Pedersen has 10 catches over the last
three games. Over his 48 career games,
he has gotten considerable mileage out
of his 83 receptions by scoring 17 times.
DAN SANGER / ICON SMI
"WHEN PEOPLE ASK HOW I WOULD
DESCRIBE MYSELF, I ALWAYS SAY, 'I'M
DRIVEN.'" PEDERSEN SAID. "I ALWAYS
GREW UP WITH THE MOTTO: BELIEVE
AND YOU CAN ACHIEVE."
D-end. But what I pride myself on doing is that I like
to mix it up and get in their way."
Particularly, he added, "When I'm able to seal and
give the running backs a lane."
Pedersen was a game-changer at Iowa with his
clutch touchdown catch in the second quarter that
pushed the Badgers into a 7-6 lead that they would
not relinquish against the Hawkeyes.
Genyk noted that Pedersen has worked diligently on improving his hand placement when
the ball is in flight and "he just looks like he's
catching the ball a lot more confidently the
last few games."
Pedersen has 10 catches over the last three
games. Over his 48 career games, he has gotten considerable mileage out of his 83 receptions by scoring 17 times.
There's nothing quite like a 6-pointer, unless it's that first 8-pointer that he bagged at a
bay pile ― corn, apples and pumpkins to lure
the deer ― when he was hunting as a youngster with his dad in the U.P.
Blogging about his hunting prowess is one
thing, an easy assignment. But what would
he blog about his legacy as a college football
player?
"I never really thought of a legacy for me, I
just take it play by play," he said. "If you work
hard, if you believe in what you're doing, if you
put your mind to it, you can do anything.
"My whole life I was told that I would never
make it to D-I."
It's true, he said, everybody has their doubters, everyone has their believers.
"Coming from a small town," he went on,
"there are a lot of people who believe in you
and want you to be great and there are others
who don't want you to be successful."
So, it is fair to say that Pedersen was driven
to succeed? Driven to prove himself? Driven
to fight his way out of any corner, back-to thewall or not? Driven to overcome the doubters?
"Oh, definitely, that's a good word," Pedersen agreed, driving home a point. "When people ask how I would describe myself, I always
say, 'I'm driven.'
"I always grew up with the motto: believe
and you can achieve."
It's what he has been hunting all along.
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