have a bookshelf in my apartment full of books. I would say probably over 300. I'll read anything I can get my hands on."

His interests range from military and ancient history to the infantry tactics of World War II. He can talk about the Imperial Roman Army as easily as he can talk about the Federalist Papers.

"What I really like," Caputo said, "is strategy."

His mom and grandmother got him hooked on history at a very young age.

"I loved going to battle reenactments when I was a kid," he said. "I went to Gettysburg which is only three and one-half hours from us. The American Revolutionary War reenactments were really cool.

"As far as the impression that I left on this place," Caputo said, "I've been working for the past four or five years to make it a positive one -- to be a leader."

"That spawned my interest in ROTC. In high school, we had a great program. I still keep in touch with the guys. I would say 95 percent went on to join some aspect of the military."

Caputo is well-versed on Camp Randall's history as a former Union army training camp during the Civil War. On game days, the football team is dropped off at the Camp Randall Arch.

Located at the intersection of Dayton Street and Randall Avenue, the Arch is framed by two statues of a young army recruit (presumably a 3-star, which Caputo was) and an old war veteran.

"And there's the eagle," Caputo noted. "Old Abe."

The stone eagle is perched atop the Arch.

"History," Caputo promised, "is always going to be a hobby of mine."

So how will history treat Caputo, the Big Ten football player? What's his legacy?

After pondering the question for a few seconds, he said, "I really don't know."

After he thought about it some more, he said, "It's funny. I was told by my high school coach -- Coach (Bob) Palko -- when you go to a place, you have to leave your legacy there."

Caputo remembered Palko stressing, "Work hard and leave your legacy."

That was his mission.

"As far as the impression that I left on this place," Caputo said with some contentment, "I've been working for the past four or five years to make it a positive one -- to be a leader."

But what about that legacy?

"It's really not for me to say," Caputo insisted. "It's for other people and what they see of me and for the coaches and what they know of me."

One of those people, Hayes, said, "He's just a hearty guy. He loves what he does."

One of those coaches, Chryst, confirmed his impact as a team leader. "And that's because of how he has handled himself and just who he is," Chryst said. "When he speaks, they know he's speaking because he cares about the team and he cares about the people.

"It's pretty neat seeing who he has become and you know he's going to be successful in whatever he does."

Chryst branded Caputo as someone that "gave it their all."

It validates his commitment to hard work succeeding over talent when talent fails to work hard.

"That has been what I've been trying to do," Caputo said. "My ultimate goal."