12/27/2022 football Edit

Motivated by doubters, Wyatt Rector achieving his goals

Wyatt Rector celebrates a fumble recovery on a muffed punt return vs. LSU. (Bob Ferrante)

Bob Ferrante • TheOsceola

Editor

Wyatt Rector can acknowledge the doubters back home in Leesburg, Fla., now. They were part of his journey to Division-I athlete and college graduate, whose blunt criticism helped to motivate him.

“Growing up, I'm just going to put this out there, I had a speech impediment,” Rector said. “I had to take classes to fix it. I had comprehension problems. Whenever I was in middle school and freshman, sophomore year, I was in intensive reading classes. And honestly it stressed me out a whole lot because, I'm looking at my friends and they might have another PE class or they might have another elective. But, no, I'm sitting here and I have to go and read more and just in order to understand things and because I had those comprehension problems. And I had to push through that.

“Not all the teachers were telling me that I would never make it to this and that. But I had a couple, I think I was literally two, that I remember told me, ‘I don't think you can go play Division I football. And I also don't think you can go graduate from a D-I university, from a very good university like Florida State is.’ And the craziest part is one of them actually graduated from Florida State. And now that I think about it, I just always just kept that chip on my shoulder.”

Rector kept pushing to fulfil his dreams. In December, he graduated from FSU with a bachelor’s degree in Sport Management.

“I'm proud of myself for that,” Rector said. “I had a lot of help along the way and not enough people get the credit they should have because there's so many people that have helped me here, throughout the university, and all the way through high school as well. I'm just so grateful I was able to be the first one in my family to graduate from a university.”

Rector’s football journey took him first to Western Michigan as a quarterback before he arrived at FSU and transformed into a tight end and special-teams standout. He has the career touchdown trifecta — one passing, one rushing and one receiving — but he will perhaps best be known for quietly doing some of the dirty work on special teams (he and his good friend, linebacker Brendan Gant, each received FSU’s special teams MVP awards in 2022).

In a candid interview with the Osceola, Rector discusses his love of special teams, how much he has enjoyed playing at FSU for coach Mike Norvell and the staff and what he will do after his final game with the Seminoles against Oklahoma in the Cheez-It Bowl on Thursday. While Rector is a redshirt junior, he has career aspirations on and off the field — but regardless he will remain very close to football.

When did you begin to see the impact that you could have on special teams?

Rector: The moment I moved over to tight end and everything else, coach Norvell said, ‘You will have a lot more opportunities to get more snaps, whether that be playing tight end or getting special teams reps and everything else. And I originally only started on one special teams, which was called the punt shield. I wanted to expand and I wanted to grow and learn these different positions and everything else. I went up to BG (Gant) and said, ‘How do I do better at punt pressure where it comes to blocking a dude right down the field? Or blocking a punt? Or going down on kickoffs? How do I do this and this?’ And BG would honestly tell me what he thought would be best for me to do and everything else. And it eventually ended up working out where I was playing on all the special teams. So me and BG’s relationship since I got to FSU has been amazing. That's my brother for life. We push each other every single day at practice. We play such similar positions on special teams, so coach JP (special teams coordinator John Papuchis) leaves it up to me and BG to communicate to the rest of everybody else whatever special teams that we're on. So he leaves that responsibility up to us. We’ve developed that relationship even more as leaders of special teams and we have to basically share that role and, and it's awesome we push each other every single day. I just love him to death.

What are some of your favorite special teams plays? I have to imagine Trey Benson’s 93-yard kickoff return against BC is up there.

Rector: I'd probably say that opening kickoff was pretty special. I'd probably say that was definitely up there. But of the plays that are definitely memorable, I think of this year against LSU on kickoff, I went down there and I two-gapped the dude right into the returner and then the returner got hit and then I tackled the returner. That was huge. I also remember the fumble recovery I had against LSU on punt (the returner muffed the ball) as I was one of the gunners running down. That just brought a whole spark to the team and everybody's slapping me in my helmet. … In the past, you know what our record was and everything else. But the fact that we have a winning record this year, I honestly just remember every single game that you played in, the close ones, the ones where we did really well. I remember Florida, I had two tackles there. Those plays stick with us for the rest of their lives.

How have you been able to appreciate your development along with how the Seminoles have taken steps forward?

Rector: I'm so blessed that coach Norvell gave me the opportunity to come play for him and be a captain on the team and lead the team back to where it should be. We have an opportunity to get a 10-win season, which hasn’t been done around here in a while. Coach Norvell reminded us as soon as we came back to start our bowl practices that there's a sign and when you walk across right into the locker room, it says ‘24 10-win seasons.’ And he goes, ‘You guys, this 2022 team has the opportunity to make it 25.’ The players, we think about that. We want to do that because my favorite thing here since I've been at FSU that coach Norvell has done is we do this Victory Walk. And it’s where past players come back and they tell us their number that they're wearing and their experience about Florida State. So we get to see similar players that have worn our jerseys and that tell us about their experience. And we've had guys that come back and tell us all the time that they were Bobby Bowden’s first team when we didn't start off too good for those couple of years … For me, I think about those things. I think about when I'm done, I get to come back and say hey, ‘We're the 25th team that made this a 10-win season. We won the bowl game and we get a ring and flip the program around.’ It's just one of those things where I'm just so blessed that coach Norvell gave me an opportunity to come and lead and play for this amazing university that I love so much.

What’s your degree in and what would you like to do after college?

Rector: I want to become a strength coach someday or a personal trainer, one that trains athletes. The person that really inspired me to do this honestly is our strength coach that we have here (Josh Storms). I just find it fascinating what he does and he loves every bit of making us better, stronger and faster. I really feel like I could be doing what they're doing some day. And I feel like it'd be so fun to do it. I've thought about being a coach before but it's a very, very stressful job. People really don't realize. Once you get to the high level, you start getting paid good and everything else but it's a real grind. And it's hard especially if you have a family, starting off. I thought about being the strength coach because they honestly are the ones that deal with the players. And they talk to some recruits here when they come in on their official visits and everything else. But the strength coaches are the ones that, when the coaches are gone, you develop a serious relationship that lasts a lifetime. I text Coach Storms all the time, just ask him some questions about life and he'll just give me answers. But that's what this program is about. Norvell brought his guys in and that's the impact that he has had.

You have posted on Twitter that you are the first in your family to graduate and that some teachers were critical of you but you turned that into motivation. Could you see yourself going back to Leesburg to mentor high school students?

Rector: I've actually thought about that. Whenever I figure out what I'm doing with my job someday, maybe a couple of times out of the year, go back and I'll maybe host a camp or mentor kids from Leesburg. I grew up and played football there. Played all types of sports there. I think that would be such a great idea and I've always wanted to give back to the community and basically just say that you might be from Leesburg, a small town, but you can make it. You can make it out of Leesburg. You can go pursue your dreams. Everything I've ever dreamt of in my life, I have literally done. And that's come with a whole lot of hard work and sacrifice. But you can do it as long as you work your butt off. Not everything is going to go your way but that's life. That's the joy of life. That's why you wake up every single day. You got to take every day like it's your last.

You have also said that you’ve played a final game at Doak, helping FSU knock off Florida. But you’re also a redshirt junior. What will you be doing in 2023?

Rector: I am going to try and have a pro day next year and try to go into the draft and just honestly take my chances. Because I seriously can't see myself going to transfer to another school and playing for another coach. I feel like I have closure with college football and I felt like I've given it everything I have. So I have decided to take my chances and try to make it to the NFL. And if not then so be it. But I've always told myself and my parents that if I have the opportunity to try and at least attempt to make it to the NFL then I would. So I've already been talking to a couple of agents, but I think I'm going to sign with one right after the bowl game because I can't sign with one before or else it will forfeit my eligibility. I just want to be remembered as a Nole for the rest of my life.