Blocking out the noise: Scharping focused on big finish at NIU
Photos courtesy of Scott Walstrom, NIU Photography
Pat Wallace will never forget calling plays for Green Bay Southwest’s scout team offense in 2011.
After all, it’s not too often you get to have a 6-foot-4, 250-pounder lining up at receiver.
“We knew we had a special talent on our hands,” Wallace said.
Max Scharping has proven to be just that.
The Green Bay Southwest alum enters his final season at Northern Illinois University as one of the most dominating offensive lineman in college football.
The now 6-foot-6, 320-pounder is on the Outland Trophy watch list, awarded to college football’s best interior linemen, and is projected by several outlets to be selected within the first four rounds of next year’s NFL Draft.
“You try to block out the noise and really try to focus on what got you there in the first place,” Scharping said about the NFL chatter surrounding his name for next year.
“Working on techniques and working on little things, like your first step or your hands, just the littlest thing can make all the difference in the world. I can always get better, and that’s what I’m going to try to do.”
The little things.
That’s what Scharping was working on as a promising sophomore at Southwest in 2011, when he gladly volunteered to play receiver on the scout team offense.
Already established as a second-year starter on the Trojans’ offensive line, Scharping used the experience to get better at blocking in space and it helped him transition to being able to regularly alternate sides on the offensive line during Southwest’s Fox River Classic Conference championship season in 2012.
“The thing I like about Max is he is so down to earth,” said Wallace, who was Scharping’s offensive line coach before being named a co-head coach at Southwest in 2013. “He’ll reach out to our guys and still help us out. It’s not like the moment is too big for him.”
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It didn’t long for the NIU coaching staff to figure that out.
After playing a majority of his senior year of high school with a torn labrum in his right shoulder, Scharping added muscle mass to his frame during a redshirt season.
The Allouez native has started 39 straight games for the Huskies since.
Scharping hasn’t allowed a sack in 25 consecutive games. He also hasn’t allowed all the accolades he’s received change his demeanor.
“You can always find something to improve in your game,” Scharping said. “But it’s really more about the group on the offensive line.”
During his first couple of years on campus, Scharping’s older teammates joked that he was a robot because he didn’t make mistakes. His consistent play earned him a spot on the Freshman All-American Team by the Football Writer’s Association of America.
While transitioning from right to left tackle last season, Scharping found himself as the most tenured offensive lineman on the team since there wasn’t a senior at the position on the roster. The Huskies allowed the fewest sacks as a unit to lead the nation in 2017.
Scharping gave up only five quarterback pressures on 425 pass blocking snaps last year, earning him first team All-Mid-American Conference honors.
Although the 2014 Green Bay Southwest graduate is receiving preseason All-American accolades from various outlets, his biggest accomplishments have come off the field.
Scharping maintained a 3.99 GPA in obtaining his bachelor’s degree for kinesiology in three years. He is on pace to receive his master’s degree in exercise physiology and business leadership.
“My parents (Paul and Jackie) played a big part in (academics) when I was younger,” said Scharping, who was a second team CoSIDA Academic All-American and named Academic All-MAC for a third time last year.
“For school, I always wanted to make them proud. My sister (Jennifer) was smart, so I didn’t want to be dumb compared to her.”
For his volunteer and community service efforts, Scharping is a nominee for 2018 Allstate American Football Coaches Association Good Works Team and is on the watch list for the Wuerffel Trophy.
Scharping participated in natural disaster cleanups and volunteered at three elementary schools near NIU’s campus in DeKalb, Ill., participating in reading programs. He also volunteered at a YMCA for “Healthy Kids Day” and youth football camps.
The towering left tackle finds it hard to believe his college career is almost over and that he’ll be preparing for the biggest job interview of his life next year.
It doesn’t seem that long ago from the days when he would look past the Highway 172 exit in Allouez and stare at the bowl of Lambeau Field across the Fox River.
NFL aspirations certainly appear to be within his reach. The reality of it started to set in for Scharping when he watched his former high school teammate, Kahlil McKenzie, get selected by the Kansas City Chiefs in the sixth round this year.
“That was special.” Scharping said of McKenzie, who played at Southwest in 2011 and 2012. “Obviously, it doesn’t happen often that someone makes it to the NFL from your (high) school. The fact that we could have two guys go from that team, it’s kind of amazing when you think about it. I hope he goes out and kills it in Kansas City. Hopefully, I’ll see him in a couple years.”
The Chiefs are transitioning McKenzie from defense to offense, which has created some fun scenarios for the Southwest coaching staff to think about it from the days when it had Scharping lining up on scout team as a receiver.
“I joke with our guys that we should have probably put Kahlil next to Scharping on the O-line maybe since (Kansas City) moved Khalil to the O-line,” Wallace said. “Maybe we would have won state.
“We saw that potential in them. Obviously, Kahlil had the genetics with the family background, so you knew that was going to develop. Max is just a hard-working kid. He’s not a flashy guy. You know when he makes it, he’s not going to be a guy that is going to spend foolishly. He’s not going to outlive the lifestyle, like you hear about sometimes. He’s going to enjoy the moment.”
Scharping hopes to help lead the Huskies to another bowl game and contend for the MAC title in this season.
For someone who made his third collegiate start inside the “Horseshoe” at Ohio State, Scharping is looking forward to nonconference tests at the venues of Iowa and Florida State this year.
“That’s why we all play football,” Scharping said. “We want to play in those stadiums. You love the atmosphere on the field and the noise and all that. But once the quarterback calls the play, and calls the cadence, you’re focused on that one play at a time. You’re not thinking about anybody else. You’re just thinking about your assignment and what you have to do and doing it to the best of your ability.”
While the 6-foot-6, 320-pounder has been adept at fending off pass rushers, he admits it’s going to be tough to fight back tears in his last college game.
“It’s definitely going to be weird putting on the NIU jersey for the last time,” Scharping said. “I know my parents are probably going to be even more emotional than I am because they’ve gotten really close to the coaches and the parents of the other guys. But these guys are like your brothers for the past five years. It will definitely be very emotional. I’ll try to keep that in check so I can play well that day, but I’m going to be a little choked up before the game.”