Nimble feet, flexible hips, gray matter earn Chesterton O-lineman Ryan Gray preferred walk-on status at Western Illinois University

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

The obvious prospects for college football tend not to fly under the radar as often anymore. Too many exposure camps, ranking services, etc., get the word out.
In contrast, the stealth prospects need connections. Chesterton offensive lineman Ryan Gray had one in Trojans strength and conditioning coach Matt Wagner.
That’s why Gray, recruited to play football by several Division III non-scholarship programs in Indiana, instead is heading to Western Illinois, a D-1 program, as a preferred walk-on, which means he must pay his own way and will try to earn a scholarship one of these years.
Wagner was assistant strength and conditioning coach at Division II UIndy when current Western Illinois offensive line coach Brad Wilson had a similar role on the UIndy football staff.
Wagner knows the sort of individuals and football prospects Wilson likes and has an idea of the sort of coach who could bring out the best in Gray. Wagner saw a fit between the coach and the prospect and reached out to Wilson in November.
Wilson told Wagner to send him a highlight tape and told him to pass along his contact information to Gray, who eventually visited the campus in Macomb, received an offer to be a preferred walk on, accepted and said he is determined to meet the first expectation set for him by Wilson: weigh no more than 325 pounds when Gray steps onto campus in August.
Gray’s weight looked better at a recent signing ceremony in the cafeteria.
“I feel so much lighter than I ever have before,” Gray said. “I feel loose.”
Based on estimates from Gray and Wagner, the right guard’s weight is anywhere from 330 to 340 pounds. The 6-foot-6 Gray said he had been as heavy as 426 at the start of track and field season his sophomore year.
“A lot of it was the diet, but also Wagner’s program that he put in had a lot of conditioning and muscle conditioning, as well as losing the weight,” Gray said. “I want to get down to 325, 315 for the summer. That’s my goal right now.”
To that end, he said he spends a lot of time on the stationary bike and exercises portion control when eating.
The book on Gray since his freshman year always has started with two main points: Great hips, needs to get into better shape. Both still apply, but he’s gaining on the second half by losing weight. He’s not there yet, but if he continues his current path, his chances are good of meeting Wilson’s first expectation: 325 or lighter.
“I think he will. Right now, he’s in throwing season, he can watch what he eats. This summer will be really big for him,” Wagner said. “For how big he was, he was in great shape in the summer. Years prior he would be one of the last guys in conditioning. This year he was in the middle of the pack, but he’s also one of the heaviest dudes we had, and he kept pushing himself because he knew he had to get better and wasn’t letting his weight be an excuse.”
Wagner is in his fourth full year at Chesterton and the fruits of his labor showed in how well the offensive line performed in helping the Trojans to exceed expectations with a 6-5 record. Gray and fellow guard Hunter Buza are graduating. All-state center Carlos Leon and tackles Braxton Ozug and Tyler Nevious will be back.
The strength Buza and Gray brought to the offense will be missed. More than strength has given Gray the opportunity to try to prove he’s a Division I football player.
“One of Coach Wilson’s favorite things is how flexible a kid is and how hard a kid is willing to work,” Wagner said. “When I saw Ryan Gray as a freshman and how flexible his hips were for being that big, I was like, ‘Man, this kid’s got some talent.’ You don’t see kids that big with hips like that.”
Wagner, like all successful strength coaches, is a mix of caveman and scientist, with the emphasis in his case on science. He did a nice job of explaining how to notice mobile hips in a lineman and why they are so important.
“Coach Wilson would do this one test where you have (the athlete) put his arms up, kind of like an overhead squat, and usually a guy will move forward with his feet, on his toes, or he sits back,” Wagner said. “When I did it to Ryan as a freshman, he went straight down, no movement in the shoulders, head stayed completely overhead and he went from staying upright to his butt almost touching the ground, and his arms stayed completely straight up. He’s got some really good hips.”
As for why hips are so important for offensive linemen, Wagner said: “They want to be able to see you bend and roll your hips forward to finish your block.”
Roll your hips forward?
“So, when they’re blocking, their hips are behind themm and when they finish the block, they roll their hips forward and that’s when you get a chance to finish a player and put him on his back,” Wagner said of the pancake blocks that Gray and Buza specialized in. “Ryan was a very physical player. He got a lot stronger. He was able to throw kids around.”
Wagner played O-line at Valparaiso High and UIndy and remembers the early days of college being particularly challenging. He expects the same for Gray, especially in his first 30 days in Macomb.
“I hope he sticks to it. It’s going to be hard. It’s going to be challenging the first year,” Wagner said. “It’s going to be completely different to go in there not knowing anybody. It’s very tough when you get pulled away, you know nobody, you’re trying to make friends, and you’re the lowest guy on the totem pole, but then you have to stick it out. There are going to be tough days. There are going to be fun days.”
Wagner painted Wilson to Gray as a tough but personable coach, and as evidence of the latter Wagner pointed out that all the players who played for Wilson and worked in the weight room with Wagner invite Wilson to their weddings.
“I told Coach Wilson that Ryan’s a really good kid and once you get to know him, you’ll really like him,” Wagner said. “I told Ryan the same thing. Once you get to know Coach Wilson, you’ll really like him. Now he’s going to be hard on you, but he’s also going to love you up. He’s going to find what makes you tick and what makes you run away.”
Gray’s unusually nimble feet and flexible hips for an athlete his size aren’t the only ways he shatters stereotypes. He also is an accomplished singer and is more than comfortable on the dance floor. Gray is a member of Chesterton’s show choir and is also in Camarata, a choral choir, and is a vocal leader in both. In that role, Gray said, “I pretty much teach the basses and help them progress.”
“I like being able to show that just because I’m 6-foot-6 and 320 pounds and I’m going to play college football doesn’t mean I can’t express things like that, doesn’t mean I can’t sing,” Gray said. “Sometimes, it’s a shock to people, which I find funny.”
Gray was easy to spot every year when the show choir sang the national anthem before the homecoming game. He was the one in a football uniform. He said he plans to approach boys track and field coach Bryan Nallenweg about singing the national anthem before the track and field senior day.
For now, Gray’s plan is to concentrate on making a good impression at football camp. The first way he can do that is to make weight, but that’s only one way.
Wagner keeps the weight room open during the summer. How often Gray takes advantage of that will be the first indication of whether he will make the grade as a Division I football player and perhaps eventually earn a scholarship.
The next indication will come when Gray shows how well he can withstand those lonely, challenging first 30 days of practice at WIU. It’s only natural for a walk-on surrounded by athletes ahead of him at the moment, putting himself through so much and feeling so alone to question whether he’s in the right place, doing the right thing. If Gray answers both of those challenges, he could have a bright future on the gridiron because big men with flexible hips and nimble feet tend to stand out. Nimble gray matter also comes in handy as an offensive lineman and Gray checks that box as well.