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Minnesota’s PJ Fleck awards scholarship after season-opening win

Andrew Kulha

By Andrew Kulha

Published:

There are few things better than a walk-on player receiving a scholarship.

After all, walk-on players put in the same amount of work, the same amount of time, and the same amount of blood, sweat, and tears as scholarship players. There’s actually a case to be made that they put even more time and work because they know that nothing has been given to them and anything they want on the football field and on that football team needs to be earned.

There’s certainly no sense of entitlement when it comes to walk-ons.

Again, thats what makes it so sweet, for everybody involved, when the coach makes that announcement and said player joins the ranks of the scholarship players.

For the Minnesota Golden Gophers that player was safety Calvin Swenson, according to reporter Andy Greder on Twitter.

Head coach PJ Fleck was apparently in a giving mood after Minnesota’s 48-10 season-opening win over New Mexico State, but you get the sense from his comments on Swenson that the safety has certainly earned his scholly.

Sometimes it’s not the overall talent of the player but the heart that they display for the team. The aforementioned blood, sweat, and tears that gets the coach to believe in them — and thus the players around them start believing in them as well.

That’s how leaders are born, and it was pretty obvious that Swenson has the love of his teammates.

Watch below:

Andrew Kulha

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