Former Utah State LB Bobby Wagner Says Basketball Kept Him From Being A Bigger Recruit

LOGAN, Utah – Former Utah State and current Seattle Seahawks linebacker Bobby Wagner said that basketball kept him from being a highly-touted recruit in high school.

Wagner spoke about the experience of committing to play football for the Aggies during a recent episode of the ESPN podcast, “The Mina Kimes Show featuring Lenny.”

“I still had aspirations of being a basketball player. I was still thinking that I was gonna be six [foot] eight [inches] and that didn’t necessarily work out. I had a couple of my teammates and my coaches were pretty influential on like having me really focus on football and put the basketball down,” Wagner told Kimes. “Once I did that, I kind of did late but you know I had some teams come and Utah State was the one that actually pulled the trigger.”

NEW POD! The 🐐 @Bwagz joins the show to discuss the evolving role of the middle linebacker in the NFL, QBs he hates to face, negotiating his own contract, life after football, Ninja turtles, and more.

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— Mina Kimes (@minakimes) May 8, 2020

According to 247Sports, the 6′ 8″ athlete was rated as a two-star product out of Ontario, California when he committed to Utah State in 2008.

Wagner was ranked as the No. 2,036 recruit nationally and No. 217 in the state of California.

“Utah State was my only offer. I come to find out later on, my coach had kind of talked them into flying me out and offering. Maybe stretched the truth out a little bit. Once I got to Utah State I felt like all I needed was the opportunity. I felt like it was a good program,” Wagner said. “I look back now and realize that none of those statistics, stars, none of that matters you know if you can’t play football. There’s a lot of five-star recruits that haven’t made it.”

Wagner left Logan after his junior season to pursue professional football. He finished his Utah State career having played in 35 games including 33 starts. During his time as an Aggie, Wagner recorded 299 total tackles, 18.0 tackles for loss, 0.5 sacks, 2 interceptions, 9 pass breakups, 2 forced fumbles, and 2 fumble recoveries.

He was selected by Seattle during the second round of the 2012 NFL Draft. He was a member of the team’s Super Bowl XLVIII championship roster.

In 2019, the future hall of famer became the Seahawk’s all-time leading tackler.

Wagner recently completed his eighth season with the franchise.