Chip Scoggins: Walk-on from Roseville leaves impact at Purdue

Sean Matti was a member of the Purdue football team for four seasons. He never played in a game, and he never received a penny of financial assistance as an athlete.

He also never quit.

Not even a series of injuries was enough to make Matti question his desire to continue playing football, knowing his contribution might be limited to practice. He just kept charging forward, quietly determined as always.

"Real tough guy who never asked for anything," Purdue coach Danny Hope said. "All he wanted was a chance to prove how good he was."

Matti, a former Roseville High captain and all-state linebacker, died in early July, drowning in a lake near the Purdue campus. His death was ruled accidental, but an investigation into the circumstances remains open.

Matti would have loved to be on the sideline for Saturday's home game against the Gophers. Instead, he'll be in the Boilermakers hearts and memories. His teammates wear a decal with his number -- 22 -- on their helmets, and Matti's name remains on the roster.

Matti left his imprint on two football programs -- the high school where he was a star and the college where he never played a single down. His former coaches used an identical phrase to describe him.

"A coach's dream," Roseville's Chris Simdorn said.

The life of a football walk-on is not glamorous. They practice just as much as scholarship players. They face the same time commitment. They sacrifice their bodies in practice.

Except walk-ons don't get free tuition. They don't get star treatment from fans and media. Some don't even travel to road games.

Thus, it's not unusual for walk-ons to give up and move on if they're not awarded a scholarship after a season or two. Matti accepted that role for four years and was excited to begin his fifth, but he was driven to get on the field and play in a game.

"He never complained about anything," said Joel Thomas, former Purdue running backs coach. "He just came to work and did what the coaches asked of him."

His circle of friends at Roseville was a wide one and included kids from a variety of cliques. One teacher described him as "trustworthy." Simdorn said he won't allow anyone to wear No. 22 again as long as he coaches at Roseville.

"He was just a quality kid," Simdorn said.

Matti had scholarship offers from Division II schools, but he wanted more, even if it meant starting as a walk-on. He considered the Gophers until Glen Mason was fired and then picked Purdue as a preferred walk-on.

His goal was to earn a scholarship and playing time. Injuries, however, kept throwing things off track.

He dealt with stress fractures in his back and problems with his shoulders. He had a Lisfranc fracture in one foot that required surgery. He injured his hamstring as a freshman. That doesn't include all the other bumps and bruises accumulated as a hard-nosed running back on the scout team.

"When you have a goal and things just keep smacking you, you don't let the smacking win," said his father, Frank.

Sean did so in an unpretentious manner. Teammates described him as a quiet guy who never mentioned his high school athletic success. He just worked hard, did his job and never demanded anything more than an opportunity.

He embraced being a mentor to Purdue's younger running backs and even considered becoming a graduate coaching assistant as a postgraduate student. A double major, he was nine credits short of earning degrees in organizational leadership and industrial technology. The university recently informed the family it will award him his degrees posthumously.

"The bottom line is he really exemplified what being a Boilermaker is about," Hope said. "He always put the team first. A real unselfish person. We probably didn't acknowledge Sean Matti enough while he was with us so we're going to do some things this season to acknowledge and honor what he meant to us as a teammate."

One way is through their "roll call" during stretching in warmups. Here's how it works: A Purdue player calls out his uniform number followed by the number of a teammate. That player calls out his number and then a different teammate's number. Their goal is to make it through the entire roster.

"It was the funniest thing," kicker Carson Wiggs said.

Matti's teammates wanted to keep that tradition so they came up with an idea before the season. They would end roll call with Matti's number. After a brief silence, they would yell in unison, "Purdue, 22."