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TITLE PETER KONZ "She told me, 'Do what makes you happy,''' Konz said of the advice from his mother, Margaret. "And what made me happy was going through the process slow. Everyone gave me such great support.'' But he wanted to be ready just in case the op- tion presented itself. Ready how? "Ready academically to gradu- ate,'' he said. Konz took 18 credits during the first semester. "That was crazy,'' he said, "because it's hard enough taking 12 during a football semester.'' He had never taken that big of a credit load before. But there was a method to his madness. "I wanted to set myself up to graduate,'' said Konz, who had a 3.4 GPA on those 18 credits and will need only four more to get his degree, "because of my mom (Margaret) and fiancée (Erin).'' Both are teachers. "If I left here without a degree, they would re- ally be mad,'' Konz said. What was the best advice that he got from his mother? "She told me, 'Do what makes you happy,''' he said. "And what made me happy was going through the process slow. Everyone gave me such great support.'' Konz also had some questions for Watt, a star rookie with the Houston Texans. "Like a lot of others, he just said, 'Do what's best for you,''' Konz related. "He said, "There are going to be a lot of people who want you to leave and a lot of people who want you to stay. "It's going to be hard but you have to make your own path.'' Consider, too, the path that Konz has taken since the scare that he got from blood clots in 2009 during the team's trip to face Hawaii. 28 » VARSITY JANUARY 12, 2012 "I would have never guessed that I would have been in this position today,'' he said of his first or second round draft status. "That was kind of a fight for your life type of thing. "I was worried every time I stepped on a plane that it would happen again and there goes my career. At that stage I was just worried about getting back the next season and playing the next game.'' Since his redshirt freshman season, Konz has continued to evolve at his position. Despite car- rying over 300 pounds, he has shown the ability to pull and lead interference on sweeps. That is one of the many elements to his game which sets him apart. "He's going to be a special NFL player,'' ob- served Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema, who add- ed, "Pete is at a point in his life where he's ready to move forward.'' Once it became evident to Konz that his stock was very high in the eyes of NFL people, he made sure that Bielema was in the loop when he began meeting with agents in early December. "I wanted to make sure about my NCAA eli- gibility if I talked with these people and what I could or couldn't do,'' Konz said. "It's pretty simple. Don't take anything from them and just listen. "I'd have my mom or fi- ancée with me and we'd talk about the process and what it was like. If I wanted to make the leap I had to start meet- » A Rimington Trophy finalist, All-American and first-team All-Big Ten pick, Konz started 31 games at center for the Badgers during his three- year career.