Bowling Green State University Athletics
Will Teague Feature Story
November 14, 2003 | Football
Nov. 14, 2003
By JACK CARLE, Sentinel Sports Editor - The Will Teague story would make excellent reality television.
Now a senior defensive end, Teague was not eligible to even practice his freshman year at Bowling Green in 1999.
Since then, he's had three different surgeries, including one which left him near death and one that came with a doctor's prognosis that he would never play football again.
Through all that and three head coaches, Teague has persevered to become a key part of the Falcons' rotation at defensive end. He's getting the most significant playing time of his career and has already established personal bests with 16 tackles, including two tackles for a loss.
"It's an indescribable feeling to go back out there and play again," Teague said. "After sitting out over a year and not playing, it almost seems like a little kid at Christmas, just being able to suit up.
"Now, it's like you don't want one second to slip away; you want every single step out there on the football field to count."
Because of academic problems in high school, Teague was a non-qualifier for college and paid his own way to BG for the first year. He's gotten his academics in order and is set to graduate in December with a degree in liberal studies.
"I didn't even think I would go to college," Teague said. "My parents really stressed getting a college education. I was just lucky Bowling Green was around to give me a chance."
The class work has been the easy part of college life for Teague. During his first season in 2000, Teague was injury free and played in 10 games, finishing with three tackles and a blocked kick. Then the problems started.
Preparing for the 2001 season, Teague injured his shoulder on the third day of camp.
"It was just killing me through the whole season, but I didn't really complain about it or anything," Teague said. Playing hurt in 200, he had 10 tackles in 11 games.
However, he was fighting a losing battle and strength and conditioning coach Aaron Hillmann encouraged Teague to have the injury checked out by a doctor.
"I had surgery ... and it turned out to be a lot worse. It wasn't what they had expected," Teague said. "They had to give me more anesthesia. Nobody really knows the true story of what happened. They had to keep me under longer than they had expected."
That's when the real complications began.
Teague went into pulmonary edema and was basically drowning in the hospital bed as his lungs filled with blood and fluid.
"It was rough; I was right there (near death). I dealt with that for a long time, having flashbacks ... it was bad," Teague said. "They said I wasn't supposed to remember anything from it; I remember every second that I was awake.
"They had tubes down my throat. I would wake up and bite on the tube that was giving me air because I didn't know why the tubes were there," he continued. "I couldn't swallow or breathe, so I was trying to get the tubes out.
"After the surgery I got real sick. I went all the way down to 215 pounds (from 240 pounds)."
Teague recovered from the major difficulties involved with the surgery and gained weight and strength back as he rehabilitated his shoulder.
However, a high ankle sprain in the spring of 2002 again hampered Teague's football progress.
"I tried to play through that too. I went through spring ball and played in the spring game," he said. "All summer trying to run on it, it was just killing me. When I got into (fall) camp is just got worse and worse and it got to the point where I could barely run. It was excruciating pain."
The injury prompted another trip to the doctor. It was determined that blood had calcified and there was also ligament and other damage in the joint. That led to major surgery, including taking tendons from his feet and putting them in the ankle, and Teague missed the entire 2002 season.
As if that weren't enough, Teague suffered a torn labrum in his shoulder last December and had to undergo another surgery.
The two injuries and subsequent surgeries caused Teague to miss spring drills and forced him to work even harder this summer to order to be ready to play his final season with the Falcons.
"I had lost some of my speed, so I set my goal to get my weight and my strength up," Teague said.
Teague was also dealing with his doctor's prognosis that he would never play football again after the ankle surgery.
"He told me this surgery was going to be enough for you to walk around Cedar Point or King's Island with your kids when you're 30 years old. This isn't enough for you to be playing football on," Teague said. "He said 'there was no way he could make me as good as God did.'"
For many, one surgery might have been enough to end their college football career. Instead Teague wanted to play his final season.
"It would have just been so easy to hang it up," Teague said. "I'm glad I did stick it out.
"I've still got some juice left."
