MIKE LUCAS Senior Writer

BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer

MADISON, Wis. — At the start of the 2007 Wisconsin training camp, the handwriting was not on the wall for redshirt freshman offensive tackle Gabe Carimi. It was on the depth chart.

"Much to my surprise, I showed up for fall camp and my name is no longer on the two-deep — it's Jake Bscherer and Danny Kaye," Carimi said. "Obviously, it was a big shock."

Months earlier, Carimi and Bscherer had battled to a standoff at left tackle during spring practice. Both sought to fill the void created by the loss of Joe Thomas, the 2006 Outland Trophy winner.

"We were kind of neck and neck, it was tight," Carimi said. "The spring game usually defines who it's going to be. Neither me nor Jake made enough progress to say one was better than the other."

That summer, Carimi had a medical setback in his quest to win the job. And he reminded himself of that after seeing the two-deep despite his initial consternation over his name's omission.

"I said, 'OK, don't freak out here. You had appendicitis,'" he related. "I wasn't quite back up to strength. It takes awhile to get the ab muscles back. A week into camp, I went up to Palcic."

Bob Palcic was the UW offensive line coach.

"I told him, 'I know I can start. I know I can be one of the best tackles here.'"

Still juggling and evaluating different combinations, Palcic filed away the information.

"I started getting reps here and there," Carimi said. "I think that was just the confidence that they needed to hear out of me … That someone really wanted it and felt they could take it."

That someone turned out to be the 19-year-old Carimi who was named the starting left tackle going into the season opener against Washington State at Camp Randall Stadium.

It was the first start and step in an accomplished career for Carimi, a four-year O-line fixture, the 2010 Outland Trophy winner and now a member of Wisconsin's 2021 Hall of Fame class.

"It was kind of fitting," Carimi said, "that I was Barry Alvarez's last recruit before Bret Bielema took over and now, I'm in the last Hall of Fame class before he retires as AD."

Noting the Badger luminaries that have been previously inducted, including Thomas in 2019, he said, "There are so many greats just to be mentioned alongside of them is a huge honor."

Maybe nobody appreciates Carimi's development more than the position's standard-bearer, Thomas, who's in the College Football Hall of Fame and has the NFL's HOF in his on-deck circle.

"The thing that first stood out to me about him was his lower-body strength, his balance and subsequently his ability to recover when beat," said Thomas, a 10-time Pro Bowler with the Browns.

"I remember specifically when he was a freshman watching him in a one-on-one pass rush drill. He had really bad technique and got way out of balance against one of the old guys.

"But he had this amazing ability to contort his body and recover and stay on his feet and still keep his body in front of the pass rusher.

"It was at that moment where I knew that he was going to be a really good player."

The Badgers have had only two Outland winners: Thomas and Carimi. That one would follow the other at left tackle and they'd win the trophy just four years apart is pretty amazing history.

"That speaks to the tradition that we have here with linemen," Barry Alvarez said. "A lot of them were in-state guys. That was our plan coming here. To see it come to fruition is really special."

Thomas is from Brookfield, Wisconsin (Central High School); Carimi is from Cottage Grove, Wis., (Monona Grove H.S.).

"It was awesome to have Joe win and then for me to be the next left tackle to step in and win it for the University of Wisconsin," Carimi said. "It was just a huge deal for me.

"Early in my career, I made it a goal of mine if I could learn to play like Joe and work harder — knowing I'm not the same athlete Joe is — I could get one (Outland), too."

Carimi is now living in Texas and his trophy is prominently displayed in his memorabilia room.

"It's my most important keepsake," he said.

• • • •

Football was an acquired taste for Carimi, who didn't begin playing until the seventh grade.

"I didn't grow up in a sports family," he said. "I was just a guy who fell into the sport. People would say, 'You're pretty big. You should try this football thing out.'"

Once he did, he was hooked.

"I immediately fell in love with the game from my first day of practice," he said before confiding, "Even though I didn't know how to put my pads on right."

Carimi confused the placement of the hip pads and knee pads. He welcomed some instruction. A late bloomer, obviously, he didn't start his first game until his junior year of high school.

But his real commitment to the sport came the year before when he got serious about weight training, realizing that if he packed some muscle on his long frame that it might take him places.

From the onset, he had only one college destination circled.

"Being 15 minutes away from campus — O-line U in my opinion — it didn't matter where I got offered," said Carimi, a Parade All-American. "As long as Wisconsin offered me, I was going there.

"Growing up watching Ron Dayne and his Rose Bowls, I didn't really watch much offensive line play because I didn't understand the importance of it. I wasn't brought up as an O-linemen.

"But it was amazing having all that film in the archives when I got to Wisconsin."

Film of former UW stars like Chris McIntosh and Aaron Gibson — both of whom had been finalists for the Outland Trophy — and, of course, Thomas, the quintessential bell cow.

"Joe was a master of his craft and just watching him was an advantage that I had over younger tackles," Carimi said. "He was an absolute monster and looking through his past films was huge."

During recruiting, Alvarez looked at Carimi with a discerning eye. He saw an intriguing prospect.

"He was a big raw athletic — a smart guy with a great attitude," Alvarez recalled. "We had made a living on guys like that who came into our program with all the tools and developed.

"That's what I saw in him … tremendous potential."

While redshirting as a true freshman, Carimi toiled on the scout team, a meaningful building stage since he was matched daily in practice against the defensive line starters. Carimi went full speed.

"I still remember some of them saying, 'You've got to take it easy man, I just got done playing a game Saturday and you haven't done anything,'" Carimi said.

"I told them, 'Look, I'm either going to get yelled at by you or I'm going to get yelled at by the coach. You're out of here in a couple of years, so I'm just going to keep going as hard as I can.'"

The preparation paid off. A year later, he was starting his first game against Washington State and a defense that featured three credentialed seniors on the line of scrimmage. Big, strong guys.

"I remember not being completely nervous actually," Carimi said. "I think the reason why was the amount of coaching that I felt that I had going into this. I felt very well prepared for the game.

"We had an amazing defense that year and I had played against some of our best linemen. I had a lot of confidence going into the game and ended up playing well against one of their better players."

The Badgers overpowered Washington State, 42-21, behind quarterback Tyler Donovan's four touchdowns. Carimi's debut was a success. And he wound up starting all 13 games at left tackle.

A second-team freshman All-American, Carimi credited his fellow linemates for his progress: Eric Vanden Heuvel, Kraig Urbik, Marcus Coleman (first team All-Big Ten), Andy Kemp and John Moffitt.

"I had a great offensive line core — it wasn't just me — we had guys who could give me good slide help," he said. "For a lineman going into his career, they could take on a little more of the pressure.

"To have guys like this … they made sure this young tackle had confidence going in. And in any sport, it's a lot about confidence and growing that confidence."

Carimi's just kept growing and growing and growing with each start. As a senior, he was named the Big Ten's Offensive Lineman of the Year which fell in line with him winning the Outland Trophy.

The Badgers had multiple FBS award winners that season. In addition to Carimi, there was quarterback Scott Tolzien (Johnny Unitas Golden Arm) and defensive end J.J. Watt (Lott Impact).

Asked about scrimmaging against Watt, and the benefits of such competition in practices, Carimi said, "Me and J.J. had a lot of battles and it kind of formed a rivalry."

Everyone pushed each other as the Badgers won a share of the 2010 Big Ten title and 11 of their 12 regular-season games with the only loss coming at Michigan State in the league opener.

Despite dropping a 21-19 decision to TCU in the Rose Bowl, the offense, coordinated by Paul Chryst, still set a school record by averaging 41.5 points per game, including 45.2 in conference play.

Carimi anchored a dominant O-line: Moffitt at left guard, Bill Nagy/Peter Konz at center, Kevin Zeitler at right guard, and Ricky Wagner at right tackle. Zeitler and Wagner are still in the NFL.

That season, the Badgers nearly became the first team in FBS history to have three running backs gain 1,000 yards in James White (1,052), John Clay (1,012) and Montee Ball (996).

"Being four yards short was very heartbreaking," Carmi lamented. "But that year was something special for all of us. We had an awesome senior class."

In the 2011 NFL draft, Carimi was taken by the Chicago Bears with the 29th pick in the first round. At 6-foot-7, 315 pounds, he had an 83-inch wingspan and wowed scouts with his measurables.

But he suffered a season-ending knee injury in his second game, an ominous start to a pro career in which he played 48 games for the Bears, Tampa Bay and Atlanta before retiring in 2014.

"Switching from left tackle to right tackle, I played about six good quarters (in Chicago)," he said, "before injuring my knee and then reinjuring it in the training room a couple of months after that.

"I started and played the next year (14 starts at tackle and guard). But it felt like a nail going through my kneecap. I continued to play on something I should have never played on."

In his post-football life, Carimi engaged the business world in 2017 upon partnering with Joe Oblas and Ted Casey in producing and marketing Stryve, a healthy biltong meat snack.

"They've been kind of my business mentors," said the 32-year-old Carimi, "kind of teaching me the ropes of being an entrepreneur and all the risks associated with it. They've been invaluable lessons.

"If you surround yourself with a winning team and people who know how to win — like-minded individuals — it makes a huge difference. That's what I did."

As far as comparing the disciplines in sports and business, he said, "Both have different pressures and different expectations to perform. Both have challenges and difficulties."

"But I don't mind not being in as much as pain as I used to be.

"It's nice not getting injured anymore."

When Carimi returns for his Hall of Fame induction, it will mark the first time that he has attended a game at Camp Randall since leaving with his civil and environmental engineering degree.

Just like he studied Thomas and McIntosh and Gibson, another generation of Badger offensive linemen can learn from watching film of Carimi. They might want to take notes, too.

"Balance and recovery are two of the most important things for success as an offensive lineman," Thomas observed of Carimi, "and he had them in spades."

From one Outland winner to another it's still quite an endorsement.