Perfect prospect

Sporting News, The, March 16, 1998 by Jeff Snook

A letter arrived in the mail just before Christmas, and before opening it, Andre Wadsworth couldn't quite peg the handwriting. It was familiar, yet he didn't immediately know the origin.

The contents revealed Wadsworth's own little time capsule, and the handwriting turned out to be his:

"This is probably the last tune I will ever suit up for an athletic event."

Written in November 1992 for an advanced English class at tiny Florida Christian High in Miami, those were Wadsworth's sad thoughts just before his final high school football game. The class assignment had required each student to analyze where he expected to be in life's broad scale in five years, when teacher Darryl Safreed would, mail the papers back to his students.

Safreed's letter found Wadsworth among the nation's elite--on and off the athletic field--and the top defensive player available in the NFL draft. Scouts believe he'll be a standout defensive end who has the athletic skills and makeup to be a superstar.

Five years ago, as a 217-pound high-school end with no scholarship offers, he had no reason to expect that he would:

* Walk on at talent-rich Florida State and become a three-year starter on the defensive line.

* Become a member of every All-American team, as well as ACC Player of the Year.

* Be on his way to instant riches in the NFL.

"I really didn't expect much back then," says Wadsworth, 23. "I figured by now I would be working on my master's or in the work force. It's awesome when you think about the whole thing, but when you take everything one step at a time, you don't take time to think of the big picture."

The big picture is this: Given the resolve, drive, character and talent of Andre Wadsworth, it really is no surprise he has become so successful. And yet, these ingredients of stardom somehow escaped all of the recruiters' radar screens.

FSU coach Bobby Bowden requires his assistants to make at least one trip to each high school in their respective recruiting areas. So in 1990, when Chuck Amato visited Florida Christian, a member of the smallest division of Florida's high schools (Class A), coach Jim Arnold told him, "Come back in three years and I may have somebody for you, if the big high schools don't find and take him away"

They didn't, and by the time Wadsworth was a senior, he dominated games as a tight end, defensive end/linebacker and, yes, even a kick returner, returning one kickoff 98 yards for a touchdown. He made the All-Dade County first team. "But nobody ever comes out of my school," he says. "It's a Christian school with no history of athletics. Nobody even thinks to look there."

Nobody did. So, he decided to walk on at Florida State--not so much because of Bowden, the shiny gold helmets or the white horse and flaming spear, but because "they had the business school I wanted to get a degree from," he says. "Hey, believe it or not I didn't go to school for football."

And in a time when NFL teams' investigations of players' off-field behavior (dare we mention Lawrence Phillips?) become increasingly detailed, that statement says it all about Wadsworth. Already, he has a business degree and is only three classes from a master's in sports administration. He also is an active member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. "He's one guy we never had to worry about," Bowden says.

That trait makes him all the more appealing to NFL teams. They know he is a sure thing--as sure as prospects come--in the character category.

"He's a great player. But as great a player as he is, he is just as great a person off the field," says Bruce Lemmerman, the Saints' director of college scouting. "Whoever gets him is going to be glad they did."

Vinny Cerrato, San Francisco's director of player personnel, compares Wadsworth with 49ers defensive tackle Bryant Young. "He's just like him. He plays hard on the field, and off the field he has all the intangibles," Cerrato says. "He loves the game, and he won't be a problem."

Of course, no one was singing Wadsworth's praises five years ago, which was why he felt as if he had to make an immediate impression as a freshman walk-on. "In my first practice, my first play, I knocked (offensive tackle) Marvin Ferrell on his butt," he says. "I didn't want to be just another player. I wanted to make an impression. ... I think everyone was surprised"

Especially the FSU recruiters who were supposed to be experts on Miami-area prospects. "We could tell right away that we made a mistake," says Amato, the Seminoles' linebackers coach and chief recruiter of greater Miami. "It was embarrassing that we didn't offer him a scholarship. He sort of reminded me of a young Bruce Smith."

After one year in Tallahassee--"I never lifted so much and ate so much good food as I did then"--Wadsworth was up to 240 pounds and on scholarship. He became a starting nose tackle in the fifth game of his redshirt freshman season (1994), then was named second-team All-ACC the next two seasons. But nobody seemed to notice since All-American ends Peter Boulware and Reinard Wilson were grabbing headlines and quarterbacks at a rapid pace.