This is a great time of year for Western Kentucky University senior defensive lineman Dan Cline. Not only is football season in full swing, but we are just days away from a presidential election.
You see, just like a lot of kids, Cline has grown up with a dream of following the same career path as a parent.
“I want to follow in my dad’s footsteps and become the mayor of Centerville, Ohio,” explained Cline a two-year starter for the Hilltoppers at defensive end. “I’m very intrigued by the political atmosphere, and it’s something I really think I can be good at.”
While he can be an intimidating figure on the gridiron, the 6-foot-6, 265 pound Cline probably ranks as one of the most outgoing and approachable members of the WKU team. Never afraid to seek out someone new to meet, or get in front of a camera and microphone for an interview, he has certainly groomed himself for his future career path.
“Everybody calls me the media darling or the politician on our team,” Cline said with a smile. “What I’ve learned to grasp over the years is that life is all about relationships. That can take you far.”
And it’s those relationships that have helped build a family tradition in the political arena. Not only is Doug Cline currently serving as the deputy mayor of Centerville, but Dan also has an aunt that recently ran for the first time for a seat in the Ohio House of Representatives losing to a three-term incumbent by only 10 percent.
“I’ve obviously got some great role models to follow and look to for advice,” added Cline. “I’m a people person. That’s my personality. So to have the opportunity to give back to Centerville, Ohio a town that has given so much to me is something that really excites me.”
Much like the world of politics can be filled with peaks and valleys, so has Cline’s road to WKU.
“The first play of the first practice of my career in sixth grade, one of my buddies broke and shattered my ankle,” said Cline. “That was enough to make me never want to play again, but I fought back mostly because I wanted to have the chance to play for my varsity high school team on Friday nights.”
But once he was finally able suit up for the Elks, Cline found himself being passed over numerous times on the depth chart by younger and more highly recruited athletes.
Just like a good politician, Cline recognized and seized the opportunity once it came his way.
“I didn’t see a single snap of a game from the time I broke my ankle until my junior year,” recalled Cline. “I’ve always been a little uncoordinated, but my legs finally caught up with my body, and I started to do some good things. The coaches started to take notice, we had some injuries, and I finally got my first snap about midway though my junior season. I started the rest of that year and never looked back.”
Following a standout senior season that saw Cline earn first-team all-league and all-Greater Dayton selections and a handful of all-star game appearances, the idea of playing football in college became more of a reality for a kid who, self-admittedly “never was one of those kids that was a star, and never got pee-wee trophies.”
Again, Cline found himself up against another hurdle. Having blossomed late, and being from the football-rich state of Ohio, he had been over looked in the recruiting process. Cline credits his father for getting him to where he is today.
“My dad sent an email to Coach (Walter) Wells with my information, but honestly we were really thinking that I’d be more suited for somewhere in Division III.”
It could be considered perfect timing, or maybe even a little bit of luck, that Cline had the opportunity to show off his skills in front of the Hilltopper coaching staff the summer before his senior season at CHS. After emailing Coach Wells, Doug Cline had hardly checked his email account. A late-night check of a work-related email led to Dan’s big break.
“My dad got up in the middle of the night to check for a message, and noticed that Coach Wells had responded almost immediately to his original email.”
The content of that message WKU was hosting a senior-to-be camp just 10 hours from the time the message was read. After being woken up in the middle of the night, and getting the day off from his job at Ace Hardware, Dan and his father headed down to Bowling Green and WKU.
“We drove through the night on basically no rest, but I ended up having a great camp,” said Cline. “I think I really got noticed when Coach Elson was timing my 40, and I ran a 4.7. From that point on, Coach Elson and Coach (Don) Martindale kept in touch with me every week from that point on.”
A handful of I-A schools took an initial interest in Cline, but in the end his football destiny lay in the Commonwealth either at WKU or Kentucky. After visiting both schools, the Wildcats offered their final defensive line scholarship to one of Cline’s cross-town rivals.
“The one thing our coaching staff is great at is recruiting with persuasion,” said Cline. “They hung with me through everything, said all the right things, and I couldn’t be happier with how things have turned out.”
Now, Cline is getting the last laugh. Not only has he started 18 consecutive games heading into this week’s contest with North Texas, but he has been given the opportunity to do something he never thought he’d do when he came to the Hill in 2004 Play Division I-A football.
“I thought I’d be playing one big money game each year, so the transformation this program has taken over the last few years is just surreal to me,” said Cline. “Not in my wildest dreams did I think I’d be playing at this level every week before my career was over.”
However, just as in high school, Cline had to wait his turn, and prove himself at the collegiate level. The hurdles were numerous. He was selected to travel to Kansas State to open the 2004 season, with the hope of getting an opportunity to see action and get on the depth chart for the rest of the season. As it turned out, WKU hung in with the nationally-ranked Wildcats before falling 27-13, so Cline never saw the field and ended up redshirting the season.
“I took that a little tough, going from the top of the ladder in high school, all the way to the bottom,” Cline said. “But, it’s a nice slice of humble pie that really every freshman needs to have served to them.”
He came back in 2005 to see action in nine games as a backup at outside linebacker as a redshirt freshman. That also included his first career start at Indiana State. However, the “sophomore slump” hit Cline hard in 2006.
“It seems like every player can look back at college and pick out that one dreadful year, and 2006 was that season for me,” he remembered. “On the last practice of spring ball, I tore the PCL in my knee, causing me to miss the entire summer.”
Having to play in a knee brace, along with the fact that Blake Boyd joined the Hilltoppers after transferring from Louisville, Cline knew the linebacking corp wasn’t where he needed to stay in order to be an effective member of the defensive unit.
“I couldn’t quite get this thing down called pass coverage especially in a knee brace” Cline said. “So I talked to Coach Elson and asked to get moved back to the defensive line where I had played all though high school.”
The coaches made the switch midway through the 2006 season. And, since Cline was not traveling at that point, he had the opportunity to go back home to Centerville and reconnect with his high school coaches to regain his motivation. He came back and made the Southern Illinois trip the following week after a solid week of practice on the defensive line, and saw his playing time increase once again as the year went along.
While he has been a staple on the line for WKU the last two seasons, Cline knows the days of putting on the pads may be numbered. But he’s not ruling out an opportunity to suit up at the next level.
“There are some opportunities for me to get a shot at the next level,” said Cline, who has already worked out for four NFL teams back in the spring. “We’ve had some scouts at practice, so if that opportunity comes, it’s something I obviously couldn’t pass up. If playing football in college was beyond my wildest dreams, getting the chance to play professionally would be something I couldn’t even imagine.”
But Cline isn’t putting all his efforts solely toward that dream.
“I’m going to be working out with (strength and conditioning) Coach (Jim) Nowell this spring, but I’m also going to start my MBA program next semester as well,” explained Cline. “Eventually, I’m either going to go all the way through and finish my MBA, or go to law school.”
So, while he’s being coached up on the field and the sidelines, Cline is also looking to his future aspirations and taking a lesson from the nightly news.
“You definitely see during presidential elections the dos and don’ts of being in politics,” Cline said with a laugh. “In my mind whether you are in business, law or politics it boils down to a simple intrinsic value that people overlook sometimes, confidence.”
And, with everything Cline has gone through during his football career, the confidence to overcome obstacles to become successful is something he can carry over in the future.
“Western Kentucky University, and the football program, has definitely made me a man,” he said. “I’ve been down and out several times, but I’ve kept a relentless attitude to get to where I am. Work ethic and perseverance can take you a long way in life, and good things are going to happen.”
With that type of outlook and attitude, who says you can’t be a politician?
