When the Wisconsin Badgers had to nominate a player to be the keynote speaker at the Big Ten Football Kickoff Luncheon, the choice for them was clear — the backup running back.
The Big Ten committee in charge of choosing the speaker felt the same way and selected Dare Ogunbowale to speak on behalf of the student-athletes. The only non-starter brought to Big Ten Media Days delivered a remarkable address about the challenges athletes face and the role they play in society.
“I think [he’s] a great representative of not just even Wisconsin, but there’s a student athlete,” head coach Paul Chryst said. “He’s gone through a lot and his story’s pretty cool.”
The senior running back’s “pretty cool” story began as a talented basketball player and all-conference defensive back at Marquette High School in Milwaukee. He didn’t go after any athletic scholarships. He wanted a quality education, but he quickly found himself walking on to the football team under then-head coach Bret Bielema.
“I really didn’t have any other chances to play college football,” Ogunbowale said in his keynote speech. “I knew I wanted to go to Wisconsin whether I played a sport or not, but it just so happened to work out that I get to play in America's number one college sports town.”
He couldn’t crack the rotation at defensive back, spending his first few years as purely a special teams player, until switching to running back a few weeks into the 2014 season. He saw 34 carries as a redshirt sophomore, but he was buried on the depth chart, and expectations were low for his 2015 junior season.
“Last year at this time, he might have been thinking ‘What is my role going to be? Am I going to get some snaps?’ and he ends up playing a huge role,” Chryst said. “We were thinking maybe he’d be a guy that impacts special teams and be one of those core special teamers, so it’s been fun to see kind of his evolution, and we need more out of him. We don’t want the story to end now.”
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It all fell into place for Ogunbowale when junior running back Corey Clement got injured against Alabama week one while redshirt freshman Taiwan Deal was slow to develop behind him. That left a huge workload for the former defensive back, quickly finding himself the team’s leading rusher, less than a year after switching to the position.
Ogunbowale had to learn on the fly, thrown into the fire week two against Miami (OH) with 16 carries. By the end of the season, he looked like a natural, capping off his redshirt junior year with 33 carries for 155 yards and a touchdown in a win over Minnesota.
Even after a full season at the head of the offense, he still feels like he’s learning at the position with plenty of room to grow.
“I don’t know how comfortable you can be when you have 300-pound guys trying to tackle you. I’m not used to that part, but you get a feel for it,” Ogunbowale said with a smile. “The biggest teacher is experience, and that’s been huge for me, just gaining that experience last season in games and kind of showing what I can do.”
As he grew as a running back on the field right before everyone’s eyes, he was growing as a leader off the field, away from the spotlight. He quickly joined quarterback Joel Stave as the spokesman of the offense, answering the same questions every week about Clement’s health with a smile on his face and an enthusiasm in his voice that never failed.
Inside the locker room, he became the voice of the running game, somehow the most experienced running back with Clement on the mend. Players began to rally around him, and that’s ultimately why Chryst chose him to represent the offense at Big Ten Media Days this year.
“He’s just a guy that’s truly respected by our players, and I’ve enjoyed getting to know him,” Chryst said. “I think it’s as much how he’s gone about his whole journey, his process, how he’s dealt with change, how he’s dealt with adversity and walking on.”
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Throughout Ogunbowale’s journey, it’s never been about him. He didn’t see Clement’s injury as a positive. He saw a close friend suffering through the most frustrating year of his career and a setback for the offense.
In each of Clement’s three attempted returns from injury, you could see the excitement from Ogunbowale on the field, watching his teammate try his hardest to give whatever he could to this offense. It was never a fight over playing time; it was all about doing whatever it took for this team to succeed.
“I’m excited to have Corey back and this summer to see how Taiwan has grown,” Ogunbowale said. “It’s exciting. We have a lot of different types of running styles honestly, and we’re trying to make sure we’re able to throw that at all the defenses that we have to deal with.”
Even as he takes more of a backseat role to a healthy Clement in the offense, Ogunbowale is leading the way with his leadership. He still feels like he’s learning the running back position, but he’s doing all he can to help his younger teammates learn along with him.
One running back in particular that he’s taken under his wing is redshirt freshman Bradrick Shaw, a four-star recruit out of Birmingham that came to Wisconsin despite receiving offers from Alabama and four other SEC schools. Ogunbowale is helping him with all the little things off the field.
“Throughout the month of July, the coaches kind of weren’t around, so the players have been running meetings,” he said. “I’ve made sure I’ve helped [Shaw] a lot whenever he needs it. We’ve met and watched film together, that’s the biggest thing.”
That’s what makes Ogunbowale “a special individual,” as his head coach referred to him. His keynote address was all about taking advantage of opportunities, but the way he’s taken advantage of his opportunities has never been about his personal gain.
He switched to running back as a redshirt sophomore not because he really wanted to play running back, but because the Badgers were thin at the position and deep at cornerback. He took advantage of the opportunity for the team.
When Clement was injured, Ogunbowale took over the rushing duties not because he wanted to steal the starting job, but because the team needed someone to pound the rock, and he was the next man up.
And now that he’s a leader of this team, he’s not using that to gain notoriety or hold the spotlight. He’s taking advantage of that opportunity to not only provide stability and direction for his offense but also to help the younger players and make the team better as a whole.
It takes a special type of person and player to take on and thrive in this role, but Ogunbowale’s whole career has been about taking on any and all opportunities that are presented to him and doing everything in his power to improve the team. No team in college football gets more from their “backup” running back.
