Growing up in Wisconsin, football was in Jake Ferguson’s blood. Literally. What the tight end learned there over his first 23 years he’ll now bring to the Lone Star State as the fourth-round draft pick of the Cowboys in the 2022 draft.
Midwesterners are famous for being a people who tend to let their actions speak for them. So it’s perhaps fitting that Ferguson’s personal mantra can be boiled down to three simple words, a motto that sprang from within Fergsuon’s own family tree.
His grandfather is Barry Alvarez, a man who has achieved gridiron royalty status in a state that already boasts an stadium mecca named for one Packers coach and where another lends his name to the game’s ultimate prize.
So suffice it to say that during his own time in Green Bay, Mike McCarthy had a good idea of who Alvarez was and what he was all about.
“Hey, he’s got a statue in front of the stadium [in Madison],” McCarthy said last week. “I think that says it all.”
Alvarez took over a Badgers program in 1990 that was recognized as one of the doormats in the Big Ten. By the time he stepped down (to become the school’s athletic director) in 2005, Wisconsin had won three conference titles, won three Rose Bowls, and transformed itself into a perennial contender within the college football world.
That’s the life that Ferguson grew up absorbing, so The Alvarez Way was well instilled in him by the time the tight end got to the school himself.
“We always talk about three words that we live by at Wisconsin: smart, tough, dependable,” the Badgers tight end said last week after being selected 129th overall. “In the last five years of college football, I’ve been trying to base my life on and off the field off of those three words.”
Ferguson found himself using the same three words in selling himself to McCarthy when the two met in Indianapolis at the scouting combine.
“That was my pitch to Coach McCarthy, telling him, ‘Hey, I’m smart. I’m gonna be able to pick up the plays,” he told reporters during his first press conference as a Cowboys draft pick. “I’m tough; throw me into any scenario and I’ll be ready. And I’m dependable: you can depend on me.'”
It made an impression on McCarthy, who was quick to remind Ferguson of his pledge as the team turned in his card during the fourth round of Saturday’s draft.
“I know you’ll be a great fit for out locker room, ” the coach told him over the phone. “I remember your words in your interview, so I’m going to hold you to it. Just come in here and kick ass and be yourself.”
Ferguson just being himself will hopefully allow the Cowboys to enjoy renewed success with their rushing attack.
“At Wisconsin, we were a run-heavy team,” Ferguson says. “Growing up there, I know that tight ends are going to be blocking at Wisconsin. I came in really lightweight. I was 205 [pounds] my freshman year and knowing that I had to gain weight, and I only got to 235. Then I had to make it up, not only with my technique and knowledge of what to do, but also just my mindset of how to approach a block… It’s almost like you have to be pissed off and have great technique to block the best guys out there.”
And when great technique fails, Ferguson has always been a guy who manages to find another way to get it done.
He shared a story over draft weekend of playing youth soccer, a short-lived experience that only cemented his future as a football player.
“I got kicked out of my youth soccer league for tackling people,” the Madison native explained. “I just remember we were playing and there was this little kid who had the ball. I think he stole it from my teammate, and I was one of the defensive guys. I just thought I was one of the defensive guys, and I needed to tackle, so I chased him down and knocked him down, picked him up, and then they kicked me out of the league.
“My mom was the coach, and she was like, ‘Come on, Jake.’ The person who ran the league was there, and he was like, ‘You’ve got to get him out of here.’ She was like, ‘Yeah, we probably should.'”
Years later, soccer’s loss is the Cowboys’ gain. Now Ferguson looks to come in and get to work providing a one-two punch alongside veteran Dalton Schultz.
“I used to pick apart some of his film, especially when I was in college,” Ferguson said of his new teammate. “Him being that sort of all-around tight end was one of the things I wanted to do, especially as a younger tight end, and build my game up in that sense. Just be the guy who not only can be in the trenches blocking, but also go make plays out in the pass game.”
That multitasking approach to Ferguson’s game is something McCarthy likes, too.
“Obviously we had a chance to visit with him at the combine,” the coach told media members, “and we had really good grades on him. I think his versatility both on the ball and off the ball; tough guy; grew up in it.”
Smart. Tough. Dependable.
Three simple words for a kid from Wisconsin. Now he’ll get the chance to see how far they can take him with America’s Team.
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