Christian Boettcher looked around the Lowell-Stevens Football Facility and out toward the turf at Arizona Stadium. He pointed at the weight room where heโs spent many hours and thought about everything heโs done to get to this point.
Last week, Boettcher โ a redshirt junior โ informed his coaches that this would be his last season playing football. Boettcher will start law school next fall, and decided it would be best to focus on school.
On Tuesday, Boettcher talked about a winding career that never really should have gone this far. The walk-on-turned-scholarship player-turned-starter said he dreamed of starting at the UA. He just never thought it would happen.
โItโs kinda movie-like, in a way, but I get to live behind the scenes of the movie,โ Boettcher said. โThe directors and producers are yelling and running around, all the conditioning, all the weightlifting. But thereโs a lot of hard work thatโs gone into it and I feel proud of what Iโve done.โ
If Boettcherโs football life is a movie, itโs not quite โRudy.โ Boettcher didnโt need his teammates to beg coach Rich Rodriguez to keep on him on the team, though he did have to try out to make the team a few years ago.
Boettcher suffered a knee injury as a senior at Scottsdaleโs Desert Mountain High School, severely limiting his college options. Division II and NAIA programs showed interest, but no major opportunities presented themselves.
Boettcher picked the UA, attracted by its biochemistry program, and tried to walk on. UA coaches remembered him from a high school camp.
Boettcher redshirted in 2014, and played in one game as a redshirt freshman. Rodriguez rewarded Boettcher with a scholarship in May of 2016. Later that year, Boettcher had a starting spot.
Was Boettcher ready for that jump in playing time? Not quite.
At that point, Boettcher was known among Arizonaโs offensive linemen for accidentally stepping on his teammatesโ feet during pass protection plays.
โOh, God. Dude, last year my left foot was bruised every day,โ said UA center Nathan Eldridge. โIt was horrible. Itโs not like he would just step on your ankle โ he would go up your leg and Iโd be yelling at him all the time.โ
Boettcher admits that 2016 was rough.
โI was obviously the deficient guy in the lineup,โ he said.
Boettcher didnโt exactly look the part, either. Heโs listed at 6 feet 2 inches and 290 pounds โ five inches shorter than fellow starter Jacob Alsadek and half-a-foot shorter than Freddie Tagaloa, the player Boettcher beat out for a starting job a year ago.
Boettcher opened the 2017 season looking up at another behemoth, the 6-3, 318-pound Michael Eletise. He beat him out anyway. Boettcher has started every game at left guard this season, and has been a key cog on an offensive line that hasnโt allowed a sack in five of the past six weeks.
โItโs a great group because they all work their butts off,โ offensive line coach Jim Michalczik said. โThey all want to be special, they want to be good. Nowadays everybody wants to anoint guys because heโs a five-star (recruit), heโs going to be this, where thereโs still some guys out there that want to make themselves great. Iโve never met a lineman who was born great. Iโve had some pretty damn good ones who have worked themselves into that.โ
Arizonaโs coaches just wish Boettcher could stay another year.
โWe wanted him to come back, but more importantly, we wanted him to get ready for the next phase of his life, and thatโs going to be graduating and moving on,โ Rodriguez said. โHe came from nowhere to not only get a scholarship but become a starter and play a couple positions and play at a really good level. (Heโs a) great example for the whole team.โ
Said Eldridge: โI understand where heโs coming from. I obviously wanted him to play football, but he has a really bright future so I was proud of him. That took a lot of guts to do that.โ
So Boettcher was included in the Wildcatsโ Senior Night last week against Oregon State. Some of his teammates carried him off the field.
It wasnโt โRudyโ โ but close enough.
โI came to the decision that I need to be a man and get on with the next portion of my life,โ Boettcher said. โIn terms of just the gravity of it all, itโs just sinking in.
โI would say this is my dream, and itโs kind of come true.โ
Extra points
- UA wide receiver Shun Brown was limited against Oregon State because of a foot injury, but said Tuesday heโs feeling โpretty goodโ and is โready to roll.โ
- Cornerback Jace Whittaker again had a walking boot on his left foot as he left the locker room. Whittaker sported one last week as well but didnโt appear on the injury report and played against Oregon State.
- Rodriguez said tackle Bryson Cain, whoโs out for the season (ankle), is practicing on a limited basis. Rodriguez also anticipates that safety Isaiah Hayes (shoulder) will be back for spring ball.
- Arizona did wet-ball drills Tuesday, and will continue to do them through the week. The weather forecast in Eugene for Saturday projects for a chilly, rainy afternoon.
- Defensive lineman Dereck Boles and linebacker Colin Schooler made Pro Football Focusโ Pac-12 Team of the Week for their performances against Oregon State. Schooler finished with six tackles, three tackles-for-loss and two sacks, while Boles had seven tackles and one for a loss.
