by Steven Koesterman | 17 hours ago (April 8, 2020)
During his three years playing Ohio State football Andy
Katzenmoyer was one of the best linebackers in all of college football.
Andy Katzenmoyer is one of the most
decorated Ohio State football players of all time. The first linebacker to
start for the Buckeyes his first game, Andy went on to become the Big Ten
Freshman of the Year and 3x All-Big Ten selection. He was also a consensus
All-American, and as a sophomore in 1997 was the first Buckeye ever to win the
Butkus Award.
During
his three seasons as the face of the Buckeye defense, Katzenmoyer
recorded 197 solo tackles, 256 total tackles, 50 tackles-for-loss, 18
sacks and 6 interceptions. After
his stellar college career, Andy was chosen 28th overall by the New England
Patriots in the 1999 NFL Draft.
A few notable draft picks in that
1999 draft include Donovan McNabb, Champ Bailey and Ricky Williams. Fellow
Buckeye teammates David Boston and Antoine Winfield were selected in the first
round as well.
Katzenmoyer was drafted to the
Patriots at a unique time for the organization. With the Bill Parcells era
ending a few years prior to his arrival, it was an interesting transition
period for the Patriots. After the departure of Parcells, the Pete Carroll to
Bill Belichick regimes were underway as Andy began his pro career.
Over the course of his 3-year
career in the NFL, Andy started 14 of 24 games totaling 77 solo tackles
and 3.5 sacks. He
became a Super Bowl Champion when the Patriots defeated the St. Louis Rams
20-17 in Super Bowl XXXVI.
After his
NFL career, Andy began on his “life after football” journey. After working in
the Ohio State weight room, he fell in love with helping others and was
inspired to open up his own training facility.
I had the opportunity to catch up
with Andy. We talked about his days at Ohio State, his career with the Patriots
and his enjoyment of training individuals at Katzenmoyer Performance.
Scarlet
& Game: What is your best memory from Ohio State?
Andy
Katzenmoyer: “There are quite a bit. I think the memories that I
remember most would be in practice or training. We spent so much time as a
group of guys and with our support staff. It is all those kinds of things that
you miss as a player. You don’t miss getting beat up and knocked around and
waking up bruised. It’s always fun to win the big games and make the big play
but the stuff I really miss is the team camaraderie.”
Scarlet
& Game: What was it like to play for Coach Cooper?
Andy: “I
have a connection to Coach Cooper that not many people know. My father played
college football at Iowa State. When he was a freshman, John Cooper was a
senior. So there were some connections I already had. But, I didn’t know that
to be honest with you. My dad never told me until Coach Coop came and visited
me. My dad didn’t want me to be swayed in one way or another and I commend him
for that.
At the end of the day, Coach Coop
was always one of those guys that you could count on. He was a “no nonsense”
type guy. He didn’t spend a ton of time coaching players. He coached his
coaches that coached the players. So, his administrative style was a little
different as far as leading a team. But he knew the game. He understood the
game. He understood the politics with being a top 5 football coach. He had to
have big shoulders when things didn’t go well and he had to understand that he
wouldn’t always get the credit when things went great too.
For me, he was great. He brought
Ohio State out of a tough period in the 80s and early 90s when Ohio State
wasn’t doing well. He really put Ohio State back on the map and set them on the
trajectory that they are at today.”
Scarlet
& Game: Who
was the best RB you played against at Ohio State?
Andy: “There
are 2 guys that stand out. The first was Curtis Enis. He was such a specimen as
far as his size and his speed, the team he played on (Penn State). The
offensive philosophy was very pro-style. run downhill. He had a huge offensive
line. I remember playing them my sophomore year up at Penn State and just not
being able to stop him. It was the most frustrating game I ever played in. By
far. We were scoring back and forth. But we just could not stop them
defensively. That was the one game that always stood out to me.
The other guy was Plaxico
Burress. When he came in ’98 to Michigan State. He was 6’6” and 230lb and at
that time it wasn’t a thing yet but he was “Mossing” everyone. It was crazy. We
couldn’t stop him.
Those were the 2 players that
stood out to me that were just unstoppable.”
Scarlet
& Game: Who are your Top 5 Ohio State LBs of all time?
Andy: “Ohio
State has always consistently had good classes of linebackers. Some years are
better than others. Some years are loaded. I remember watching Speilman in the
80s. Cousineau played in the 70s. They’re in my top 5. I would say Speilman,
Cousineau, AJ Hawk and James Laurinaitis.
My last one is someone who was a
great linebacker and someone I played with, Na’il Diggs. He didn’t get
enough credit. He was one of those guys, man. He was fast. He was big. He
played like 10 or 12 years in the NFL. He played next to me during my last
season at Ohio State. Just a good, solid player. But, he was a little bit
overshadowed by myself and my notoriety. He was a fantastic and amazing
player.”
Scarlet
& Game: What was in like playing in the Patriots organization and playing
under Coach Belichick?
Andy: “It
was pretty cool during the window that I came in to. New England really wasn’t
on my radar as far as a team that I would have a chance to get drafted to just
through talking with my agent and different draft projections.
When I got there, there were guys
that were still held over from the Bill Parcells era. He was shortly removed
from there. There was kind of that feel with how things were with him. I got
drafted by Pete Carroll and my linebacker coach was Bo Pelini. There were lots
of connections. Pete was the secondary coach for Ohio State in 1979 under Earl
Bruce. Bo played at Ohio State.
To see both Pete and Bo have
success in their careers was cool to see. They were in New England for a year
and then the whole staff got let go. To see Pete go to USC then from USC to
Seattle. To see his success, knowing his style from being under his coaching
tutelage. Then to see Bo Pelini go from New England to eventually the head
coach of Nebraska and now the defensive coordinator at LSU was very cool.
Just to see their styles and what
they went on to achieve in their careers was great to see. At that time, it
didn’t work in New England for whatever reason but to see them be successful
was cool.
And it was cool to be in New
England at the starting point of where that organization is now with Belichick
and to see all the players to come in and come out. But, really it’s been a
consistent handful of guys and their leadership to know that there are
different styles of coaching, administrative and player personnel. To see it
all gel the way it did in New England, its been cool for me to look back and
say that I was a small part of that success.
There is definitely a business
feel to playing in the professionals. More so for me than playing in college
even though college is a big business. That first year under Belichick. I mean
front office staff, players, administrative people, trainers, coaches and
everyone was under the radar and felt the pressure. He (Belichick) needed to
figure out what was working, what didn’t work, who was going to be a good fit.
There were guys who were very talented but they didn’t mesh well to what he
wanted to do and those guys went on to fit in well with other NFL
organizations.
The nice thing is that there are
only 32 teams in the NFL and you just have to do your job. If your job doesn’t
fit the goals or style of a certain team, there are always 31 other teams that
if you can play, you can find a way to play.”
Scarlet
& Game: What have you been up to since your NFL playing days?
Andy: “After I
retired, I spent about 3 years not sure knowing what to do with my life. Back
in the mid 2000s, I bought a house and tried to flip it. I think I made a
couple hundred bucks and I was like well that was fun but I’m not going to do
that again. The market was hot but it just wasn’t worth my time with the
pitfalls that I could fall into.
I did a handful of other things
but nothing of much substance. Then I went back to Ohio State and I helped out
for 2 quarters in the football weight room. I really enjoyed my time there and
fell in love with that. After doing that, I decided to eventually open my own
training facility to not just train athletes but to train the larger population
of people. Whether it may be wives, kids, husbands, older folks, athletes. I’ve
been doing that ever since.”
Scarlet
& Game: Has that been rewarding?
Andy: “It
has been rewarding. It has its challenges. I enjoy being a business owner. I
enjoy the challenges. I have learned a lot too. I have made a lot of great
relationships and friendships through this process which has been a huge bonus.
I have helped a lot of people which I absolutely enjoy and love and I am proud
of that.
I have
worked with athletes from elementary school to the professionals. General
population from little kids to people in their 70s and 80s. The sole purpose of
what I do is to provide and make a benefit in someone else’s life. Whether it
be that they can move better in their everyday life or they get a tenth of a
second faster in their 40 for the combine. Everything and anything in between.
It has been really rewarding. I decided that I didn’t want to get stuck in one
lane of training so that’s why my clientele is so diverse.
Athletes are always fun to work
with. They come in and work hard. But, they are only a limited population of
people. I really like helping and encouraging every day people to be healthy
and happy and to improve their everyday lives if I can.”
Scarlet
& Game: What is your greatest piece of advice?
Andy: “I’m
going to give you a quote that I have hanging in my office. The quote is, ‘to
be successful, you must decide exactly what you want to accomplish, then
resolve to pay the price to get it’.
I look back at my life and for me
I never let relationships or things get in my way of my career goals. I very
much had tunnel vision on what I wanted to achieve and accomplish. I allowed
very little distraction to get in the way of that.”
Thank you to the former Buckeye
great for his time!!