SPORTS

How did UT Martin get Dresser Winn?

Brandon Shields
USA Today Network
Dresden's Dresser Winn (3) scrambles against Union City at Rotary Field in Dresden, Tenn., on Oct. 14, 2016.

MARTIN — Dresden quarterback Dresser Winn is one of the more gifted athletes to come from rural West Tennessee in the last few years.

He’s good at three sports and has been offered college scholarships in two of them – football and baseball. He’d possibly receive basketball scholarship offers as well if he pursued them.

From the time he was in middle school leading a talented group of athletes from Dresden to football excellence every year, most in town thought Winn had a chance to go somewhere big.

That was a definite possibility as he had interest throughout his high school career from different programs in the Big Ten with some interest in the Southeastern Conference and Atlantic Coast Conference as well.

But he wound up staying close to home at UT Martin.

“I’ve grown up 10 minutes down the road from UTM. I’ve gone to basketball games and know the campus,” Winn said. “I’ve always liked the school, and I want to major in ag-business.

“UTM is a great school for that. I’m glad I made the choice to be at UTM.”

But it looked for a while that wasn’t going to happen.

Which sport?

Winn’s recruitment became more and more busy in the two months since Dresden won the Class 1A state championship. It had quieted down for much of 2016 after coaches began hearing he’d decided to pursue college baseball over football. But actually playing football for one more season began to change his mind on that.

“I’d always had one more season of football left, and then we started playing this past season and I realized this was going to be my last season of playing,” Winn said. “After thinking about it, I wasn’t really comfortable with that thought.

“I love playing all sports. Basketball is probably my favorite sport. But there’s nothing like Friday night lights and the thrill of being a part of that. And I know college football Saturdays are special too, and I want to get the chance to be a part of that for four or five years.”

Winn was back on the football recruiting circuit – taking visits to places like Memphis and Indiana and a handful of Ohio Valley Conference schools.

Memphis head coach Mike Norvell even took a university bus to Dresden to visit Winn before the Lions left for the state title game in Cookeville. The new coaching staff at Indiana made visits with him the following week. But the scholarship offer never came.

Dresser Winn

“Memphis actually talked about blue-shirting me,” Winn said. “Where I’d commit to them and enroll, but my scholarship would count toward next year’s class. I wanted to get started in a program this fall, though.”

Which college?

Interest from Indiana waned. Winn turned down the blue-shirt offer from Memphis. But a new NCAA FBS program came calling when Western Michigan let Winn know they were interested in his talents. The Broncos had recently had a coaching change after the team had gone undefeated before falling to Wisconsin in the Cotton Bowl this past season.

Winn went on an official visit in January and received an offer from the program that finished the season ranked in the top 15. It was his biggest offer yet.

“I loved my visit up there – the coaches, the players I got to know, the facilities,” Winn said. “It’s a D1 program that’s had some success, and they wanted to work my skill set into the position and make it work for them.

“It had everything I could want in a college football program.”

That’s why Winn announced his commitment to the program on Jan. 25 on his Twitter account, a week before national signing day. It was met with plenty of congratulations for the decision. Winn said he received plenty of social media and text messages telling him he’d made a good decision. But he wasn’t so sure.

“I liked everything about the program, but honestly, Kalamazoo, Mich., isn’t a place I think I’d enjoy spending the next four or five years,” Winn said.

Dresden High School's quarterback Dresser Winn runs in for a touchdown during the Class A championship game against Greenback in Cookeville.

Winn talked to his parents and other mentors about what to do. One of those mentors was someone with whom he’d have important conversations in the coming days, but they’d had plenty of big conversations in the previous years leading up to this decision. That person was UT Martin head football coach Jason Simpson.

Making a change

Simpson has been at UTM for 12 seasons, so he’s been around long enough to have plenty of connections around West Tennessee, but especially Weakley County, where Martin and Dresden are both located.

Simpson said he saw early on Winn could possibly be a recruit that was good enough to be at UTM if he didn’t go to a bigger program. He took this recruitment opportunity on personally.

“I took this one on personally, so I’ve gotten to know him for four years,” Simpson said. “And I don’t just like him because of what he can do as a quarterback. I just like him as a kid, as a young man.

“He’s a good person to be around and talk about football or life in general.”

So it wasn’t totally out of the ordinary when Simpson got a text from Winn on Jan. 26, the day after he committed to another school.

“I told him that I wasn’t sure I’d made the right decision,” Winn said. “And he gave me some good advice.”

“I wanted him to go where he thought it was best for him to go, because I’ve grown to like him enough to want to see him succeed even if it’s not in our program,” Simpson said. “And I told him if Western Michigan is where he thinks he needs to go, then he needs to go there and do well.

“But at the same time, God isn’t a God of confusion. If Dresser and his family had talked and prayed about this, then they’ll be shown what they need to do.”

Dresden's Dresser Winn (3) scrambles against Wayne County during the Class 1A semifinals at Rotary Field in Dresden, Tenn., on Nov. 25, 2016.

Involved in that text conversation was a question from Dresser: “Do you still have a scholarship for me?” The answer from Simpson was a quick and simple yes.

“I called Western Michigan’s coaches to let them know what I was thinking and that I didn’t think I needed to go there, and I did that to give them a few days to find another quarterback or a receiver or someone that would use the scholarship I’d been offered,” Winn said. “After that I called Coach Simpson to ask about the possibility of coming over for my official visit on Saturday.

“He was already getting stuff together with his ag-business guy at the school. That let me know he still really wanted me to be at UTM.”

Committing to UTM

Winn publicly decommitted from Western Michigan on Friday Jan. 27. He was silent on social media after that when it came to football recruiting with the exception of an occasional retweet.

He went to UTM on Saturday and met with some of the current Skyhawk players and recruits who were a part of UTM’s signing class. He talked with Simpson, toured the campus he was already familiar with and got to know a few other Skyhawk players better at Simpson’s house that night.

“Official visits at UTM are the same as official visits everywhere else,” Winn said. “They sell the recruit on the program and the school and everything both have to offer.

“I already knew what it had to offer, but everywhere we went that day, it seemed like one more little confirmation every time that UTM was the place to be.”

Winn told Simpson he planned to sign with UTM on Wednesday, national signing day. Word began to spread through Dresden, Martin and beyond during the interim time, but he never broadcast the decision.

Dresden's Dresser Winn (3) passes the ball against Wayne County during the Class 1A semifinals at Rotary Field in Dresden, Tenn., on  Nov. 25, 2016.

“I figured I’d had enough commitment and decommitment posts in the last few days,” Winn said with a laugh. “I wanted to wait and make it official before I said anything publicly.”

Moving on from here

Winn is a part of the Dresden basketball team and is a key part of the Lions baseball team. He wants to try to help both programs enjoy success similar to what the football team enjoyed last fall with its state championship.

In the meantime, he plans to start doing UTM’s workout plan when basketball is finished. Winn said he’s been offered a scholarship by Skyhawk baseball coach Rick Robinson. He’s still undecided if he’ll play both sports or not.

“I told him I want him to play because I’ll enjoy going and watching him play on Sunday afternoons in the spring,” Simpson said. “But that’s his decision.”

Winn said he’s confident in his ag-business major choice as it can be helpful to find a job in nearly any field after college if he’s done with football at that point.

“It doesn’t have to be in agriculture,” Winn said. “The business part of it is a business degree, and that’s a pretty open market for finding a job with a degree.

“That combined with the relationships with the people I already have at UTM and the fact I get to play football and possibly baseball – UTM is the right place for me.”

Contact Brandon Shields at 425-9751