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Madison — Football wasn't on Ryan Ramczyk's mind in the fall of 2012.

An all-state offensive tackle at Stevens Point High school as a senior in 2011, Ramczyk was toiling in anonymity on the Stevens Point campus of Mid-State Technical College.

"I was probably going to go into welding, some hands-on career," Ramczyk said.

Ramczyk's professional aspirations have come full circle. The boy who grew up watching the Wisconsin Badgers play on Saturday and the Green Bay Packers play on Sunday is UW's No. 1 left tackle and a player with NFL talent.

"It's always been a dream of mine," the 6-foot-6, 308-pound redshirt junior said.

So how did Ramczyk go from a potential welder to UW's projected starting tackle in 2016?

Confusion, good fortune, talent and timing.

After being named to the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association all-state team as a senior, Ramczyk was invited to play in the 2012 WFCA All-Star Game in Oshkosh.

Paul Chryst and Joe Rudolph, who left UW after the 2012 Rose Bowl, were preparing for their first season at Pittsburgh and offered Ramczyk a scholarship.

UW, which also lost offensive line coach Bob Bostad after the 2011 season, didn't offer Ramczyk a scholarship. According to Ramczyk, no one from the UW staff contacted him.

He mulled the offer from Pittsburgh, eventually decided to attend Division II Winona State but got cold feet and decided technical school was the best option.

"I was young and I don't think I knew what I wanted to do," Ramczyk said.

His former high school coach then took a job on the staff at UW-Stevens Point. He eventually contacted Ramczyk and said if he wanted to play football again he could join the Pointers.

Ramczyk left technical school after one year and played two seasons for the Pointers. He was a second-team all-Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference pick as a freshman in 2013 and a first-team pick as a sophomore in 2014.

"I took that opportunity and just fell in love with the game again," he said.

After Chryst was hired as UW's head coach in December 2014, Ramczyk pondered moving up the college football food chain to UW.

"I wanted to pursue the highest level of football I could," Ramczyk said, "so I reached out to these coaches and got the ball rolling."

He transferred to UW and sat out the 2015 season per NCAA rules but impressed teammates on both sides of the ball during practice because of his physical ability and tenacity.

"Knew he had a chance," Chryst said. "Was an athletic, big guy. I thought he did a great job last year diving in and getting comfortable with the team and the system...he is a good football player."

So good that Chryst announced before the start of spring practice Ramczyk would be the No. 1 left tackle.

"I didn't have any big expectations," Ramczyk said. "I just wanted to come here and work as hard as I could and see where that got me. Hard work paid off and put me in the position I'm in now."

His position: UW's left tackle. Welder can wait.