Did Bo Wallace Get a Fair Shot in the NFL?
Bo Wallace's football career ended so abruptly.
One day, he was leading Ole Miss to a 9-4 season that included wins over No. 3 Alabama and No. 4 Mississippi State. Seemingly the next day, his football career was over.
Wallace went undrafted in the 2015 NFL Draft. He anticipated that much. Landing with the Kansas City Chiefs with a training camp invitation, not only did Wallace fail to make the 53-man roster, he never even got the opportunity to prove himself in an actual NFL setting.
"If I could've gotten into a preseason game, I would have had a better shot. Who knows what would've happened. But not being able to get into a game, I was just a gamer," Wallace said. "Practices sometimes weren't great, things like that. But I think if I could've gotten into a game, it would've been a better shot for me. I never really thought I was going to get drafted, but thought I'd have more of a shot than what I really got."
The NFL Draft can be an ugly business.
Players with less proven track records but distinguishable, special traits will often go over players with storied college careers. Teams draft on devolopable upside, but even that is a crapshoot at best. The 2017 draft is a prime example: of the top five picks, four are either not with the team that drafted them or those teams failed to pick up their fifth-year contract option.
This year, offensive tackle Mekhi Becton, who ended up being drafted No. 11, was docked by one scout because "he loves to cook and eat more than he loves frigging football." That honestly sounds like a bad joke, but it's true.
At times, it got this kind of ugly for Wallace before the 2015 draft. One anonymous scout had this to say about the former Ole Miss star:
Dr. Bo has a sturdy frame and a big arm. Bad Bo, his alter ego, panics in the face of pressure, is easily rattled, allows mistakes to multiply, and doesn't understand the limits of his ability. We're sad we won't get to watch him anymore.
"I wish anonymous scouts would have put their name on things," Wallace said of the quote. "If I were evaluating a guy and I know that whatever I say, it has no merit because no one knows who said it, I might say things like that too. I just think people that talk like that to the media should put their name on things like that."
That 2015 training camp was Wallace's only in the league. He has no regrets.
Always knowing he wanted to get into coaching some day, he took no time going right into it, coaching safeties in 2015 at a prep high school outside of Dallas. He's now the offensive coordinator at Coahoma Community College in Mississippi.
This year, a lot of former Ole Miss Rebels are in similar spots as Wallace in 2015. Not one Rebel was drafted in the 2020 NFL Draft, but six signed undrafted free agent deals with NFL organizations.
Benito Jones told The Grove Report that going undrafted is going to put a chip on his shoulder, pushing him even harder during his time in Miami.
What was Bo Wallace's advice to those undrafted free agents entering their first training camp? Do something to be different.
"You have to do something to catch their eyes when you're out there, whether it's your speed or anything," Wallace said. "Whatever it is, you have to do something to stand out. Once you make it into that camp, crazy things can happen. As long as you work hard, you can make a roster."
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