CORVALLIS — The Dale Thomas Wrestling Room is not that far from Oregon State’s football practice field, so Brandon Kipper periodically walks past the outside door.

The Beavers’ sophomore starting right tackle admits he occasionally wonders what it would be like to get back on the mat and mix it up.

“Every wrestler would say there are days when they miss it,” Kipper said.

Kipper was a good one, too. At Columbia High in Nampa, Idaho, Kipper was a two-time state champion, undefeated at 275 pounds his senior year.

He earned national honors and good looks from prominent college wrestling programs.

Much as he learned to like wrestling, Kipper’s passion is football. Once it came time to making decisions about college, there was not much choice.

Football is a sport the 6-foot-6, 305-pounder began playing at age 5. Kipper was introduced to wrestling in middle school because he was lousy at basketball and his mother told him he had to do something during the winter.

“Football is my first love,” Kipper said. “Always been my dream to make it to the league someday.”

Wrestling, as it turned out, complemented Kipper’s football progress.

Some of it is physical, such as leverage and how to handle someone in a one-on-one setting.

More than that, Kipper says wrestling’s mental demands came in handy during his growth as an offensive lineman.

“Being able to overcome things after a play, even during a play, I learned that from wrestling,” Kipper said.

“There’s no bigger grind than wrestling. I love football to death, but wrestling is the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”

Kipper’s football road from Nampa to Oregon State was not a straight path. Though he loved football, he admits he was not very good when he first started playing at Columbia. And the football program was even worse. During Kipper’s four years at Columbia, the team was 0-9 twice.

“My freshman year, I was not an athlete,” Kipper said. “I was big, but I wasn’t the right kind of big.”

Rich Davis, then Columbia’s high school football coach, thought otherwise. The coaches saw the height and movement and thought Kipper could be a good one. Davis said once Kipper began to excel at wrestling, it began to transfer over to football with his footwork and hip movement.

“The wrestling definitely helped,” Davis said.

Colleges began to notice, though mostly at the FCS level. Kipper was thrilled that anyone was looking.

“I would have been happy if I got one scholarship offer. Even if a team let me walk on,” Kipper said.

Several Big Sky Conference schools offered, but then came the big one. A bona fide FBS school wanted Kipper in Hawaii, and he jumped. Everyone in his circle, including Kipper, thought it was perfect.

Kipper enrolled at Hawaii in 2017 and immediately got into action, playing 11 games as a true freshman. But something was off for Kipper, who decided to transfer later that school year. When he first announced, Kipper said he wanted a bigger, better opportunity to help fulfill his lifelong goal to become a first-round NFL draft pick.

But that was not the real reason. The dude was homesick.

The year at Hawaii was not wasted, either. Davis said when Kipper returned to Nampa after his freshman year, his confidence had dramatically increased. Interest from FBS teams backed it up, too. Schools that never called while Kipper was in high school suddenly were interested when he decided to transfer.

Arkansas and Iowa State were significant possibilities. Oregon State wanted a crack at Kipper, too. Kipper did not think much of the Beavers, but he made a visit to Corvallis, saying it was out of respect to OSU assistant coaches Kefense Hynson and Legi Suiaunoa, who were on Hawaii’s staff while he was with the Rainbow Warriors.

“I didn’t have a whole lot of belief I was going to come here,” Kipper said.

That is, until he met offensive line coach Jim Michalczik, who blew away Kipper with his approach. Oregon State head coach Jonathan Smith followed with his vision. Kipper appreciated that Smith did not pitch him, but instead gave detailed plans as to how he was going to turn OSU’s program into a winner.

“After my sit-down with coach M and coach Smith, I didn’t need to go on any more visits,” Kipper said. “I knew where I belonged.”

Kipper has a chance to become a solid three-year starter at Oregon State. After redshirting in 2018, Kipper has played almost every snap as the Beavers’ right tackle this season. Kipper says learning Michalczik’s approach and OSU’s offense is nothing like he has experienced. It is far beyond blocking the man in front.

“Thirty times more complex than anything I’ve run in my life,” Kipper said.

Michalczik explains Kipper’s 2019 season as “ups and downs.” He says Kipper is still learning fundamentals, and thinks too much.

“There are a lot of unnatural things we ask him to do,” Michalczik said. “He keeps focusing and developing on those things, he’s going to be pretty good.”

Kipper may move over to left tackle next year after four-year starter Blake Brandel graduates. Kipper does not care. Anything to keep the dream alive of someday becoming an NFL first-round draft pick.

But Kipper is realistic, too.

“I have the drive. My heart is there,” he said. “But I’m not going to say I could leave this year and be first round. Not going to happen. I have a lot of inches to go.”