Pope John Paul II grad Kevin Heywood overcame an ACL tear to become Wisconsin’s starting OT
After missing the 2025 season, the junior made his first collegiate start about three weeks ago. Now his journey will come full circle when he plays in his hometown state on Saturday.
MADISON, Wis. — Kevin Heywood ran onto the field, in a stadium filled with fans donning the blue and green of Notre Dame and the white and red of Wisconsin. For the second time in school history, the Wisconsin Badgers made the two-plus hour trip to face Notre Dame on Sept. 6 at Lambeau Field, home of the Green Bay Packers for the last 69 years.
Nearly three weeks since the junior made his first collegiate start at right tackle for Wisconsin, the Pope John Paul II graduate, who stands at 6-foot-9, 320 pounds, looked beyond the Camp Randall Stadium stands after Tuesday’s practice with the vivid memory he’ll keep with him for a while.
“It was crazy,” Heywood told The Inquirer, as he shook his head in disbelief of the experience. “It was really cool. Just running out, look up. It’s just like 50/50 [between the two fan bases] in the stands. … Wish [we] came out with the dub, but learned a lot from that game, [grew] from that game, and just got to keep rolling.”
Rolling from Lambeau Field to now Beaver Stadium, in fact. Wisconsin (2-1) opens Big Ten play three hours west of his hometown Royersford, in a place he knows well. Penn State runs in the family.
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His older sister, Claire, graduated from Penn State in May, and Heywood had deeps ties with the program when James Franklin was still the head coach. Deion Barnes, the North Philly native who was the D-line coach at Penn State and now coaches at South Carolina, was Heywood’s former trainer and developed a close relationship with the lineman.
But Heywood ultimately chose Wisconsin, and his journey will come full circle for Saturday’s game at Beaver Stadium (5 p.m., Peacock).
“Just being a kid from Pa., going on a bunch of visits [at Penn State] in high school, it was cool,” Heywood said. “I think it’s a really cool atmosphere for us to play in and [it’ll] be a fun environment for sure.”
Bouncing back from injuries
Getting to this point wasn’t always as clear-cut. Heywood early enrolled at Wisconsin in 2024 and mostly played on special teams as a freshman.
Last year, heading into his sophomore season as a projected starter at left tackle, Heywood tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his knee during spring practice, ending his 2025 season.
Heywood returned this spring and once again went into this season as a projected starter, but the setbacks continued when he got injured on the second day of fall camp. His starting debut against Notre Dame seemed in doubt, but he was cleared to play a few days before the season opener.
“I’m so proud of how he’s buckled down and fought through the adversity of all the injuries,” said his father Erik Dougherty. “He’s taking everything and [running] with it. We put a lot of stuff in front of him, had him with a lot of people to get him to where he’s at now, but he utilized all those people — and it’s just awesome.”
Added Heywood: “I think the trainers and the strength staff made it very easy. If you’re motivated to come back, you got every tool, every resource to do to get healthy. And I feel better than I did before.”
As he battled his ailments, Heywood also had to endure a coaching change at offensive line. Eric Mateos, who previously coached at Arkansas, was hired last winter to be the new Wisconsin offensive line coach.
The Royersford native says Mateos has taught him to “never be satisfied” and appreciates how “hard he is on us.”
“He’s pushing everyone in a different way every day,” Heywood said. “There’s always time to clean up on a rep. It’s never going to be perfect. Even when you win a game, you still have to correct yourself and be better and be very hard on yourself.”
Facing the wall
Every time Heywood walks into the team meeting room, he sees the faces of the past Wisconsin All-American linemen. From Joe Thomas to Ryan Ramczyk to Tyler Biadasz, Heywood is reminded of the standard set before him to play on the offensive line.
Thomas and former Rams tackle Rob Havenstein are among the former Badgers linemen who come through to visit, Heywood says.
“Starting is the start of all of it, so I got that down,” Heywood said. “Just got to keep working on my fundamentals and techniques. I have that nastiness. I just need to clean up everything around it, and I’ll be right there with them.”
Heywood learned from other professionals, too, this summer. Heywood and four offensive linemen attended the OL Masterminds summit, which Eagles right tackle Lane Johnson is the cofounder of. Wisconsin’s starting center, Austin Kawecki, grew up in Frisco, Texas, where the summit is held, and hosted Heywood and his teammates after the sessions.
“I’d say the biggest thing I took away is just at the end of the day, it’s still a nasty game up front,” Heywood said, while noting he learned some techniques specifically from Johnson as a fellow right tackle. “You can be taught all the techniques in the world, but if you don’t have that edge to you, if you don’t have that nastiness, like, you’re never going to go where you want to go. And I think that’s the main thing I took from it.”
Doughtery and his wife, Amy, have attended every Wisconsin game so far this season, and will be in the stands on Saturday, along with Claire, and a few of Heywood’s friends from high school.
It is “nerve-racking” watching Heywood play at this level, Doughtery admits, but seeing his son’s dream come to fruition has “filled our hearts.”
“We just have to trust in everything that we instilled in him as a young kid, and he’s taken that and run with it,” Doughtery said. “It’s all him. We just sit back and watch how hard he’s worked and the things that he’s endured.
“He’s got his mind right and he’s focused on what his goals are, and we’re just extremely proud of him.”
