Garett Bolles was crying, with grass stains covering his uniform and his nose bloodied from competing against older, bigger players in his first season of tackle football in Utah County. His father offered him a chance to rest, but the fourth-grader was too angry, too driven to stop playing. He chased down the quarterback twice for sacks in the next series.
That sequence of plays captured the traits that would make coaches at every level of football marvel about his athletic ability and relentless effort, eventually making him a starting offensive tackle as an NFL rookie. Only 20 months removed from Snow College and having played one season for the University of Utah, Bolles will take the field Sept. 11 when the Denver Broncos host San Diego in a Monday night game.
“He’s a one-in-a-million talent,” said former Snow coach Britt Maughan.
So how did this happen? There’s an entire football side to Bolles’ story, seemingly lost in the portrait that has become almost a caricature. The comparison to “The Blind Side,” with Bolles in the role of homeless youth Michael Oher, who became a Super Bowl winner for Baltimore, is exaggerated in some media snapshots, according to people who know his background.
This part is true: Greg and Emily Freeman, who took him into their home at age 19, are significant influences. And others helped guide a difficult child with learning and behavioral issues, while channeling football talent that came almost naturally.
“The real story,” said Bill Fogt, a family friend, “is there were a multitude of people who tried to help Garett Bolles.”
Collectively, they succeeded. And now Bolles looks like a rising star in pro football as a 25-year-old rookie who became the No. 20 overall pick. Throughout his childhood, Bolles repeatedly heard his father, Grove, tell him, “Your best days of football are ahead of you.”
That remains true even in the NFL, as Bolles’ father reminds him about fundamental blocking techniques in phone conversations. Jim Harding, Bolles’ line coach at Utah, knows it sounds weird to say a first-round pick still is developing, but he believes it. “He hopes to be the best tackle that ever played,” Harding said. “He’s not ashamed to say that, and the nice thing is his work ethic backs that up.”
Bolles grew into a 6-foot-5, 297-pound body after an awkward phase in his early teens, while regaining the drive that has made him an unrelenting player. Even as a 10-year-old, he promised to make it into the NFL.
Bob Oates, his grandfather, said Bolles is “not getting enough credit for his own perseverance.”
Bolles’ anger, the inherent meanness that’s a valued characteristic of an offensive lineman, surfaced early. The episode that made his father realize he needed to match the boy against older, bigger children came in third grade, when Bolles plowed over three defenders during a 50-yard touchdown run — in flag football.
That play showed “how differently he was wired,” Grove Bolles said. No penalty was called, unlike some plays in junior college, major college and NFL preseason games when Bolles’ aggressiveness hurt his team. Harding often pleaded with Bolles to calm down, but he said, “I’d rather have to pull a kid back than say, ‘Hey, let’s go play, let’s be physical.’”
The Broncos agree. Denver coach Vance Joseph named Bolles the team’s starting left tackle right after an Aug. 19 game at San Francisco where he frequently was penalized.
“I’m not going to stop playing my game,” Bolles said. “Things happen, but I’m never going to change the way I play.”
That’s how he got to this point, after all. Genetics have helped him, with former college (and NFL, in the cases of uncles Brad and Bart Oates) offensive linemen on both sides of his family. Paul L. Kruger, a father of three defensive linemen who all participated in NFL training camps in 2013, once ran Bolles through an hour of drills as an inexperienced high school player. By watching the lineman’s hands and feet, Kruger concluded, “Some kids just have it naturally, and Garett was one of those kids.”
Kruger paused, chuckling. “All of a sudden, he’s a superstar,” he said. “I was right.”
Fred Prescott, one of his coaches at Westlake High School, said, “I could see it in his eyes. He really loves the game of football.”
Only when Bolles returned from an LDS Church mission, though, did the possibility of even playing college football re-enter his mind. After watching his son play in a recreational lacrosse league, having grown to 305 pounds and somehow become faster, Grove Bolles told him, “It’s time to go play football again.”
His career resumed at Snow, where Maughan promised the future NFL first-round pick a tuition waiver — if he made the two-deep roster. “We didn’t really know what we were getting into,” said Maughan, whose brother Rafe coached the Badgers’ offensive line. Reviewing Bolles’ two years in Ephraim, Rafe Maughan said, “All my stories about Garett involve him absolutely destroying somebody or being [like] a 12-year-old kid.”
In a football sense, Bolles’ childlike eagerness helped him. He was known to spend an hour in his line coach’s office before and after practice, learning the game after having barely played on offense in high school. The coaches soon discovered what they had in Bolles. “People had to game-plan for our offensive tackle,” Britt Maughan said.
Among the Maughan brothers’ favorite stories: Snow’s repeatedly using a routine, outside-zone running play against Scottsdale (Ariz.) CC and gaining 8 to 12 yards every time, and a play during a bowl game vs. Dodge City (Kan.) CC, when Bolles knocked down a blitzing safety, an end and a linebacker in pass protection. As Rafe Maughan said, “I can’t coach that.”
Just about everybody in major college football wanted to coach Bolles, including Alabama’s Nick Saban. Rafe Maughan, who accompanied Bolles on his visit, remembers Saban being stunned when Bolles didn’t immediately accept his scholarship offer. Bolles wanted “the best fit,” Maughan said, and he found it at Utah, where Harding became the latest in a series of influential coaches in the player’s development.
After one season with the Utes, Bolles was ready for the NFL. In April, attending the draft event in Philadelphia, Bolles marveled about his own journey.
“It happened,” he told his father.
UTAH’S BEST <br>A look at the highest-drafted Utah high school football players. <br>Year • Player • Position • Schools • Team drafted<br>1962 • Merlin Olsen • DL • Logan HS/USU • Rams No. 3 <br>1970 • Phil Olsen • DL • Logan HS/USU • Patriots No. 4 <br>1982 • Jim McMahon • QB • Roy HS/BYU • Bears No. 5 <br>1998 • Kevin Dyson • WR • Clearfield HS/Utah • Titans No. 16 <br>2006 • Haloti Ngata • DL • Highland HS/Oregon • Ravens No. 12 <br>2013 • Star Lotulelei • DL • Bingham HS/Utah • Panthers No. 14 <br>2017 • Garett Bolles • OL • Westlake HS/Utah • Broncos No. 20