Titans' Jack Conklin fueled by scholarship snub

At some point on Sunday — maybe when he wakes up, maybe when he drives to Nissan Stadium, maybe when he puts on his Titans uniform before the season opener — rookie right tackle Jack Conklin’s thoughts will drift back to the snub.

It was only four years ago, after all, that Conklin, try as he might, couldn’t attract the attention of the college football world.

Hard as it is to believe now looking at the 6-6, 308-pound Conklin — the Titans’ first-round draft pick last April — not a single Division I football program offered him a full scholarship coming out of high school.

A walk-on at Michigan State, Conklin conquered one challenge after another, eventually earning a scholarship, winning All-American status and becoming the eighth overall selection in the draft.

But Conklin has never really forgotten the sting of that collegiate cold-shoulder, nor does he want to.

It fuels him.

“I still think about it a lot,” Conklin said. “It’s that chip-on-the-shoulder mentality. It’s where I came from. I think about it every day, all the work I had to put in to earn that scholarship and get to this point. I know I need to keep that mindset going to get to where I eventually want to be in the NFL.”

    What about me?

Try as they might, Darren Conklin and son Jack just couldn’t understand what was going on around them during Jack’s high school senior season in 2012.

Or, more specifically, what was not.

Despite the fact he was the son of a high school football coach, and despite the fact Conklin had grown to about 6-6 and 290 pounds, he wasn’t drawing the kind of significant college interest that merited a scholarship offer.

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“It was tough for me being both a coach and a parent because I’d sit there and say, `I know he’s good enough,’” Darren Conklin said. “We knew that he had it in him and believed all along he had all the tools and attitude, and that people just weren’t seeing it. But there are times you start to wonder, `Maybe I’m wrong.’”

In retrospect, there were probably a few reasons why Conklin received such little interest.

One was that he came from a small school in sparsely recruited western Michigan. Plainwell High hadn’t sent a high school football player to a Division I college in decades.

Second, Conklin began his high-school career as a 6-2, 225-pound fullback/tight end, not necessarily the kind of measurements — or positions — that excite a lot of big-time college recruiters. His position switch, and his weight gain, occurred later in high school.

Third, Conklin enjoyed playing basketball, too, so while many of the top football recruits were attending college football recruiting camps, Conklin was on the hardwood.

“I played a lot of basketball in the spring, so I really didn’t go to my first college camp until summer going into my senior year,” Conklin said. “I think playing basketball really helped me be a better athlete, but it probably didn’t help the football recruiting.”

Added Darren Conklin: “We got a late start in recruiting, so a lot of schools were already full. The recruiting process now has been focused on 10th-graders to such an extent that it’s silly.”

  Finally getting noticed

Conklin initially decided to attend Fork Union (Va.) Military Academy, a prep school that he hoped would allow him one more year to catch the eye of more college scouts.

But it was just about then that Michigan State — the arch-rival of Michigan, where Conklin’s father and mother had gone to school — finally saw the light.

After watching some late film on Conklin, Michigan State invited him to the campus a few times and eventually reached an agreement: If Conklin was willing to walk on at Michigan State — and if everything went well that first year — the Spartans would reward him with a scholarship in his second year.

“I think probably some guys that come in on scholarships think they’ve already arrived a little bit,” Conklin said. “I was at the bottom and I knew I had to keep working hard. I had to do more every day than these other guys did. I probably wouldn’t have had that same mindset if I’d come in on scholarship.”

Conklin redshirted his freshman season, but earned a starting spot in his second year. The ground-heavy attack of the Spartans proved a perfect fit for Conklin, who developed a reputation as a punishing run blocker on his way to becoming a Sporting News first-team All-American during his final season.

“I think he always had that extra healthy motivation,” Darren Conklin said. “I know there were plenty of times that Jack looked across the field and said, `That guy got a scholarship and I didn’t. I’m going to put him on his back 20 times today to prove to that school what they missed out on.’”

Reach John Glennon at jglennon@tennessean.com and follow him on Twitter @glennonsports.