Tyree says he’s ‘a lucky guy’ after finally getting his shot
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
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</IMG> </TD></TR><TR><TD class=credit width=200>JONATHAN QUILTER | DISPATCH </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
Name : Andree Tyree
Age : 23
Position : Tight end, Ohio State
Hometown : London, Ohio
Question : This is your last college football game and it’s against Notre Dame. Can you go out on anything better than that?
Answer : When I was growing up, Notre Dame was my favorite school. So it’s kind of come full circle for me.
Q : But you grew up in London, 40 miles from the Ohio State campus. Why Notre Dame?
A : They were always in the limelight, they were always on TV, no matter where they were playing. So I kind of grew up watching them.
Q : Other than watching Notre Dame on Saturday afternoons in the fall, how did you pass the time in jolly old London town?
A : It was pretty much just sports all day, every chance that we got. It was either football, baseball, basketball, soccer — anything we could play, that’s what we did outside. From the time the sun came up until the sun came down, it was sports.
Q : What was your favorite sport as a kid?
A : Probably baseball. At a young age, I was pretty good at it. And it was lot less strenuous than football. It was a lot of fun.
Q : What position did you like?
A : I was almost always the catcher. I pitched a little, but I didn’t have a real strong arm. I was more of a closer. And I was a pretty good hitter. A power hitter. I hit a lot of home runs.
Q : So your dream was to be a majorleague baseball player?
A : Not really. Football was my No. 1 game. It was what I was kind of built for. I was always bigger than everybody and just as fast as everybody. I liked to play baseball better, but football was my passion. I always wanted to be a football player.
Q : To be the next Reggie White? Or Orlando Pace?
A : No, the guy I wanted to emulate was Barry Sanders. I didn’t quite have the body for it.
Q : But did you have the moves?
A : Just a few. Not quite like Barry, but I’d try.
Q : When did you come to grips with the fact you weren’t going to be the next Barry Sanders?
A : My freshman year at London. I was a tailback, but I blew my knee out. Once I did that I gained a little weight, they moved me over to linebacker. From that point on, that was the end of being Barry Sanders.
Q : You grew up to be one of the Midwest’s top defensive line prospects by your senior year, and you signed with Ohio State, part of Jim Tressel’s first recruiting class in 2001. Did you think from that moment on you were on the road to glory?
A : That’s exactly what I thought. It didn’t quite turn out that way. But it was a good trip.
Q : Really, it was a tough trip. That body that everybody said was made for football took a beating. You don’t have a bushelbasket of Buckeye leaves, but you’ve got the scars to prove you gave college football a whirl.
A : Early in my career, I had a lot of injuries. I had a couple of knee surgeries, a finger, a shoulder, things like that. Then I started kind of getting healthy and I haven’t had an injury for a while. That’s probably the reason I have been able to finally step in there.
Q : Let’s see, you came in as a defensive tackle, were moved to the offensive line, then in 2002 you played a little fullback on the national championship team. There was another set of injuries, and here you sit at tight end. How did that happen?
A : We had some guys get hurt this year and they needed somebody to step up and help in there and I was more than willing to do it. I’d do anything to help this team.
Q : You did more than just fill a void at Michigan. You were blowing people off the ball, even getting some run from the television commentators.
A : I did feel like I was playing well. That day, I just wanted to keep playing.
Q : You were on Ohio State teams that had beaten Michigan three times in the previous four years. What difference did playing a key role in this victory make in the way you felt afterward?
A : All my teammates ran onto the field when it was over. The only thing I could do was walk out to the middle of it, stare up at the scoreboard and just cry. Because it means so much to all of these people around here, and to the state. To be able to do that and to know what you accomplished was unbelievable.
Q : We see and hear from the stars all the time, but there are so many more of you fellows in the shadows who rarely get to take a bow. Did finally getting a payoff pull the trigger on your emotions?
A : You work hard every summer, you’re here pretty much every day, working out, and then to have it pay off in that way, yeah, I couldn’t really ask for anything more, you know?
Q : With all that has gone on with you for five years, especially the nagging injuries, do you feel your college career was lucky or cursed?
A : I’m a lucky guy. Even if I didn’t get to play ever, I’m a lucky guy because there’s a lot of guys out there who want to be in the square I’m in. Even if I didn’t get to play, I got my education paid for, I got to go places and see things a lot of other people want to do but they can’t do.
Q : You talked about the joy of crying on the field at Michigan. Was there ever a moment the past few years where you felt like crying from despair?
A : I never cried. I wanted to quit. I wanted to walk away. I wanted to just give up, probably every single year. But I just kept fighting, stuck with it. Because I just knew if I quit I would be giving up something that was priceless in that I knew when I got older I’d always look back on it and regret it. I just needed one chance, one opportunity, so I stuck with it, I got my chance, and it all paid off.
— Tim May [email protected]
