Bobby Wagner reminds USU grads it’s “We will win”
May 1, 2026, 5:21 PM | Updated: 5:27 pm
LOGAN, Utah – That’s Dr. Bobby Wagner now—at least in Logan.
For a few days in April, the NFL linebacker’s résumé—Pro Bowls, All-Pros, a Super Bowl ring—took a back seat to something simpler: the program that first bet on him.
Utah State celebrated Wagner all week. Days after the school announced the 14-year NFL veteran would become the third Aggie to have his number retired, he returned to receive an honorary doctoral degree and address the class of 2026 as the university’s commencement speaker.
“None of this in my life would have been possible if it weren’t for Utah State,” Wagner told the graduates.
RELATED: Utah State will retire Bobby Wagner’s jersey. Here’s what we know
View this post on Instagram
As he looked out at the crowd, Wagner reached back to a sound that still defines game days in Logan—the Aggie student section in the Hurd singing, “I believe that we will win.”
“It’s really ‘We,’ —us together,” Wagner reminded the audience. “Always trying to win, trying to show those other Utah places that they’re not Utah State.”
It was a familiar theme from a player whose career has been defined as much by consistency as by highlights: show up, buy in, and bring people with you. Wagner’s immediate embrace of Logan—after arriving on campus in 2008—helped set the tone for everything that followed in professional football and beyond.
Bobby Wagner rises from a lone scholarship to the spotlight
Wagner, a Los Angeles, California native, told the crowd he didn’t have a long list of scholarship offers coming out of Colony High School. Utah State was the one that called—and his mother made sure he answered.
“I can’t do this,” Wagner told his mother after the offer. “She told me that I either accepted the scholarship or I wasn’t coming back home.”
He capitalized on the opportunity, earning three first-team All-Western Athletic Conference selections and leading the Aggies in tackles three times.
A 𝕋𝕣𝕦𝕖-𝔹𝕝𝕠𝕠𝕕𝕖𝕕 𝔸𝕘𝕘𝕚𝕖 in every way. 🤘
We’re excited to honor the incredible legacy that @Bwagz is building! pic.twitter.com/DiaeOMUrYf
— USU Football (@USUFootball) April 27, 2026
Wagner left Logan with 446 tackles—tied for the most in program history—plus 29.5 tackles for loss and 4.5 sacks. He started 46 of 48 career games, turning himself from a lightly regarded prep recruit into an NFL-ready linebacker.
By the time he arrived at the 2012 Senior Bowl, he wasn’t a secret anymore—Wagner finished the week as the game’s MVP and the North Team’s Outstanding Player.
Utah State inducted him into its Athletics Hall of Fame in 2021.
Building a legacy on NFL Sundays
Wagner’s sure-handed tackling ability at Utah State made him a second-round selection (47th overall) of the Seattle Seahawks in the 2012 NFL Draft.
He started 15 games as a rookie and finished with 140 tackles, three interceptions, and two sacks, helping Seattle reach the playoffs.
Soon he became a critical cog in Seattle’s “Legion of Boom” defense, helping the Seahawks earn the NFC’s No. 1 seed and roll to a Super Bowl XLVIII win over the Denver Broncos—Seattle’s first championship.
He led the team with 34 tackles during the three-game postseason run.
Wagner played 11 seasons in Seattle, earning nine Pro Bowl selections. In 168 games as a Seahawk, he totaled 1,566 tackles, 11 interceptions, and six forced fumbles.
He later spent a season with the Los Angeles Rams (2022) and two years with the Washington Commanders (2024–25), reaching the NFC title game with Washington in 2024.
Even now, with his next NFL stop still undecided, Wagner’s combination of availability, production and leadership has kept him in the Hall of Fame conversation—and kept Utah State proud to claim him.
More than a Hall of Fame résumé
Currently a free agent, Wagner is closing in on another milestone: he sits 60 tackles shy of passing HOFer Ray Lewis atop Pro Football Reference’s NFL career tackles list.
In a league where injuries are a given, he has been remarkably durable—playing 15 or more games in nearly every season while averaging 155 tackles and clearing the 100-tackle mark year after year.
Wagner is the NFL’s active leader with six First-Team All-Pro selections, and he has been named Second-Team All-Pro five times.
The walk to the speech ➡️ 🎤 🗣️@Bwagz x @USUPres pic.twitter.com/hiKVR5X6Le
— Utah State Athletics 🏆x9 (@USUAthletics) April 30, 2026
Off the field, Wagner has expanded his footprint, becoming a minority owner of the WNBA’s Seattle Storm while earning the NFL’s 2023 Art Rooney Award and the 2025 Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year honor.
But on commencement day, the point wasn’t to recite every accolade. It was to underline what Wagner said the Hurd taught him long before the bright lights of Sundays: the best moments are built together—and the next chapter, for the graduates filing out of the Spectrum, will be too.
He concluded, “When I first stepped on campus as an Aggie… I felt the love. I felt the energy from Utah State,” Wagner concluded. “Sometimes the place that you least expect to be is the place that you’re exactly supposed to be.”
RELATED STORIES
Follow Utah State football with KSL Sports
Listen to USU football games on KSL Sports Zone with Scott Garrard on the call.
Find KSL Sports coverage of Utah State University Athletics here.
Take us with you wherever you go.
Brian Preece is a sports.ksl.com insider covering Locals in MLB and the Salt Lake Bees. Follow Brian’s Bees and Beehive baseball here. Find Brian on X, Instagram, and BlueSky at @bpreece24.
