Before he graduated from Liberty, all-state linebacker Anthony Ruiz decided to take a chance on himself and his hometown school.
Ruiz is now a freshman preferred walk on at Arizona State.
“My brother went there for a couple years and I do love the Sun Devils. I’m excited to go over there and be close to family and friends,” Ruiz said in March.
Nearly six months later, hours before the Sun Devils kick off their 2023 season" tonight, Ruiz said in an interview on X (Twitter) that the PWO experience has been a bit better than he expected.
Ruiz said being a PWO isn’t too much different form a scholarship expect for paying for school. In Kenny Dillingham's first year as ASU head coach, Ruiz said Dillingham and the staff treat players all the same and the environment/culture is very honest and real.
"I think I expected a PWO to be a lot worse but as summer went on you don’t even think about you being a PWO just because you're in the dream and not thinking about that," Ruix said.
He won't be in full pads against Southern Utah tonight, but will get to wear his #51 on the sidelines.
So Ruiz will keep going to work on his weakness improve on his strengths.
"My mind set every day is to learn something new, get stronger, get smarter physically and mentally and then just always stay prepared for the right moment because your name could be called at any moment. Always just stay ready physical and mentally," Ruiz said.
Ruiz's former Lions teammate, all-state wide receiver Prince Zombo, picked his PWO destination a couple weeks before Ruiz.
In a May interview, Zombo explained why he picked BYU and said colleges reached out to him right after the 2022 season ended. He led Liberty with 49 catches for 973 yards and 10 touchdowns.
Since 2021, Built Bar has been in an agreement to pay full tuition for all BYU preferred walk ons. Zombo heard about this and also said he heard good things about the Cougars' program from former Mesa Mountain View tight end Jackson Bowers.
“It’s kind of like a built-in scholarship,” Zombo said in May. “When I heard about that, it made me want to go even more. I could have went to ASU and still had stuff paid for because I was in the foster care system. So it was just where I was going to play more.”
As of Thursday, Zombo was not listed on the Cougars' roster.
But in an X interview Zombo clarified that he will be starting at BYU in January
Zombo did not start at Liberty until his senior season, then took the state by storm. In May he said he believed he was a D1 type of player and the best receiver in the state last year.
"It makes me want to work hard because I feel like I’ve been slept on for a while. Not everybody heard of me. Only a few people heard about me before the season,” Zombo said. “I felt like if I would have came here my freshman year and been here four years it would have been a different story.”
