Not the normal path: junior college – 2002

Rodgers garnered little interest from Division I college programs even though he had record-setting high school statistics. He believed that his height and weight, 5'10” and 165 pounds, were the reasons for the lack of interest. (Ideally, quarterbacks are at least 6'0 tall.) Rodgers had dreamed of going to Florida State University and playing under legendary coach Bobby Bowden, but the university was not interested in him. The only major collegiate program to offer him a scholarship to play football was Illinois, and that was only an offer to walk on to the team. The school didn't even guarantee him a scholarship unless he made the team. He decided to pass. At that time, he wasn't sure if he would even have a future in football, so he considered quitting the sport altogether in favor of attending law school. Then, he was recruited by the local junior college, Butte Community College. That school was very close to where he lived at the time, about fifteen miles south of Chico.

Rodgers made the team as a starter his freshman season, during which he threw 26 touchdowns and led Butte to a 10–1 record, the NorCal Conference championship, and a No. 2 national ranking. Of even greater significance, Rodgers was discovered by Jeff Tedford, coach of the University of California’s Golden Bears. Tedford was at Butte to recruit their tight end, Garret Cross, when he realized that the quarterback throwing passes to Cross just might have something special as well. Tedford was very surprised to learn that Rodgers had not been recruited out of high school. With his overall 3.6 grade point average and SAT score of 1400, Rodgers was eligible to transfer after just one year of junior college, instead of the normal two.