"He just sort of walked in and showed up in August and didn’t know how to put on a helmet,” former Stevenson coach Josh Hjorth said.

A former UW linebacker was among the first to notice Njongmeta’s potential.

Njongmeta moved around between running back, linebacker and even nose tackle as a freshman and didn’t play much at any level while learning the basics of the sport.

Guy Boliaux, the defensive coordinator of Stevenson’s sophomore team who played for the Badgers from 1978-81, hadn’t even seen Njongmeta at all before his sophomore year. Boliaux asked other coaches if he played much the previous year, and they shook their heads.

“I said, ‘Well, it’s a shame because this kid has the potential to be a D-I kid,’” Boliaux said. “He had all the talent. The first day I saw him move, he moved across the field, great lateral speed. He would close on running backs. Amazing closing speed. You block him, he gets up, he’ll chase you all the way down the field and into the stands and make a tackle.

“I said, ‘The only thing is he doesn’t know much about football, so we’ll have to teach him that. But once he gets the hang of that, there’s no stopping him.’”