The Walk-On Experience at Northwestern

He plays a position that often goes unnoticed except when things go badly. But offensive guard Doug Bartels is used to flying under the radar.

He received no scholarship offers from FBS programs coming out of high school. Some Ivy League schools were interested, but Bartels had always dreamed of playing Big Ten football.

The native of Caledonia, Illinois started receiving literature from Northwestern during his senior year of high school and was intrigued. "Academics has always been a very big factor in my life," Bartels says, and you know he's telling the truth. Bartels was named Academic All-Big Ten in 2008.  

The well-spoken redshirt sophomore impressed the coaching staff enough to earn not only the starting right guard job, but also a scholarship that same season.

"It was probably one of the most proud moments of my life," Bartels said. "Just going up there into Coach Fitz's office with my parents, and being able to sign the papers; it just made all that hard work that I'd put in for the past year worth every minute, every second, every hour."

But his time as a walk-on freshman in 2007 who only occasionally even traveled to road games, remains vivid in his memory. He says that just like other freshmen, he felt like he was being thrown to the dogs during practice, but that it was all worth it in the end.

"It was a new experience, especially coming from high school when I didn't leave the field, playing offense and defense, to just sitting and not playing a game on Saturday," Bartels said. "It was a tough transition, but it pushed me to want to get back out on the field to get that adrenalin rush again."

He says the walk-on experience at Northwestern is a great one, and the coaching staff treats the walk-ons just as well as they do scholarship players. Players such as himself, Zeke Markshausen, and Jacob Schmidt, among others, have emerged from being walk-ons to key scholarship players.

Other, lesser known players such as Andrew Struckmeyer and Tim Weak are still batting their way up the food chain, trying to earn that hard-to-get scholarship.

"I try to give them the advice to keep pushing through it," Bartels said. "It's grueling, it's Big Ten football, it's not going to be easy. But the opportunities are there for walk-ons; if you're the best player, you're going to be out there no matter what."