This weekend, Mike Rigerman will watch the NFL Draft with friends and college teammates in Findlay, Ohio and keep his parents on the phone from Arcade, New York.
Could the Big 30 area have its next NFL football player, the first in decades, in the next few days? Rigerman is daring to dream about it.
A Pioneer Central School graduate, Rigerman has spent the months after his senior Division II college football season ended at the University of Findlay preparing for the draft. He worked out at his own pro day last month and accepted an invitation to work out for the Bills at their Local Pro Day April 12 in Orchard Park. He knows making the pros out of a DII college is typically a long shot, just as it is for a small-town high school player to make it this far. But speaking by phone from Ohio this week, Rigerman expressed a quiet confidence, but didn’t want to get too far ahead of himself.
“There’s a lot of emotions right now,” Rigerman said. “I don’t know, what I’ve said is I don’t necessarily know what to feel because I’m excited, I’m happy, but I’m also trying to just stay level-headed and there’s always the doubt in the back of the mind that being a small school kid — both high school and college — anything can happen and stuff. So I’m just trying to kind of stay level-headed through the whole thing, but I am really excited for this weekend.”
So what’s his pitch to NFL teams? What makes Rigerman someone worth taking a chance on?
“Everybody’s got similar qualities and everybody’s chasing that dream together,” he said. “One thing that I say that sets me apart is my work ethic coming from Pioneer, where everybody’s hard working, blue collar, basically and then you go to Findlay where it’s a DII school and you’ve got to work just a little bit harder and have a little bit more grit to you to make it, I feel like that’s helped me mature in the game inside and out and off the field as well.”
Coming out of high school, where he starred on the field as a running back winning both the Big 30 Player of the Year and the Connolly Cup (top player in Western New York) and won a state wrestling championship, Rigerman chose Findlay in part because the Oilers saw him as an offensive player. No, he wouldn’t remain a running back, he knew that much, but Findlay planned to use Rigerman as a “hybrid” tight end and H-back.
But not only would Rigerman need to learn a new position, but a whole new style of offense, from a wing-T in high school to a pro style in college.
“I really love offense,” Rigerman said. “I love getting the ball and having the ball in my hands. So when they said that, I came up in the summer before my freshman year and was learning the playbook kind of early.”
Safe to say, he fit the role and the playbook well. Rigerman made the Associated Press’ Division II All-America Second Team in 2023, the 13th AP All-American honor in Findlay program history. The 6-foot-2, 260-pound senior caught 59 passes for 739 yards and eight touchdowns in 11 games this year. He finished his career with the most receiving yards for a tight end in program history.
A fifth-year senior, Rigerman said he first received attention from scouts after the 2021 season when he earned his first all-region honor. That led to even more dedication to his summer workouts and film study with his coaches.
“For me entering the pros kind of came into my mind a couple years ago when the NFL started really paying attention,” Rigerman said. “My coaches that sat me down and said, ‘listen, you’re a real prospect … you need to start understanding that and just play football and your talent will take you where you want to go.’”
With two years of eligibility remaining, the thought of transferring to a bigger school crossed his mind. But he felt supported by coach Kory Allen and he and fellow 2024 draft hopeful Mike Jerrell agreed to stay at Findlay and chase the dream together.
“(Terrell) said, you know, we’re gonna get the most film exposure from here,” Rigerman recalled. “We’re already established here. What’s the point of going up and trying to have to start all over and I was like, ‘you know, you’re right.’ So that’s when in my head I was like, ‘OK, yeah, I want to stay with Findlay.’ They’re the ones that gave me my opportunity out of high school. I trust them to get me to where I want to go.”
Just how rare is it for a player to find his way from DII to the pros? There’s reason for players like Rigerman and Terrell to hope. Rigerman drew inspiration from two recent Findlay players, one who just preceded him and one former teammate. Undrafted in 2019, Findlay wide receiver Jason Moore played three seasons with the Chargers practice squad or active roster from 2019-22 and was in camp with the Lions last year. Colts tight end Andrew Ogletree played at Findlay from 2016-19 before transferring to Youngstown State and was a 2022 sixth-round pick.
According to an NCAA.com article last fall, 43 DII players started the NFL season on opening day rosters, among them now-established NFL stars like Tyreek Hill, Austin Ekeler and Matthew Judon. The Bills had one, veteran kick returner Deonte Harty, last year.
After the 2023 season (Findlay finished 7-4, 6-3 in the G-MAC), Rigerman said his agent linked him with a gym to train out of through the winter and he played in a senior game, the College Gridiron Showcase, in Fort Worth, Texas. Then came a pro day in March and the Bills’ workout nearly two weeks before the draft.
In Orchard Park, he joined fellow regional prospects and those from local colleges in working out for Bills staffers. Rigerman made a point to thank Sean McDermott and Brandon Beane for the opportunity.
“The tight end coach was putting us through drills and stuff and he said I ran really well and I looked really good,” Rigerman said. “And then I went up and introduced myself to the head coach and the GM and they both were standing off to the side watching us and they said we looked really good and I just thanked them for inviting me out and letting me have the opportunity. So as far as I received it, I thought it went really well. I thought I gave them a good enough version of me, maybe not my best because you’re not going to be your best every day, but I thought I came in with the intent that I’m going to give everything I got to this.”
From what Rigerman’s heard from his agent, some teams view him the same way Findlay did, as a hybrid tight end and back. “A decent amount” of teams are interested, he’s been told.
While back in WNY for the Bills workout, he got to visit his hometown. He doesn’t know what this weekend will bring, but the week of the draft he sounded reflective and appreciative.
“It means a lot that my parents supported me through and through because coming from Pioneer, I don’t think really there’s many people that have had a shot like this or been able to go pursue the NFL like this,” Rigerman said. “I mean, we’ve had a couple guys that have had tryouts and stuff from Pioneer but I’m like the first guy that’s really going through this, so it’s a little different for everybody to see and even in that area I get a lot of support.
“I’ve got the whole town and area behind me throughout this process and it’s just meant a lot to see my my parents contribute the most whenever I need something or whatever I’m having maybe a day where I need to just talk, they’re always there to offer me advice or help or an ear or money, whatever is needed for me to be able to continue chasing this dream because you only get one shot.”
(Times Herald sports editor Sam Wilson may be contacted at swilson@oleantimesherald.com)
