Theo Day thrived at Northern Iowa after leaving Michigan State, now waiting NFL draft call
Free Press sports reporter Dave Birkett takes a position-by-position look at the top prospects and biggest Detroit Lions needs in the 2023 NFL draft. This is the second in an eight-part series:
Theo Day had as many head coaches as he did completions in his three seasons at Michigan State – two of each – but as the former Dearborn Divine Child star prepares for next week's NFL draft, he still considers signing with the Spartans one of the best decisions of his football career.
“There’s absolutely no regrets at all for making that decision and going there,” Day told the Free Press last week. “I knew a bunch of people, whether they were on the football team or not, so I had friends all across campus and just football-wise, it was really beneficial for me. I met a lot of great guys and a lot of great quarterbacks or great football players that helped me, and kind of when I got to Northern Iowa, I could kind of lean on them and I learned from them.”
An early enrollee in the winter of 2018, Day played sparingly in two seasons under coach Mark Dantonio and not at all in a third year under coach Mel Tucker at MSU, before transferring to Northern Iowa in the spring of 2021.
He came off the bench at halftime in his first game at NIU — the team’s second of the 2021 season — to lead four straight touchdown drives in a come-from-behind win over Sacramento State, then started every game the rest of his career.
He led the Panthers to the FCS playoffs in 2021, was a first-team All-Missouri Valley Conference selection in 2022 and finished his career with 8,276 yards passing, 58 touchdowns and 32 interceptions.
A classmate of Detroit Lions defensive end Aidan Hutchinson in high school, Day is accountable for why things did not work out at Michigan State.
“I think part of it was (coaching) turnover a little bit but part of it also was I wasn’t playing as well as I was capable of in practice to kind of give them that warm, fuzzy feeling to put me out on the field on Saturday,” Day said. “I mean, I take a lot of responsibility for just not really getting the opportunity to play there.”
A two-year starter at Divine Child, Day enrolled at MSU as a 17-year-old. Now 23, he said he has come to realize he wasn’t ready for the level of competition or commitment it took to make it in the Big Ten.
“I was kind of blindsided when I went into Michigan State and just how good everyone was, and then specifically quarterbacks,” Day said. “For the most part, they were pretty polished and I just was not as polished or as ready to go from right when I got to Michigan State. So I’m a very different player now than I was.”
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Part of that, Day said, was becoming comfortable with a throwing motion he said was less mechanically refined than some of his peers.
After seeing their success and telling himself, “Maybe I got to do something different,” for three seasons at MSU, he became more consistent through repetition at NIU.
“I think what really clicked for me and this was all after I got onto the field, just getting on the field playing and doing well in my eyes kind of gave me a lot of confidence, and then when I would go train and work and try to become more polished I really just, it was like I focused on what was working for me,” he said. “I didn’t try to be like everybody else and try to throw it like everyone else. I know if I threw it how I’m capable, even if it’s in my own way it might look a little different but it’s still very, very effective so I kind of just decided to trust myself and my ability a little more.”
Four quarterbacks are expected to go in the top 10 of the draft April 25, with USC’s Caleb Williams, Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy, LSU’s Jayden Daniels and North Carolina’s Drake Maye — in some order — potentially going with the first four picks.
Day projects as a priority free agent. He was one of two quarterbacks to work out at Lions local day last week, along with Illinois’ John Paddock (Bloomfield Hills), and said it would be “awesome” if he ended up with the Lions team he grew up rooting for.
Wherever he goes, the strong-armed, pro-style pocket passer will be trying to replicate the success of another NIU legend — Kurt Warner, who went undrafted in 1994 and won a Super Bowl in his Hall of Fame career.
“That’s the good thing about Northern Iowa,” Day said. “There’s quite a few stories like that of people coming out of there and actually making it to the next level. So just being there, it wasn’t like I lost hope and that there was no chance I could get to the NFL. It was very much something that we talked about, like coaching staff to players and then teammates to teammates that it’s still a very real possibility.”
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NFL draft preview: Quarterbacks
On the Lions roster: Jared Goff, Hendon Hooker, Nate Sudfeld.
Dave Birkett’s top 3 QB prospects: 1. Caleb Williams, USC; 2. Jayden Daniels, LSU; 3. J.J. McCarthy, Michigan.
Other players with Michigan ties: Theo Day, Northern Iowa (Dearborn Divine Child); John Paddock, Illinois (Bloomfield Hills).
Day 3 sleeper who could interest Lions: Jordan Travis, Florida State.
Recent Lions draft picks at QB: 2023-Hooker (third round). 2019-22-none.
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on X and Instagram at @davebirkett.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Ex-Michigan State QB Theo Day hoping long journey ends in NFL draft
