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Ryan Petersen is not Rudy Ruettiger.
“Rudy is a little more persistent than me,” said Petersen. “He put in a few more years than I had.”
The students don’t chant “Rudy” when the former member of the MUSS stands in his #88 jersey on the sidelines at Rice-Eccles Stadium. “They usually chant MUSS or 88 or Petersen.”
But the senior from Twin Falls, Idaho and Ruettiger, the subject of the 1993 movie “Rudy”, wanted to play college sports badly. Petersen’s dream path was a bit different.
He thought his gridiron days were done after his sophomore year playing middle linebacker.
“I had a couple of surgeries that kept met out my junior and senior year.”
Petersen decided to attend the University of Utah because he liked the physical therapy program and even tried out for the baseball team. He said that didn’t work out either.
Petersen moved on with his athletic life. He filled up his free time skiing, hiking and playing pick-up basketball. Then some friends invited him to play in the annual MUSS flag football game. That’s when his life changed.
In the 2014 contest, Petersen played quarterback and defensive back and led his team to victory. “I played well. And they hand out an MVP award and I was lucky to win,” he said.
Then, Head Coach Kyle Whittingham approached him.
“He asked if I had any inclination to play college football and if I had any eligibility left.” The coach encouraged him to try out for the team. Petersen was stunned. “Disbelief and shock…I’ve never heard of that happening and never planned on that happening to me.”
Petersen was eligible to play one more year and he found out after taking his test for graduate school that he would be the last guy on the fall camp roster. He was finally going to live his dream.
But Petersen was also realistic about his dream. He knew that he would be on the scout team. Instead of catching TD passes at the stadium he dazzled during flag football, he would be one of the guys pretending to be the Utes next opponent. And he won’t ask for more playing time.
But it’s not like Petersen hasn’t played. He’s been on kick-off coverage in three different games. The first one was eye-opening. “I got drilled,” he said with a laugh. “I was kind of starry-eyed and not quite in the moment. I was caught up in it.”
Petersen has hit a few guys since then. Does he still hope for his Hollywood “Rudy” moment, where he makes the final tackle of the regular season?
“Yeah, a tackle would be nice. Or just running out a celebrating a victory.”
The flag football dream lives on. I am a reporter and producer for KSL Newsradio. I am also a co-host on Cougar Sports Saturday. I've worked for KSL since August of 2001.
