Rykard has outstanding career as a center at CCHS, UAB

Jul. 8—MOULTRIE — Colquitt County head football coach Sean Calhoun's final season in his first tour with the Packers was 2015, when Will Rykard was a promising freshman offensive lineman.

Calhoun, who was Colquitt's offensive coordinator that season, remembers him well.

"He was just a pup then," Calhoun said recently. "But we knew he was going to be a good one."

In fact, Rykard was on three Colquitt County teams that reached state championship games: the 2015 Packers, which went 15-0 and won the school's last state title, and the 2017 and 2018 teams that were state runners-up.

And after Packers head coach Rush Propst connected his three-year starting center with University of Alabama-Birmingham's Bill Clark, Rykard played three seasons for the Blazers.

He started 21 games at UAB, played in two winning bowl games, was a second-team All-Conference USA selection last year and was one of 40 players named to the watch list for the 2022 Rimington Trophy, presented annually to the nation's top collegiate center.

Wearing jersey No. 75, which he wore at both Colquitt County and UAB, Rykard took over the starting center job for the Packers team that went 8-5 and was bounced in the quarterfinals by eventual state champion Grayson in 2016.

He continued to anchor the offensive line in 2017 when the Packers lost 19-17 to North Gwinnett in the state championship game on an untimed-down field goal and again in 2018 when Colquitt fell 14-13 to Milton in the finals at Mercedes-Benz Stadium to finish 14-1.

"Those last two didn't end quite the way we wanted them to, to say the least," Rykard said.

Despite the disappointing loss to Milton, the 2018 Packers team was one of the best in school history and had an explosive offense.

Playing alongside Rykard on the offensive line were tackles Kamaar Bell and Trey McCoy and guards Kameren Barnes and Jerick Davis.

They provided protection for junior quarterback Jaycee Harden, who threw for 2,498 yards and 22 touchdowns and opened holes for one of the most productive Packer running back tandems ever.

Junior Daijun Edwards, now playing at Georgia, rushed for 1,480 yards and 26 touchdowns and senior Ty Leggett gained 984 yards and ran for 16 scores.

The Packers averaged just over 39 points a game for the season and scored 150 points in their four playoff victories, all on Tom White Field at Mack Tharpe Stadium.

A three-time All-Region and two-time All-State selection, Rykard played on Colquitt County teams that went a combined 48-10 and for four seasons was fortunate to have learned his trade under esteemed offensive line coach Joey Bennett.

"He and I have a special relationship," Rykard said of Bennett, who coached the Packers offensive linemen from 2008-2018 under Propst. "He was my mentor, on and off the field.

"He prepared me for the college level. He taught me the techniques, how to play center, learning schemes, reading defenses. When I got to UAB, I was ready to play. He was phenomenal."

Rykard happened to be in Birmingham at a doctor's appointment following surgery during his senior season when Propst called him and told him to head over to UAB, that he had already recommended him to Clark and the Blazers' staff.

After a couple of visits to the UAB campus, "I knew that was the place for me," Rykard said.

He was red-shirted his first year at UAB, but played in five games, including three starts, the following season.

As a red-shirt sophomore in 2021, Rykard played in nine games, starting six.

The Blazers were 5-1 in games he started, including the 31-28 Independence Bowl victory over No. 13 BYU.

Last fall, he started the first nine games of the season at center on what many considered to be the top offensive line in Conference USA.

He then missed three games because of an injury, but returned to start and help lead the Blazers to a 24-20 victory over Miami of Ohio in the Bahamas Bowl.

UAB rushed for 235.3 yards a game in 2022, ranking eighth nationally.

But the injuries suffered over the eight years of playing in the trenches had taken their toll and he called it a career following the season.

"The body was wore out," he said. "I was done."

After graduation, Rykard has remained in Birmingham, working as a financial adviser for the wealth management firm of Nowlin and Associates, where one of his co-workers also was an offensive lineman for UAB.

And while his parents, Stephen and Melanie Rykard, have moved to Texas, Will's grandparents still live in Colquitt County.