Dan Persa

Daniel Vaughn Persa (born November 20, 1988) is an American former college football quarterback who played for the Northwestern Wildcats. He attended Liberty High School in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Early life Persa was born on November 20, 1988, to parents Dan Sr. and Jane Persa in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. His mother and sister both graduated from Pennsylvania State University, resulting in Persa wishing to play for the Nittany Lions as a child.

While attending Liberty High School, Persa played football for three years and competed on their track and field team as a sprinter. Off the field, Persa maintained a 4.3 GPA and volunteered with the Special Olympics and local youth programs.

In his senior year of high school, Persa committed to Northwestern University on June 23, 2006. He chose to attend Northwestern over football scholarships from the University of Akron, the University of Connecticut, Temple University, and the West Virginia University.

Recruitment

College career 2010

Persa became Northwestern's starting quarterback in 2010 following Mike Kafka's graduation. In the season-opener against Vanderbilt, Persa went 19-for-21 and passed for three touchdowns. In week 2 against the Illinois State Redbirds, Persa went 19-for-23 and passed for 240 yards and two touchdowns.

On November 13 against the Iowa Hawkeyes, Persa went 32-for-43 for 318 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. After throwing a 20-yard touchdown pass to Demetrius Fields to win the game in the fourth quarter, Persa suffered an Achilles tendon rupture that required season-ending surgery to repair the injury. Evan Watkins replaced him at quarterback for the remainder of the season. Persa finished the season with 2,581 passing yards and 15 touchdowns.

In the 2010 season Persa set the Big Ten single-season record for completion percentage at 73.5%.

2011 Northwestern started a campaign for Persa for the Heisman Trophy before the 2011 season by promoting the slogan "Persa Strong" on billboards in Bristol, Connecticut, and Chicago. Bruce Feldman of ESPN.com had called Persa the strongest quarterback in the country. Persa bench pressed , squatted , and hang cleaned .

He sat out the 2011 season-opener against Boston College on September 3, with Kain Colter starting in his place. Northwestern took Persa's Heisman billboards down on September 9; the University said that the billboard campaign was scheduled to end after one month and it had nothing to do with his injury. He missed the next two games of the season, and, as a result of the injury, stayed in the passing pocket more than he did in 2010. Following the season he participated in the 2012 East–West Shrine Game on January 21, 2012.

After going undrafted in the 2012 NFL draft, Persa received a tryout with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers during the team's rookie mini-camp in May 2012. He was also hired to do color commentary for one Northwestern spring football game on April 5, 2014. On September 27, 2025, Persa filled in for Ted Albrecht on color commentary for the WGN Radio broadcast of Northwestern's 17-14 win over UCLA. During the season, Persa co-hosts a podcast with Northwestern play-by-play broadcaster Dave Eanet called Collegiately Speaking in which the pair break down the previous week's Wildcats' game and preview the next matchup.