46.4 F
Oxford

A Conversation with Billy Watkins, Author of Bo: A Quarterback’s Journey Through an SEC Season

Layout 1

Former Ole Miss quarterback Bo Wallace’s story will be told by Billy Watkins in his newest book: Bo: A Quarterback’s Journey Through an SEC Season (Nautilus Publishing; $24.95; ISBN:978-1-936-946-49-5).

This Friday, October 23, Bo Wallace will join Billy Watkins at a book signing at 5 p.m. at the Off-Square Books.

Billy Watkins has worked as a sports writer, features writer, and columnist for more than three decades at The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Mississippi. His work has earned him more than 50 national and regional awards. He has written two books. His 2005 work, Apollo Moon Missions: The Unsung Heroes, was named by the BBC one of the Top 10 books ever written on Apollo.

Below is a provided interview with him by Nautilus Publishing Company.


1. How were you able to gain inside access to Bo Wallace during Ole Miss’ football season?

The short answer is, Bo wanted his story told. I offered to tell it. Sounds simple, right? But the truth is, a lot of stars had to align.

I had to know him well enough to approach him about it, and he had to trust me enough to share information about himself, the team, their game plans each week, personnel, injuries. And it certainly helped that the 2014 season turned out to be as dramatic as it was.

Somehow, it all came together. I believe it was divine intervention, and I don’t say that lightly. I always seek God’s guidance about what I am supposed to write.

2. When did you approach Bo?

About two weeks after the 2013 Egg Bowl.

When he fumbled in overtime and sealed Mississippi State’s 17-10 victory in Starkville, I watched as he made that long walk from one end of the field to the other, toward the visitors’ dressing room. I told my youngest son, who was sitting in the stands with me, “Bo is going to have a long, long offseason.” Right after that, a voice in the back of my head said, “And you’re going to write about it.”

A couple of days later, the idea started gnawing at me. I thought, “Wouldn’t it be cool to follow Bo’s senior journey from that Egg Bowl — which ended about as badly as it possibly could for a player — to the next Egg Bowl, which would be the final regular-season game of his career?” It really intrigued me. He was an accomplished quarterback, a centerpiece player on a team in the national spotlight, and somewhat controversial in the public’s eyes.

But I didn’t picture it as a book at that time. Maybe a long feature story for the newspaper I work for, The Clarion-Ledger, or maybe a magazine piece. I didn’t worry about that part of it in the beginning. I had to find out if Bo was interested in the idea.

3. How well did you know Bo?

Not well at all. I knew about Bo because he spent the year before going to Ole Miss at East Mississippi Community College, which I graduated from in the early ’70s. A lot of my friends and relatives watched Bo play there, and they kept telling me how good he was.

When he was being recruited, I watched some video of him on a recruiting site and thought, “This guy has a chance to be special.”

After Ole Miss’ spring game before his sophomore year, I introduced myself to him, and we talked for a while. He mentioned that he was battling Barry Brunetti for the starting job, and I said, “Listen, forget all that. You’re going to be the starting quarterback here for three years. You’re going to win a lot of games for Ole Miss. And when you leave here, your name is going to be all over the record book.” He gave me this strange look and said, “Nobody’s ever told me that. Wow, thanks.”

After that, we would talk after games if I happened to run into him. He knew I was a writer for the Jackson newspaper, and after he led the upset of LSU his junior season, I wrote a blog about something that happened while I was talking to him that day at the spring game. Two young kids came up to him, the big star quarterback who had signed three months earlier, and those kids had no clue who he was. They were trying to find Andrew Ritter, the placekicker. One of them asked, “Is Andrew still out here?” Some of the players were still on the field, some had gone in. Bo said, “I bet he is. Let’s go find him.” And that really impressed me that he would take the time to help those kids find Andrew Ritter.

Ritter kicked the winning field goal in the final seconds to beat LSU after Bo had made some great plays with his feet and his arm to set up the kick. I wrote about Bo helping those kids and how most athletes would have just blown it off. I wanted to share a different side of Bo from the hot-headed guy I kept reading about. He came up to me a week or two later, after a game, and told me he appreciated the story.

And while I certainly didn’t write it to get an “in” with Bo Wallace, he told me later that it was one of the reasons he felt comfortable saying “yes” to the project. He knew I would be fair.

4. How did you pitch the idea to him?

Straight forward. I was able to get his cell phone number, and I called him. I said, “Here’s what I would like to do …” He said immediately, “I’m in.” That was around December 10. We did our first interview on December 19, right before he left Oxford for the Christmas holidays — and 12 days before Ole Miss played Georgia Tech in the Music City Bowl.

5. Did the first interview give you a good feeling about the project?

It did. Bo was amazingly open. It was the first time he had talked in detail about the fumble in the Egg Bowl, and I think he was glad to get it out of his system.

I remember Bo telling me how he had been really angry about Coach Hugh Freeze’s comments after the game. He felt like Freeze sort of threw him to the wolves. I remember asking him, “Are you willing to let me quote you on all this?” He said, “Hell yeah, quote me.” I knew then that I had a chance to write something that Ole Miss fans, and college football fans in general, would find interesting.

Bo told me early on, “If we’re going to do this, let’s really let people see what life is like for a quarterback in this league.” Which was exactly what I wanted to do.

6. How often did the two of you talk in the beginning?

I think the Music City Bowl was a good trial run as far as interviewing him about games. I talked to him a couple of times before that one. He talked about how important it was for the team to beat Georgia Tech and not have the Egg Bowl loss —plus a bowl loss — hanging over their heads going into off-season workouts. And he was anxious to play another game and make amends, so to speak, for that fumble.

But he also told me how they planned to attack Georgia Tech’s defense, and how worn down his body was from a grueling season. He had undergone surgery on his throwing shoulder about 11 months earlier and hadn’t been able to go through the summer weightlifting program like the other players. And while his shoulder was structurally sound, it needed rest. But he had to get through one more game. Ole Miss won and Bo was voted Most Valuable Player.

7. Once the 2014 season started, how often would you talk with him?

We talked at least twice a week, sometimes more. We talked right after games. And we texted. I would usually talk to him the night before a game, and those conversations proved to be crucial to the book. And then I would talk to him on Sunday or Monday. Again, sometimes more. It depended on what was going on.

8. When did you realize you had a book on your hands?

It first occurred to me after Ole Miss beat Alabama to go 5-0. But I think when Ole Miss beat Tennessee on October 18 and was 7-0 and ranked No. 3 in the nation — and Bo was playing really well — I started thinking of it in terms of a book.

9. Did you immediately tell Bo? Did you tell Coach Freeze or anyone at Ole Miss?

I mentioned it to Bo. I just said, “I think this has grown into a book. Nothing will change as far as our interview process. It’ll just change when you might see your story in print.” And he was fine with it.

I wanted to tell Coach Freeze and made several requests for a brief one-on-one interview so I could do so. By the time that worked out, the season was over and I had agreed to the publishing deal with Neil White at Nautilus. He talked with the people at Ole Miss and told them what we were doing. Nobody at Ole Miss ever said a negative word to me about it. When I met with Coach Freeze, he said, “The only thing I ask is that you write the truth.” I assured him I would. He said, “Well, then, I hope it’s a New York Times bestseller.”

10. As you got to know Bo, did the interviews get better?

Definitely. I think he grew to trust me more and more. After the LSU game that did not end well for Bo or for Ole Miss — and I wrote about this in the book — Bo texted me as soon as the team landed in Tupelo and boarded buses for Oxford. He was angry and frustrated about the play calling and saying they had to start throwing more on first down.

He could’ve texted a lot of people at that moment, but he texted me. He said in an interview about the book that I became “almost like his psychologist during the season.” And there was some of that. Again, I think just being able to talk about things and get it out of his system really helped him clear his head.

11. What moments stood out to you about the 2014 season and watching Bo go through it?

It was a bit surreal to watch the fourth quarter of the win over Alabama unfold. He had told me three months earlier that Ole Miss would win that game. It’s one thing to hear him say it. It’s quite another to see it play out almost like he described it in the summer and the night before the game. Of course, the loss to Auburn when Laquon Treadwell fumbled at the goal line while suffering a broken leg was a night I’ll never forget. I was alone with Bo for a while after that game, and he was really emotional. All that’s in the book. And Bo suffering a badly sprained ankle at Arkansas the week before the Egg Bowl made for a dramatic few days leading up to that game. Remember, this was a story about his journey from one Egg Bowl to the next. Suddenly I wasn’t sure he was going to be physically able to play.

12. How challenging did you find the writing to be?

Hands down, the toughest thing professionally I’ve ever done. And I’ve thought a lot about why, and only recently have I come to understand it, at least a little bit.

I spent 14 months interviewing Bo, from December 2013 through January 2015.

There was no way to write the book as the season went along. It was critical to find the right voice to tell Bo’s story, and I couldn’t find that until I knew how the story ended. The season was a grind for Bo, I saw it wear on him. But it was a grind for me, too. When the season was over, everybody else moved on to basketball and baseball. I was stuck in 2014 with one of the most dramatic seasons in Ole Miss football history to revisit and write about, centered around a quarterback who I’m convinced is one of the most misunderstood athletes I’ve ever known.

There were a lot of moving parts within the story. But as writers, we dig and dig until we hopefully find the correct voice and rhythm. Then we trust it and ride it to the end — and pray our instincts were correct.

13. What is the one thing people might find interesting about Bo Wallace that they probably don’t know?

He’s shy. I know people who have seen him head-butting opponents on television will find that hard to believe, but he really is, especially around people he doesn’t know.

14. Is there a random memory that will stay with you?

Yes. The Sunday night before the 2014 Egg Bowl, he was standing outside a restaurant in Oxford where we were going to eat supper. His right ankle was in a walking boot. He was on crutches. Doctors were telling him there was no way he would play in the Egg Bowl six days later. And there stood Bo … smiling. Smiling! As if he knew something nobody else did.

Most Popular

Recent Comments

scamasdscamith on News Watch Ole Miss
Frances Phillips on A Bigger, Better Student Union
Grace Hudditon on A Bigger, Better Student Union
Millie Johnston on A Bigger, Better Student Union
Binary options + Bitcoin = $ 1643 per week: https://8000-usd-per-day.blogspot.com.tr?b=46 on Beta Upsilon Chi: A Christian Brotherhood
Jay Mitchell on Reflections: The Square
Terry Wilcox SFCV USA RET on Oxford's Five Guys Announces Opening Date
Stephanie on Throwback Summer
organized religion is mans downfall on VP of Palmer Home Devotes Life to Finding Homes for Children
Paige Williams on Boyer: Best 10 Books of 2018
Keith mansel on Cleveland On Medgar Evans
Debbie Nader McManus on Cofield on Oxford — Lest We Forget
Bettye H. Galloway on Galloway: The Last of His Kind
Richard Burns on A William Faulkner Sighting
Bettye H. Galloway on Galloway: Faulkner's Small World
Bettye H Galloway on Galloway: Faulkner's Small World
Bettye H Galloway on Galloway: Faulkner's Small World
Bettye H. Galloway on Galloway: Faulkner's Small World
Ruby Begonia on Family Catching Rebel Fever
Greg Millar on The Hoka
Greg Millar on The Hoka
Greg Millar on The Hoka
Greg Millar on The Hoka
jeff the busy eater on Cooking With Kimme: Baked Brie
Travis Yarborough on Reflections: The Square
BAD TASTE IN MY MOUTH on Oxford is About to Receive a Sweet Treat
baby travel systems australia on Heaton: 8 Southern Ways to Heckle in SEC Baseball
Rajka Radenkovich on Eating Oxford: Restaurant Watch
Richard Burns on Reflections: The Square
Guillermo Perez Arguello on Mississippi Quote Of The Day
A Friend with a Heavy Heart on Remembering Dr. Stacy Davidson
Harold M. "Hal" Frost, Ph.D. on UM Physical Acoustics Research Center Turns 30
Educated Citizen on Buzzed Driving is Drunk Driving
Debbie Crenshaw on Trump’s Tough Road Ahead
Treadway Strickland on Wicker Looks Ahead to New Congress
Tony Ryals on parking
Heather Lee Hitchcock on ‘Pray for Oxford’ by Shane Brown
Heather Lee Hitchcock on ‘Pray for Oxford’ by Shane Brown
Dr Donald and Priscilla Powell on Deadly Plane Crash Leaves Eleven Children Behind
Dr Donald and Priscilla Powell on Deadly Plane Crash Leaves Eleven Children Behind
C. Scott Fischer on I Stand With Coach Hugh Freeze
Sylvia Williams on I Stand With Coach Hugh Freeze
Will Patterson on I Stand With Coach Hugh Freeze
Rick Henderson on I Stand With Coach Hugh Freeze
George L Price on I Stand With Coach Hugh Freeze
on
Morgan Shands on Cleveland: On Ed Reed
Richard McGraw on Cleveland: On Cissye Gallagher
Branan Southerland on Gameday RV Parking at HottyToddy.com
Tom and Randa Baddley on Vassallo: Ole Miss Alum Finds His Niche
26 years and continuously learning on Ole Miss Puts History In Context With Plaque
a Paterson on Beyond Barton v. Barnett
Phil Higginbotham on ‘Unpublished’ by Shane Brown
Bettina Willie@www.yahoo.com.102Martinez St.Batesville,Ms.38606 on Bomb Threat: South Panola High School Evacuated This Morning
Anita M Fellenz, (Emilly Hoffman's CA grandmother on Ole Miss Spirit Groups Rank High in National Finals
Marilyn Moore Hughes on Vassallo: Ole Miss Alum Finds His Niche
Jaqundacotten@gmail williams on HottyToddy Hometown: Hollandale, Mississippi
Finney moore on Can Ole Miss Grow Too Big?
diane faulkner cawlley on Oxford’s Olden Days: Miss Annie’s Yard
Phil Higginbotham on ‘November 24’ by Shane Brown
Maralyn Bullion on Neely-Dorsey: Hog Killing Time
Beth Carr on A Letter To Mom
Becky on A Letter To Mom
Marilyn Tinnnin on A Letter To Mom
Roger ulmer on UM Takes Down State Flag
Chris Pool on UM Takes Down State Flag
TampaRebel on UM Takes Down State Flag
david smith on UM Takes Down State Flag
Boyd Harris on UM Takes Down State Flag
Jim (Herc @ UM) on Cleveland: Fall Vacations
Robert Hollingsworth on Rebels on the Road: Memphis Eateries
David McCullough on Shepard Leaves Ole Miss Football
Gayle G. Henry on Meet Your 2015 Miss Ole Miss
Guillermo F. Perez-Argüello on Neely-Dorsey: Elvis Presley’s Big Homecoming
Jennifer Mooneyham on ESPN: Ole Miss No. 1 in Nation
Wes McIngvale on Ole Miss Defeats Alabama
BARRY MCCAMMON on Ole Miss Defeats Alabama
Laughing out Loud on ESPN: Ole Miss No. 1 in Nation
Dr.Bill Priester on Cleveland: On Bob Priester
A woman who has no WHITE PRIVILEGE on Oxford Removes Mississippi Flag from City Property
A woman who has no WHITE PRIVILEGE on Oxford Removes Mississippi Flag from City Property
paulette holmes langbecker on Cofield on Oxford – Rising Ole Miss Rookie
Ruth Shipp Yarbrough on Cofield on Oxford — Lest We Forget
Karllen Smith on ‘Rilee’ by Shane Brown
Jean Baker Pinion on ‘The Cool Pad’ by Shane Brown
Janet Hollingsworth (Cavanaugh) on John Cofield on Oxford: A Beacon
Proud Mississippi Voter on Gunn Calls for Change in Mississippi Flag
Deloris Brown-Thompson on Bebe’s Letters: A WWII Love Story
Sue Ellen Parker Stubbs on Bebe’s Letters: A WWII Love Story
Tim Heaton on Heaton: Who is Southern?
Tim Heaton on Heaton: Who is Southern?
Karen fowler on Heaton: Who is Southern?
Don't Go to Law School on Four Legal Rebels Rising in the Real World
bernadette on Feeding the Blues
bernadette on Feeding the Blues
Joanne and Mark Wilkinson on Ron Vernon: a Fellowship of Music
Mary Ellen (Dring) Gamble on Ron Vernon: a Fellowship of Music
Cyndy Carroll on Filming it Up in Mississippi
Dottie Dewberry on Top 10 Secret Southern Sayings
Brother Everett Childers on ‘The Shack’ by Shane Brown
Mark McElreath on ‘The Shack’ by Shane Brown
Bill Wilkes, UM '57, '58, '63 on A Letter from Chancellor Dan Jones
Sandra Caffey Neal on Mississippi Has Proud Irish Heritage
Teresa Enyeart, and Terry Enyeat on Death of Ole Miss Grad, U.S. Vet Stuns Rebel Nation
P. D. Fyke on Wells: Steelhead Run
Johnny Neumann on Freeze Staying with Rebels
Maralyn Bullion on On Cooking Southern: Chess Pie
Kaye Bryant on Henry: E. for Congress
charles Eichorn on Hotty Tamales, Gosh Almighty
Jack of All Trades on Roll Over Bear Bryant
w nadler on Roll Over Bear Bryant
Stacey Berryhill on Oxford Man Dies in Crash
John Appleton on Grovin' Gameday Memories
Charlotte Lamb on Grovin' Gameday Memories
Guillermo F. Perez-Argüello on Two True Mississippi Icons
Morgan Williamson on A College Education is a MUST
Morgan Williamson on A College Education is a MUST
Jeanette Berryhill Wells on HottyToddy Hometown: Senatobia, Mississippi
Tire of the same ole news on 3 "Must Eat" Breakfast Spots in Oxford
gonna be a rebelution on Walking Rebel Fans Back Off the Ledge
Nora Jaccaud on Rickshaws in Oxford
Martha Marshall on Educating the Delta — Or Not
Nita McVeigh on 'I'm So Oxford' Goes Viral
Guillermo F. Perez-Argüello on How a Visit to the Magnolia State Can Inspire You
Charlie Fowler Jr. on Prawns? In the Mississippi Delta?
Martha Marshall on A Salute to 37 Years of Sparky
Sylvia Hartness Williams on Oxford Approves Diversity Resolution
Jerry Greenfield on Wine Tip: Problem Corks
Cheryl Obrentz on I Won the Lottery! Now What?
Bnogas on Food for the Soul
Barbeque Memphis on History of Tennessee Barbecue
Josephine Bass on The Delta and the Civil War
Nicolas Morrison on The Walking Man
Pete Williams on Blog: MPACT’s Future
Laurie Triplette on On Cooking Southern: Fall Veggies
Harvey Faust on The Kream Kup of the Krop
StarReb on The Hoka
Scott Whodatty Keetereaux Keet on Hip Hop — Yo or No, What’s Your Call
Johnathan Doeman on Oxford Man Dies in Crash
Andy McWilliams on The Warden & The Chief
Kathryn McElroy on Think Like A Writer
Claire Duff Sullivan on Alert Dogs Give Diabetics Peace of Mind
Jesse Yancy on The Hoka
Jennifer Thompson Walker on Ole Miss, Gameday From The Eyes of a Freshman
HottyToddy.com