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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — As long as Michigan football was taking the field this fall, there was no question as to whether or not senior defensive end Kwity Paye would be putting on the winged helmet.
He was going to, no matter what. The Big Ten just had to let it happen.
But that didn’t stop agents from being in his ear, trying to get him to opt out while there were bounds of uncertainty.
The Big Ten pulled the plug on the season on Aug. 11, but ultimately restored it come Sept. 16. In the interim, there were questions about when a season might be played, and that was enough of a crack for agents to make their pitch to Paye to give up on any potential season and sign on the dotted line.
However, as hope remained, Paye was having none of it.
“I’ve gotten advice from a million people,” Paye said. “Whether it was, ‘Oh, you should leave,’ or, ‘Declare now and we can get the process rolling,’ blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. For me, I told people this all the time – I came back for a reason. I didn’t come back just to say I was coming back. I came back to play a season, so that was the only thing going through my head. That’s why I stayed so long – the hopes of playing this season.
“That just shows you their goals. If someone knows you came back for a season and they’re trying to advise you to leave, or agents saying just to leave, that’s – what’s your real interest here? Are you looking for my best interest or yours? I came back, I wanted to graduate, I wanted to play a season and that’s what I did. I’m not really the kind of person to take advice from other people as my mom would say. I’m real stubborn and once I have my heart set on something, I want to see it through. I came here for four years – I’m happy with that.”
But the earlier speculation was that the season would be bumped back to either spring or winter 2021. If that were to happen, Paye isn’t quite so sure whether or not he would have returned, as it would have put him in a precarious situation when it comes to preparing for the next level in the NFL.
“I would have had to go home and talk to my mom, obviously, because that would have been a whole situation with the schedule with the pre-draft process and senior bowls and all that stuff,” Paye said. “That’s obviously a conversation I would have had to have later. If there was a late season in the fall or whatever, I was gonna play no matter what.”
But why is he back?
He’s had some first-round NFL draft projections already, and PFF analyst Austin Gayle told WolverinesWire that with his speed, it’ll be hard to keep him on the board going into day two. Getting his degree is one thing, but there’s a motto in Ann Arbor that constantly sticks with Paye, and it’s something no Wolverine has lived up to since 2004.
Those who stay will be champions.
“I have no rings,” Paye said. “I came to the university to be a champion and I’ve yet to be a champion. I’m trying to accomplish that one thing, because I feel like I’ve done everything I’m supposed to do. I feel like this is a great organization, I feel like we’ve done a lot of great things, except at the end of the season. I feel like this is the year to do it because it’s my last year. I’m giving it all I got, this team is giving it all we got. Just trying to get that ring.”
The march towards earning a possible Big Ten ring or more starts on Oct. 24, when Michigan heads to Minnesota for the season opener.
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