When he was a 230-pound lineman as a junior in high school, playing his first full season of varsity football, it really didn't seem all that likely that Josh McCauley would play Division I football.
 
It seemed even less likely of course that he'd ever be a starter, a captain or a player appearing on watch lists for top lineman in the country.
 
But – as you know – that's a snippet of McCauley's resume above. The now 6-foot-3-inch, 292-pound offensive lineman has morphed into one of the most important players on the Arizona Football roster and one of its most active leaders.
 
The Mesa Red Mountain High School product has played in 25 games in his Arizona career with 22 starts at center. He served on the team's leadership council last season and appeared on the Rimington Award Watch List before the 2019 season.
 
McCauley's career at Arizona, sure to become even more decorated after his senior season, almost never happened. By the time his senior year was complete, McCauley was a 250-pound lineman with scholarship offers to a few Division II schools. No Division I programs appeared interested in adding McCauley until Arizona offered him a spot as a preferred walk-on.
 
He could either take one of those Division II offers or take a chance and walk-on at Arizona. Thanks to the belief he had in himself, combined with the support of his mom and dad, Anne and Kraig, McCauley chose Arizona.
 
"I knew I could hold my own," McCauley said. "That's who I am. I wasn't willing to settle for a lesser bar when I knew I could go higher. I wanted to play at the highest level. When the walk-on offer from Arizona came, my parents were really supportive of that. They said they supported my decision if I wanted to walk-on, so that's what I did."
 
McCauley redshirted his first season in Tucson in 2016. By 2017, as a walk-on redshirt freshman, he had already gained the attention of his teammates and coaches as a player who could help the Wildcats. He played in three games that season as a reserve, continuing to add strength and better understand the ins-and-outs of college football.
 
By 2018 – coach Kevin Sumlin's first season in Tucson – McCauley had established himself as the heart of the offensive line. He started all 12 games there for the Wildcats and anchored a line that helped Arizona lead the Pac-12 Conference in rushing.
 
That season in the trenches began teaching McCauley a different aspect of the game that quickly became his favorite part. When he first started playing the game in his hometown of Kalamazoo, Michigan when he was 6, he loved the contact and the physicality.
 
In college, he drew a huge appreciation for watching film and understanding all the Xs and Os that go with a gameplan.
 
"At first, it was the physicality of the game that I really liked; going out and being in the trenches," McCauley said. "At this level, it took two years at Arizona to see the bigger picture. It's more like a chess match out there. You can dive so much deeper into the game than before. I knew nothing about football before I came here. Now I'm living in the film room, learning offensive schemes, defensive schemes, seeing the whole big picture. That's something I'm really interested in and want to continue to get better at."
 
Following the 2018 season, on the day of the 2019 Spring Game in April, McCauley was officially awarded a scholarship by Sumlin in a team meeting prior to the game. He called his parents, who were in Tucson, and told them the news.
 
"That was the moment it really set in," McCauley. "When I told them, it all seemed real."