The television segment idea was absurd. Then again, many thought the Longhorn Network itself was too. And during LHN’s launch year in 2011, producer Ande Wall was willing to take chances. 

Thus, ‘Fozzy’s Safari Spectacular,’ starring Texas Longhorns senior captain Fozzy Whittaker, was born. 

LHN’s internal motto was to personalize and then analyze the UT athletes it covered, and Whittaker had a whole lot of personality. Texas’s running back never led with the fact he was Texas’s running back. He was kind of… a nerd? Whittaker loved Marvel, video games and playing the tuba.

He also had 17 pets (although he admits it included every fish in his fish tank) and was down to dress like "The Crocodile Hunter," Steve Irwin, and show them off on the nightly ‘Longhorn Extra’ show. Whittaker held up a dog, lizard, snake, Wall even remembers a duck making its way in there, and proudly described it for the audience. 

“Fozzy has something,” Wall said. “He is just such a likable human being, and that is just not the case with everyone on TV.”

The 2024 season is Whittaker’s first in the booth as an ESPN color commentator. But his television career officially started in that studio as a senior in college. Not only was Whittaker getting practice reps answering interview questions as a two-year captain at one of the most popular football programs in the country, but he also saw behind-the-scenes production.

LHN, as Fozzy participated in it, is gone, but he is part of the new generation of media talents it produced. There’s Emmanuel and Sam Acho, Jane Slater, Sam Ponder, Kaylee Hartung, and that lapel-wearing goofball who wasn’t afraid to not take himself too seriously.

“It was probably the most impactful thing that happened at the University of Texas to shape my life after the football career,” Whittaker said.

Foswhitt Whittaker was named after his father, Foster, who passed away from lymphoma when he was 3 years old. But teachers always had a hard time pronouncing it, so his oldest brother nicknamed him ‘Fozzy’ in first grade, and it stuck with him through high school as Whittaker became the sixth all-time rusher in Texas 5A history at Pearland. 

His 4.4 speed came from his mother, Gloria, a sprinter and basketball player at Southern Arkansas. Gloria used to watch Fozzy’s youth football practices and then line up with his teammates to race them in the post-practice sprints. 

“She used to beat us for like two years straight,” Whittaker said.

Gloria was at every sporting event for Fozzy and his two brothers, from Little League until Fozzy went to Texas. He has a 10-year-old son and 7-year-old daughter now. In fact, he’s picking them up from school as he talks on the phone. With fatherhood comes the realization of all Gloria sacrificed, her social life and her finances, so her sons could grow up not needing or wanting.

But her sons had to hold up their end of the bargain. 

“If we did anything, she always said we need to do it 100 percent, full effort,” Whittaker said. “Those words still hold true to me today.”

The work ethic was the same whether the stage was Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium or ‘Fozzy’s Safari Spectacular.’ And he’s taken lessons from his football career into the broadcast booth.

Whittaker had a linear career path from a thousand-foot view, a seamless transition from the Texas Longhorns to the NFL to the booth. But part of his likability and relatability comes from scratching and clawing a football career for himself when it should’ve been over. 

Whittaker never had a 100-yard rushing game in his Texas career. He did set records as a kick returner for most yards in a single game (252 against Oklahoma State in 2011) and longest kickoff return (100 yards, twice). But his time as a running back was cut short due to injuries. 

As a senior in 2011, Whittaker sustained a season-ending knee injury after nine games but still believed he’d proved enough for an NFL career after earning First Team All-Big 12. His family threw a Draft party for him and watched as 224 other names were called. He spent the 2012 season in Austin, unsigned, until two games left when the Arizona Cardinals gave him a practice squad spot.

He took that sliver of an opening and swung the door wide open, carving an eight-year career for himself, most notably on the Carolina Panthers’ Super Bowl team. 

After his career ended, he reunited with Wall and became a studio analyst on LHN’s ‘Texas GameDay.’ Sure, guys like Vince Young, Ricky Williams and Michael Griffin had the name recognition, but Whittaker was the analyst you wanted to hang out with. 

One of the sad parts about LHN dissolving back into ESPN was that not every person would be welcomed back to Bristol. With the writing on the wall, the producer Wall encouraged Whittaker to start doing game events instead of studio work. She sent clips of his work everywhere and would talk about Whittaker to anyone who asked. It was as if another draft was coming up, and Whittaker was again on the fringe.

“I was just hell-bent on making sure Fozzy had something,” Wall said.

When Whittaker went for his audition, Wall gave him a final piece of advice.

“‘Don’t change a damn thing about what you do,’” Wall told him. “‘Don’t stop being a nerd. Wear your lapel pins. You just be you.’ Because there’s no one else like him.”

Whittaker is a snowflake - unapologetically himself in an industry that can yield a cookie cutter approach.

Whittaker won’t be at the Red River Rivalry this Saturday. He earned a job at ESPN, and his assignment is in Statesboro, Georgia, covering Marshall at Georgia Southern. He’ll watch his alma mater win on TV, however. His game doesn't kick off until 8:00 p.m.

 “Twenty years from now, maybe I’m in Kirk Herbstreit’s spot or maybe I’m calling the big primetime games,” Whittaker said. “I’m still going to be, in my mind, hungry for more. Because that’s the way that I grew up. That’s what my momma put in me. If I’m going to do something, I’ve got to go try and be the best at it. So I work hard, as if I’m still playing.”

He’s still chasing his mother in wind sprints. It’s how he went from undrafted to a Super Bowl, and from “Fozzy’s Safari Spectacular” to an ESPN booth.