Ohioan Jordan Kovacs living his dream at Michigan after making team twice as a walk-on safety

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Michigan senior safety Jordan Kovacs says he's living his dream.

Kovacs will start the 45th game of his storybook career Saturday when the 20th-ranked Wolverines travel to his home state to play No. 4 Ohio State.

He grew up in Curtice, Ohio, about 15 miles southeast of the Michigan state line, hoping to follow his father's footsteps onto the field at the Big House.

College football's winningest program, though, didn't recruit the undersized safety without blazing speed. Smaller schools such as Hillsdale, a Division II program in Michigan, didn't even want to offer him a scholarship.

Kovacs eventually got into Michigan and did enough in a walk-on tryout as a freshman to make the team. But a knee problem knocked him off the squad and he had to try out again the next year.