Last weekend in the NFL Draft, Wisconsin Badgers offensive linemen Peter Konz and Kevin Zeitler were taken in the first two rounds. Ricky Wagner should be a first round pick in 2013. In 2011, Gabe Carimi, John Mofitt, tight Lance Kendricks, and another guy who didn’t even start during his college football days in Madison were all drafted.
In short, if you make the starting five up front in Camp Randall, and you grasp the pro style offense of the Badgers, you’ll probably get your chance to in the NFL after your senior year. It’s an OL factory for the professional ranks. Another name you can count among them is guard/center Travis Frederick, an incoming junior.
But what makes Frederick so special is that he has the potential to have a very bright future even without football.
He may well be the smartest guy in not just the Big Ten, but all of college football.
Frederick has a computer engineering and computer science double major. When you factor in the time commitment of the football program, he must be an ace at time management.
From Fox Sports:
When he studies in his dorm, he does so with three computers. And as a teenager, he spent much of his time taking apart electronic devices simply to see how quickly he could put them back together.
Frederick, a redshirt sophomore from Sharon, Wis., became the first true freshman in school history to start a season opener on the offensive line when he lined up at center against Northern Illinois in 2009.
Frederick said he enrolled at Wisconsin with the intention of studying aerospace engineering and designing airplanes. When he discovered the school’s program did not interest him, he instead sought out computer science and computer engineering.
He studies computer programming, user interface and web development as well as how electrons flow through wires to make decisions. Though Frederick is undecided of his career plans, he said he might like to build computer chips or work as an information technology consultant in the business world or design custom computer applications for businesses.
Pretty much says it all. No basket weaving classes for this guy. And he’s a lot more intelligent than all the short canned responses and cliches you hear from most athletes in interviews. And he maxes out at 700 on the squat to boot!
Paul M. Banks is CEO of The Sports Bank.net, an official Google News site that generates millions of unique visitors. He’s also a regular contributor to Chicago Now, Walter Football.com, Yardbarker, and Fox Sports
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