HILLSDALE, Mich — When you're a high school football star dreaming of the NFL — like Isaac TeSlaa was — Hillsdale College is not the easiest place to start your college athletic career.
"There is no special treatment," says the College's Athletics Director John Tharp. "The core curriculum, you know…our average ACT score of our athletes right now is a 30."
For TeSlaa, three years at Hillsdale College became a stepping stone to something big.
WATCH THE VIDEO TO HEAR FROM ISAAC TESLAA AND THE HILLSDALE COLLEGE COACHES WHO REMEMBER HIM
It was during his third year that he says he realized his dream of becoming an NFL player might become a reality.
"My third year at Hillsdale I had a really big year and I remember after one of my games, just one of the other coaches pulled me aside and he was like: 'you're really talented, and if you keep working hard, I can see you making it to the League someday'," recalls TeSlaa.
He has now made it to the League — the Detroit Lions picking him in the third round of the NFL Draft last month.
"When he did get drafted, and you see him going in the third round to the Detroit Lions — it's like something that's made for the movies," says Tharp.
He and Head Football Coach Nate Shreffler remember TeSlaa well.
"He had some monster games early in his career, and, you know, the speed and the size and the athleticism were all there," says Shreffler.
"That redshirt freshman year that he had, and that sophomore year — he made plays for us that were so special, right? He did things that you were amazed about — and catches, and his speed, and you know by his sophomore year he was the number one guy in the scouting report, right? Who did they have to take away in order to beat Hillsdale? It was Isaac," says Tharp.
In what Coach Shreffler says is a common move for athletes who have been noticed, TeSlaa transferred from Hillsdale College to Arkansas State.
"You know, he had the big year in '22, had a lot of people kind of courting him — quite a few in the Top 20 that had offered him, and he settled in on Arkansas," says Shreffler.
"You want them to stay as long as they possibly can," says Tharp. "But then you, like a proud parent, you've got to let them go and do something different."
He says TeSlaa was a true student athlete in the best sense of the term: "Smart. Talented. He's about the right things. He's a man of great character. Student — cared about it. And passionate about football....Super proud of him."
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