Lucas: Opportunity opens for Wilder and his fellow safeties
September 25, 2019 | Football, Mike Lucas
Transfer hailing from Texas found new home and deep connections with the Badgers
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BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer
MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin's Collin Wilder and Northwestern's Travis Whillock and Paddy Fisher were competitively inseparable growing up under the "Friday Night Lights" of Katy, Texas, a football-passionate community of nearly 20,000 located 25 miles west of Houston.
"We started playing flag football with each other at 6 years old," Wilder remembered. "We played baseball and basketball through elementary school together. But when we were in junior high, we went to separate schools and played against each other."
Wilder, Whillock and Fisher were then reunited as teammates on the Katy High School Tigers, one of the powerhouse programs in the country and owners of seven state championships since 1997, including the 2015 Class 6A Division II title that earned them an overall No. 1 national ranking.
Saturday, they will have a class reunion at Camp Randall Stadium.
Wilder is expected to get his first career start at safety for the Badgers — filling a void created by the targeting penalties to Eric Burrell and Reggie Pearson in the second half of the Michigan game — while Fisher makes his 29th start at middle linebacker and Whillock his ninth at safety for the Wildcats.
"They're my best friends from back home," said Wilder, who spent two seasons at the University of Houston before transferring to UW. "We try to talk once a week — just to catch up on how on both of them are doing and how their bodies are feeling: physically, spiritually and mentally."
Wilder, Whillock and Fisher were recruited by many of the same college programs and Wisconsin was among them. "We always talked about it, 'What if we went to the same school?'" Wilder recalled. "But we ended up doing our own thing and it has worked out for all of us."
Maybe it has something to do with their Katy DNA, to which Wilder said of their prep upbringing, "It prepares you for college because it's a lot like a college. It also gives you a small town feel of true Texas high school football. The stadium is always packed and championships are expected."
How good was the Katy defense when all three Division I recruits were seniors? The Tigers allowed just 62 points in 16 games and recorded 10 shutouts, while giving up more than eight points just twice.
Wilder, Whillock and Fisher graduated from Katy one year before the opening of the 12,000-seat Legacy Stadium, the equivalent of a small college venue. It cost $72 million and serves eight area schools. "It's really cool to see the community have something like that," Wilder said.
During film study for Northwestern, Wilder couldn't help but think of back home.
"Seeing them on the film makes me so proud and so happy for them," he said of Whillock and Fisher. "We've grown up dreaming of these moments, dreaming of playing at this level of football. Both of them are having great careers. Obviously, I want them to do well, but let's be real. I need us to do a little bit better.
"I talked to them last Sunday.
"No more communication for the rest of the week."
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Wilder started 64 straight games for the Katy Tigers, who posted records of 16-0, 15-1, 14-2 and 16-0 during his four varsity seasons. At an early age, he focused on nutrition and taking care of his body. "I had injuries I had to fight through," he said. "But I didn't have anything that was season-ending."
Until he got to Houston.
As a freshman, he appeared in 13 games for coach Tom Herman and earned his letter on special teams. In late November, Herman took the University of Texas job and was replaced by Major Applewhite. As a sophomore, Wilder injured his knee in the second game and was lost for the season.
During his ACL rehab, he began considering options to transfer. His high school coach contacted schools that had previously recruited Wilder and mentioned him by name to the Wisconsin coaches during a coaching clinic in Madison the same week that Wilder got his release from Houston.
It was an ideal fit for Wilder, who walked on and redshirted last season.
"It was a good transition period," he said. "It really helped me get acclimated to the culture here and gain a lot of relationships, but also figure out who I really am outside of football. And me being without football, it helped a lot just in my growth as a man and as a player, too.
"I'm so much more aware of what's important on and off the field."
It was a little over a year ago that Aubrey Wayman walked into Wilder's life. Prior to the second game of the 2018 season against New Mexico, Wilder met Wayman, a 10-year-old from Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, who had been diagnosed over the summer with Lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphatic system.
Wilder was so moved that he later reached out to Wayman. They've been buds ever since.
"She's very inspiring. She's very mature for her age," said Wilder, who has been active with fellow student-athletes in Badgers Give Back, a community outreach and mentoring program. "I really can't believe someone like her has been through so much.
"But the way she has handled things is truly inspiring."
It also has been instructive from the perspective of what she has taught the 21-year-old Wilder.
"She taught me that there's nothing to complain about," he said. "There's so much more that people go through like Aubrey that is so much more important than just a bad practice or an injured shoulder. Even when I transferred, I had to sit out a whole year. But that's not adversity.
"True adversity is going through chemotherapy week-in and week-out and having to battle cancer. That's something that is inspiring and something that is more important to life than football. Just cherishing your moments, cherishing your loved ones, that's what she really taught me."
Wilder also has cherished his budding friendships with UW teammates, especially his close bond with UW safety Scott Nelson, a redshirt sophomore from Detroit. "It really started with a spiritual connection having a similar faith and belief," Wilder said. "That was the biggest thing, the connection."
They hit it off from the start.
"I think we're just very similar people," said Nelson, a nine-game starter who injured his knee in the opener at South Florida and has been sidelined for the rest of the season. "We have the same goals and same beliefs in a lot of things. He's a very genuine person and I appreciate that about him."
Wilder has been an invaluable resource for Nelson during the early stages of his injury rehab.
"I'm glad that I can be here for that because I've been through the surgery, I've been through the rehab process," Wilder said. "Based on how he's feeling every day, I can tell him what I did and what I should have done. I'm just trying to get him ahead on the rehab as much as I can."
The Badgers' depth at safety is being tested. After losing Burrell and Pearson in the third quarter, UW defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard called on Wilder; redshirt sophomore Tyler Mais, a Waunakee, Wisconsin, product; and redshirt freshman John Torchio, who intercepted a pass in the fourth quarter.
"I'm very confident in the guys we've got going," Nelson said. "Torch obviously showed in his first snaps that he can make plays. He showed that in camp a lot. He's young, he doesn't have the experience, but he's a playmaker."
Torchio was a preferred walk-on from Lafayette, California, a half hour from San Francisco. As a junior, he led Campolindo High School to the Division 4AA state championship and was named the MVP of the title game. As a senior, he was a first-team all-state quarterback and doubled in the secondary.
Although he had eight scholarship offers — including one from the University of California, where both his grandfather and father played quarterback — he fell in love with the campus and Madison environment after visiting his sister Katharine, who was on the UW soccer team (2015-18).
"I grew up going to Cal games and I liked Cal and I root for Cal," said Torchio, an Eagle Scout. "But I just wanted to experience something new. When I would visit her (Katharine), I liked the atmosphere here and everything about it was really cool."
On turning down so many scholarship offers to be a walk-on, he said, "I decided to bet on myself."
The Badgers are glad that he did.
"He's a really smart guy," Wilder said. "He's got an eye for the ball."
Obviously, it will be hard for Wilder to keep his eyes off his lifelong friends, Fisher and Whillock, when the Northwestern defense is on the field Saturday. But he's planning on sticking to business with so much on the line for a Wisconsin team that is aiming to stay unbeaten.
"We'll be talking on Sunday," promised Wilder, who's hoping to have plenty to say then.
