Chicago bears have sacked Tyson Bagent today ,after facing…
Maybe John Denver was right. Maybe West Virginia is almost heaven? Chicago Bears quarterback Tyson Bagent certainly thought so. He grew up in the Mountaineer State and despite some attention from Division I college football programs when he was a high school senior, chose to remain close to home and attend Division II Shepherd University in Shepherdstown. There, he threw for 5,000 yards and 53 touchdowns in a single season on the way to winning the 2021 Harlon Hill Award, Division II football’s equivalent of the Heisman Trophy.
He so dominated his division that, like many athletes today, he flirted with the idea of transferring to a Division I program to test himself against higher caliber opponents and see where he stood in the pecking order of aspirants to the world of professional football. He got a couple of nibbles but chose to finish his college career playing in the place where he had always felt he was able to develop himself the best — and then see what the football gods had in store.
By the time his career was complete at Shepherd, he had thrown 159 touchdown passes, which was the most by any NCAA quarterback in any division… ever. That ridiculous number didn’t earn him a call during the NFL draft, but it did get him a look as a free agent with the Bears. To prepare for his “interview” with Chicago, he relied on doing the thing that had brought him so much success up to that point: work hard and work hard every day. First, he got a hold of the Bears’ playbook from their offensive coordinator, Luke Getsy, and then every day, he and a buddy went to Shepherd’s Ram Stadium and worked their way through the entire playbook, play-by-play, his buddy calling in different plays via cell phone from the bleachers, until Bagent, with an AirPod in his ear mimicking the sound inside an NFL helmet, knew each play like the back of his hand.
Once he got to the Bears’ training camp, he knew the playbook as well as anyone in camp, including veterans. Eventually, the undrafted player managed to dislodge the backups in front of him and become the proverbial number two — which meant he was one toe sprain or injured finger away from starting for one of football’s iconic franchises.
