If you watched ESPN’s College GameDay while they were here at Penn State, you’ve seen William Shang-Simpson. Shang-Simpson was the chosen one to kick the football for a chance at $150,000, but chose to have Carson Albright kick it and split the money. Pat McAfee ended up telling them he’d give them both $150,000, but they only had one chance to make the field goal.

Shang-Simpson is an 18-year-old freshman studying finance at Penn State Altoona. Many people probably want to know more about his story, so we sat down with him to hear it!

Onward State: Why did you pick someone else to kick for you?

William Shang-Simpson: I had gotten there the night before at 11 p.m., and I camped there from 11 to 7 a.m. I’m not a kicker. Kicking’s not my thing.  Maybe I should have tried it, but at the moment, I knew I was not a kicker. I knew I needed to find somebody else to do this. It ended up working out!

OS: How did you pick Carson?

WS: I had been standing for, like eight hours.  My ticket gets picked. I’m like, “Okay, that’s cool, but I can’t kick this field goal.” So I need to find somebody to do it. I’m looking at the crowd, and people start pointing to this kid. His friends were telling me he’s a kicker, and he told me he played soccer. I was like I don’t know… soccer and football are two different things, but then I trusted the guy. We agreed that we were going to split it 50/50.

OS: How confident were you that he was going to make the kick?

Will:  I did have confidence in him. Something about him, I just knew he was going to get it done. When he got into his stance, the little two steps back, two steps to the side. I was like, yeah, he got it. After the kick, I remember screaming and cheering. I gave the Nittany Lion a hug. That’s all I remember. In the moment, there was just so much emotion.

OS: What were your parents’/friends’ reactions?

Will: So right after the kick happened, I called my dad. I was like, “Dad, I just won $150,000.” And he said, “Are you sure? Did they give you any paperwork?” After I hung up, he told my mom, and my mom was like, “Is he sure?” And then my dad’s like, “That’s what he’s saying, so I guess we’ll just wait and see.” And then my dad’s friends started calling him, and people were congratulating him, like, we saw your son won $150,000!

My friends saw me on the TV, and my phone just started blowing up with text messages and calls.

OS: How was celebrating with Pat and Kirk?

Will: I actually have been watching Pat McAfee for a while. Thirty minutes before I got on this call, I was watching the Pat McAfee show! Just being picked and getting to meet all of them was just incredible opportunity, and incredible experience.

OS: What are you going to spend the money on?

Will: First thing that came to mind after watching the kick was, “What am I gonna do with $150,000?” But I’m going to use it to invest and pay off my tuition. And once I invest it, let it grow a little bit, I might… spend a little and give myself a nice Christmas gift or something.

OS: Do people around campus recognize you?

Will:  I’ll be walking around campus, even if I go up to main, people recognize me! “You’re the dude that was on game day, right?” “Yo, can we get a picture?” It’s been nice, it’s been cool, and I got to meet a lot of cool people because of it.

OS: What advice would you give to future people who get chosen?

Will: Just have fun with it! It’s a great experience! I’m grateful to Pat McAfee and his whole team. It’s honestly just a great thing that they’re doing, and it really is helping out students. If you get picked, have fun with it, have a good time, and just enjoy the moment. If you ever get the opportunity to go to GameDay, even if you have to camp out, do it. It’s so much fun. You get to meet so many people, literally you get to meet people that you never would have met on campus.

OS: Are you friends with Carson now?

Will: For life. That’s my guy, honestly. That’s my bro. I think we had talked about either we’re gonna meet up at a tailgate this weekend, or we’re going to try and find something that we can do together. Maybe go around to some tailgates, say hi to some people, and just have a good time. We’ll probably end up going to the game together.

OS: If you were a dinosaur, what dinosaur would you be?

Will: This is actually crazy, because my favorite movie series is Jurassic Park. So, I love all the Jurassic Park series, Jurassic World, Jurassic Park, everything. So, I would definitely be a Velociraptor.