Any way you choose to measure such things, Troy Walters (1996-99) is the best wide receiver in the history of Stanford football, and no one else is close. He had the best single game (9 catches for 278 yards and 3 touchdowns vs. UCLA in 1999) and the two best seasons (1,206 yards in '97 and a Stanford-record 1,508 in '99) in school history, so it shouldn't be a surprise that he sits comfortably atop the career list as well with 4,047 yards, more than a thousand yards ahead of the next best total. Oh, and he also holds school records for receptions in a season (86 in 1997) and a career (248).
Walters's 1999 season was legendary. He was a consensus All-America, won the Biletnikoff Award as the nation's top receiver, and helped lead the Cardinal to the Rose Bowl, its first in almost three decades. Following his time at Stanford, Walters spent eight years in the NFL with the Vikings, Colts, Cardinals, and Lions before embarking on a coaching career. He is currently the receivers coach at the University of Colorado, and last week he took time out of his busy schedule to talk to me about his life in football. Enjoy...
Go Mighty Card:
Let’s go all the way back to your days growing up in Texas. There's a definite mythology that’s built up about Texas high school football. What was it like for you at A&M Consolidated High School?
Troy Walters:
I went to middle school in Louisville, Kentucky, and I actually played soccer and football and baseball. After my eighth grade year my dad got the job at Texas A&M, so we moved down to Texas and I was deciding whether I was going to play soccer or football, but once I got down there I realized that football was king. Everybody is so passionate about football. The towns closed down, really, on Friday nights, and it’s all about high school football, and then on Saturday it’s about college football. So there’s a lot of hype around Texas high school football, and it’s true. The kids, really, grow up — elementary, middle school — playing together. Playing on the same team. It’s kind of like a feeder system to the high school. It starts at a young age, and it just continues until you get to high school.
GMC:
Did you always have aspirations about playing college football, or was there a point where you realized, hey, this might be something I want to do?
Walters:
You know what? I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I played a lot of sports growing up. I knew I wanted to play professionally somewhere, but I didn’t know what. I played baseball a little bit, I played basketball. I knew basketball, because of my height, wasn’t probably going to be an option, but I was really a pretty good soccer player. I wasn’t sure. When I went down to Texas, I really focused on football and wanting to be the best at football. Probably throughout my high school career I knew that I wanted to have an opportunity to play college ball.
GMC:
What was your recruiting process like? Which schools were interested in you, and what led you Stanford?
Walters:
At the time I was probably 5’5” and 150 pounds, so I wasn’t heavily recruited out of high school, even though I was an all-state selection and received a lot of accolades, but as coaches you look at measurables: height and speed. I wasn’t the tallest, I wasn’t the fastest, so I was kind of overlooked. Sam Houston State was really my only offer before Stanford. I took a trip to Tulsa on an official visit, but they had a couple other receivers that they were interested in before offering me. I was kind of their second or third choice. But Stanford, the story behind me going to Stanford is pretty amazing. My senior year my father got the job with the Minnesota Vikings. He left, and my mom and I stayed in Texas. I was a ballboy during the summer for the Vikings during their training camp and caught balls from Warren Moon and Gino Toretta and Andre Ware. And then what I’d do, during the football season I would send all my game tapes to my dad in Minnesota. So Tyrone Willingham was the running backs coach there, and I guess my dad would show him highlights from my game and how I was doing. Tyrone had seen me during training camp catching balls and catching punts from their punters, so when Tyrone got the job in December, he knew what I could do. He told me, look, if you can get in academically, then you have a scholarship. That was the only reason why Stanford offered, because of Tyrone Willingham. I’ve always been indebted to Coach Willingham, and I knew that once I got there I had to prove myself to show that I really belonged and it wasn’t just a favor but I could really play at the next level.
GMC:
When you arrived at Stanford, you contributed immediately, catching 32 passes during your freshman season. What was that transition like for you?
Walters:
Well, I actually redshirted, but it was a definite transition, because you go from being the man, being the star in high school, and then that first year I had to redshirt. You go from being the guy taking all the reps to not taking any, to being on the practice squad and not travelling. It’s really a humbling experience, you really had to step back. But I learned a lot my freshman year just watching the older guys — Damon Dunn, Andre Kirwan, Marlon Evans, Mark Harris, Brian Manning — watching those guys work. And I was fortunate enough to travel to a couple games, and just being on the sidelines, mentally I tried to prepare myself as if I was playing so that when it was my time to play, I’d be ready. The first year was tough, that transition, but Stanford’s such an amazing place and the coaches are great and the players are great, so that helped me through that freshman year — being homesick and not playing — so given the opportunity the next year I’d be able to make the most of it.
GMC:
What were your early impressions of Tyrone Willingham? He always presented such a calm, focused demeanor on the sidelines. What was he like on the practice field and in the meeting rooms, and what was your relationship like with him?
Walters:
He was the same way. What you saw on game day and in the media is how it was. He didn’t change. Like you said, he was calm. He was purposeful. Everything he did had a reason and a purpose behind it. He never talked just to talk. His words were powerful, they always had meaning. He held everyone to the highest standard, and I think that’s why we were successful — because of Coach Willingham and the standard that he set and his expectations. His biggest thing was to work on your mind and strengthen your mind. Everything we did was to really strengthen our minds. The conditioning was definitely for your body and to get in shape, but it was also for mental toughness to be mentally tougher than your opponent. When the fourth quarter came and it was crunch time, we were gonna be mentally tougher so we were gonna be able to win those close games. Tyrone did a lot for me, giving me that opportunity, and he did a lot for everybody that’s played for him. We became better men because of Coach Willingham.
GMC:
You had a breakout year during your sophomore season, catching 86 balls for more than 1200 yards. You seemed like a perfect fit for the Stanford offense. What clicked for you that season?
Walters:
It actually started the previous year, my redshirt freshman year. I was playing a little bit as a punt returner, and finally, playing at UCLA, we were 2-5 and in a little slump, and the coaches put me as the third receiver in the starting lineup. That was kind of my breakout game. That was the game where I finally felt I could play and be successful in the Pac-10. I think I had seven catches for 90 yards and a touchdown. After that I ran a punt back against Washington State and against Cal, so the momentum kind of built up from the end of my redshirt freshman year. In the Sun Bowl we beat Michigan State and I had a decent game there. That’s where the confidence really grew. It was my time to shine. I had to seize the moment and work hard in the off season. I had a very good surrounding cast with the running backs we had — Anthony Bookman and Greg Comella and Jon Ritchie — so all those factors played into that successful sophomore season.
GMC:
Also during that sophomore season, DeRonnie Pitts arrived on campus. The two of you were two of the greatest wide receivers in Stanford history, and you played together for three seasons. What was that relationship like? How did the two of you complement each other?
Walters:
Oh, we had a great relationship. I kind of put DeRonnie under my wing. He came from Saginaw, Michigan, and was an athlete, really, in high school. He played quarterback, but he was kind of raw at receiver, so I took him under my wing. The one thing that DeRonnie had was a work ethic. He was a competitor. So we kind of competed with each other, trying to outdo one another, which made us both better, kind of pushed us both. We had a great relationship. He had great hands, ran great routes. One thing about DeRonnie, once he got the ball in his hands, he was almost like a running back. He was a little bigger than I was, so he created a lot of things and made a lot of plays after he caught the ball. It was a privilege to play with him. I tried to instill some of my knowledge in him, and he had a great career. We worked well together.
GMC:
Todd Husak took over at quarterback for your final two seasons. What did he bring to the offense?
Walters:
Todd was consistent. He was one of those guys who knew the playbook in and out. A great leader. He got everybody in the right position. He was just consistent. He made the right throws. There wasn’t anything flashy. We had had Chad Hutchinson who had the big arm and Joe Borchard who had the big arm — baseball guys — and Todd was kind of overlooked, but when he got his opportunity he made the most of it. Just consistent, making the right throws, accurate, led the offense very well, smooth. He’s credited with a lot of my success because he was the one who pulled the trigger and got me the ball.
GMC:
I want to talk a little bit about the 1999 season. That was a fun year to be a Stanford fan, and not just because it ended in the Rose Bowl. There were a lot of special personalities on that team. What do you remember about that group of guys?
Walters:
Oh, man. We were picked eighth in the Pac-10 that year before the season started. I remember a core group of seniors that we had, we were hungry. We were committed to going out in style and going out as winners.
GMC:
Were you committed to going to the Rose Bowl? Was that something that was discussed, or were you not as specific?
Walters:
I remember we had a shirt that had 367 on it, which was the mileage to the Rose Bowl, and that’s what we wore during the off-season and summer conditioning. That was on our backs. So that was the goal, to win the Pac-10. As seniors, we knew this was our last year, our last chance. That was our mindset. We wanted to go out being the best, and we worked our butts off in the summer time. It was funny, because we started out at Texas and lost 69-17, and I remember coming into the locker room and Tyrone Willingham said to keep up our heads up, we have a champion in this locker room. We kind of looked around, like, who’s he talking about? [Laughing.] We just got destroyed. But he knew what he had, he knew what we were made of. We kind of went on a run and won our next three or four games, and then lost to San Jose State. We won some more and then lost to Washington. So we just kept battling back. I remember we were down to USC, 21-0, and came back and beat them. We were a resilient bunch, a focused bunch, we had a lot of fun, and we made the most of our opportunity that year.
GMC:
Before we get to the Rose Bowl, I have to ask you about the UCLA game. Your numbers from that day don’t even make sense. Nine receptions for 278 yards and three touchdowns — and most of that came courtesy of backup quarterback Joe Borchard. What do you remember about that game?
Walters:
It was a wide open game, high scoring. They were ranked at that time, and we were getting our stride. After Texas we played Washington State, scored about 50 on them, went to Arizona, scored 50, so we were playing well, hitting our stride. They played a lot of man to man coverage. I remember we ran a flea flicker, where he handed it off to the running back, who pitched it back to the quarterback, who threw it to me. I remember one series we started on the 20. The coach called a go route for me. I caught the ball for a fifty-yard gain. He made the same call on the next play, and it was a thirty-yard gain for a touchdown. Then I had a 98-yarder later on. UCLA played man to man coverage, so if you could win your matchup you had an opportunity to make good plays. I was fortunate enough to do it. I think DeRonnie had a good game. Offensively, we were just clicking on all cylinders, so it kind of opened things up.
GMC:
And so the Cardinal headed to the Rose Bowl, its first in 17 years. But days before the game you injured your wrist, and there was lots of intrigue about your availability, even minutes before kickoff. How did the injury happen, and how did you get healthy enough to play?
Walters:
I believe it was a Monday or Tuesday before the game, and we’re practicing and working against the scout team. I went up for a pass and the defender kind of undercut me, accidentally took my legs out from under me. I fell and kind of braced myself with my hand, and I broke my wrist. The early diagnosis was that I was going to be out, and I was going to need surgery. It was a devastating day for me. You work so hard, senior year, and now you’re not going to be a part of such a special game, such a special moment. Your last game with all the guys in your class and the team. It was gonna be tough. A couple days later, I guess our trainers reached out to some NFL doctors, and they revealed that you could actually play with that injury. You wouldn’t hurt it anymore. There was a brace you could put on your wrist to keep it from moving, and if you could tolerate the pain and catch the ball with the brace on, you had an opportunity to play. It wasn’t until Thursday or Friday that they put the brace on my wrist. I remember that evening down in the hotel conference room, the quarterback’s throwing me the ball and they wanted to see if I could catch with the brace on. I was able to and it wasn’t painful or anything, so I knew Friday night that I’d have an opportunity to play. I wasn’t sure of the extent or how much playing time, but I knew I was going to be able to play, which was a great feeling. An opportunity to play in the Granddaddy of them all.
GMC:
Do you remember the controversy connected to this? It was hard for me to understand at the time, but there were people who were saying that this was not a sportsmanlike move for Stanford because the reports were that you were out. I remember being in the stadium that day, training my binoculars on the team during warmups, and there you were. Did you know about all this at the time?
Walters:
I really didn’t know about that. I knew that you had to release an injury report, but we didn’t know really until the night before the game that I’d be able to play. And that was just an opportunity to play. Now how much I was going to play, we really didn’t know, so we didn’t have a whole lot of time to make the public aware or anything. I thought it would be cool, no one expected me to play, and then run out pregame and give our fans a boost and go from there. There wasn’t anything deceitful or anything like that, we just really didn’t know the extent of my availability until the night before.
GMC:
Following that season you were a consensus All-America, and you won the Biletnikoff Award as the nation’s top receiver, but there were questions about how your talent would translate to the NFL. You were eventually drafted by the Minnesota Vikings in the fifth round. What were your expectations heading into the NFL, and what was your transition like?
Walters:
It was similar to high school. Undersized, a lot of doubters. And then there was the injury before the Rose Bowl. I was supposed to play in the Senior Bowl and some other postseason all-star events. I think if I had had the opportunity, I would’ve shown that I could compete with everybody. I think my whole life I’ve been doubted or underestimated. I think that’s why I’ve been successful. I’ve kind of had a chip on my shoulder and had a lot to prove. So there was no difference. I was blessed to be around the NFL with my dad being with the Vikings, seeing guys prepare and knowing what it takes. And then being drafted by the Vikings, it was familiar territory, I knew most of the guys there, so it was an easy transition. But once again I had to bide my time and wait my turn and go from being a star in college to being a role player. But I understood that. My whole philosophy in the NFL, and I was blessed to play with a lot of great receivers, was that when my time came and I had the opportunity, I had to be ready.
GMC:
In Indianapolis you had the opportunity to play with one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history, Peyton Manning, and two of the greatest receivers, Marvin Harrison and Reggie Wayne. What was that experience like?
Walters:
It was truly a blessing. In Minnesota I was blessed to play with Cris Carter and Randy Moss, and then to go to Indianapolis with Peyton and Reggie and Marv, just that organization — Edgerrin James and Coach Tony Dungy — it really was a blessing. I learned a lot from those guys. Peyton is the ultimate competitor. He prepares like no other. He really elevates everybody around him. That was one thing that I took from that experience, his preparation and the fact that Peyton really made everybody around him better. And I still share Peyton moments when I’m coaching. He was always prepared, he always took notes. Even ten years into the NFL he was always taking notes. That experience in Indianapolis, we were a pretty good organization. We got close to the Super Bowl when I was there. I had a great time being a Colt.
GMC:
You mentioned coaching, and I wanted to ask you about that. Was this something you had always thought about doing?
Walters:
Yeah, I knew I wanted to get into coaching or get into the front office. I thought that I could coach and kind of work my way up. Because my father was a coach, it was kind of in my blood. I knew I wanted to stay around the game. And in coaching you can make such an impact on young men’s lives and help them achieve everything they want to achieve. It’s definitely a calling. It was my calling, and I’m enjoying it.
GMC:
Stanford hasn’t played Colorado since 2012, which was before you arrived at Colorado, but the Cardinal will travel to Boulder this fall. Have you looked at any film of the Stanford defense?
Walters:
I haven’t looked at any film, but I’ve watched Stanford a bunch on TV. They have the best defense in the country. Athletic, physical. So as an offensive guy, we’re gonna have our work cut out for us, but we’re worried about Hawai’i, which is our first game, and making sure that we get that one. But I’m definitely looking forward to playing Stanford. I haven’t been back there since 2008 when I was in between playing and coaching, so that will be first experience back dealing with Stanford. It’s on the other side of the field, but any time you can play Stanford, it’s a great opportunity.
GMC:
One last question. The Stanford coaching staff often reminds recruits that their college choice isn’t a four-year decision, but a forty-year decision. You’re halfway through those forty years. When you look back at that decision you made back in 1995, what has it meant to you?
Walters:
Man, it’s meant everything. Stanford was really the place where I grew up as a man. Not only on the field as a football player, but off the field as a man. My values and my identity really were established at Stanford, being around such amazing people. Excellence was the norm there. If you go to Stanford, if you’re not trying to be excellent and elite, that’s not the place for you. That’s where I learned my work ethic and my identity, and it’s really carrying on throughout my whole life. It’s amazing when people ask where I went to school or where I played ball, and I say Stanford, and I get that kind of, ooooh, reaction. It carries a lot of weight. It was such a tremendous time in my life, just to interact with so many exceptional young men and women, elite young men and women. There’s always going to be a place in my heart for Stanford University.
