W
DAVID STLUKA
isconsin's Jacob Pedersen has always
been able to strike a balance in his life by
distinguishing between an 8-pointer and
a 6-pointer; a bay pile and piling on; deer camp and
Camp Randall.
At some point in the future when he gets his
blog set up ― he recently bought the domain name
― Pedersen will be able to deliver his innermost
thoughts on hunting and football.
But it will have to wait until he's no longer under the NCAA's compliance arm so he can freely talk
about and promote different products that might
appeal to the consumer, i.e. an outdoorsman.
Pedersen will share successful hunting techniques and "stories I've experienced in my life" that
will likely go beyond the first time he sat in a deer
stand (he was 4) or bagged his first deer (he was
12).
All of his UW teammates know him for what he is
― a reliable pass-catcher, an unsung blocker, a hard
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VARSITY November 7, 2013
worker, a team leader and a proud "Yooper" from
Menominee in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
What a lot of them, especially the younger ones,
may not know is that he was so homesick as a freshman at Wisconsin that he had to be talked out of
quitting football and leaving school.
"I can remember," Pedersen said, "being in in my
dorm room, talking to my mom on the phone and
saying 'I miss home, I'm not playing up to my abilities, I don't like it here, come pick me up."'
In retrospect, had he followed through on his
intentions to return to Menominee, he said, "That
would have been the biggest regret in my life. I don't
know what I would be doing if I was back home."
By sticking it out, he knows that he will be getting a college degree to go along with three Big Ten
championship rings. He also knows that there's so
much more out there for him, this season and beyond.
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