Not many get to play football at the highest division, let alone be a four-year starter. Travis Wilson of the Utah Utes was able to do both.

At 6-7 and 233 pounds, Wilson has the size that offensive coordinators drool over for their ideal QB, but playing the position wasn’t always a given. His toughness and size lead him to the defensive side of the ball first, playing middle linebacker at San Clemente high school, until an injury to his team’s starting quarterback forced Travis to line up under center.

After a successful career in high school, Wilson was recruited by many schools in the Pac-12, including UCLA and Utah, but it was the latter which sparked the most interest as it was in its infancy in the conference (after switching over from the Mountain West) and it gave him the opportunity to work with offensive coordinator Norm Chow. Although he started at the university every year he played, Wilson suffered two major setbacks which affected him greatly. The first was the loss of his childhood friend, UCLA receiver Nick Pasquale, and the second was a serious head injury suffered against Arizona State, an injury which forced him to miss the final three games of his junior year and prevented him from working out for over five months.

But true to his inner-linebacker being, Travis Wilson has a toughness that enabled him to persevere and overcome, and that’s just one of the reasons why he’s looking forward to taking the next step in his football career.