Brandon Antwine shouldn’t be fodder for football sap stories.
He shouldn’t have to practice with a sense of desperation in his last training camp, shouldn’t be hoping just to salvage something from his five-year Gators career.
When Antwine signed with Florida out of Garland (Texas) High in 2006, Rivals.com ranked him as a four-star defensive tackle, the type of player every stout run defense needs in the trenches. But since playing in nine games as a true freshman, Antwine has struggled to contribute on the field the past three seasons.
Antwine doesn’t fit the mold of a typical bust, though. Coaches haven’t accused him of being too lazy to adjust to the Southeastern Conference, and he isn’t a publication fabrication who never faced tough competition before arriving at Florida.
He’s just unlucky, really.
A rare back injury sidelined Antwine in 2007. He recovered. A rain-soaked field led to a torn ACL in 2008. He recovered. A shoulder injury kept him out of eight games last season. After sitting out the spring, he recovered.
And now, with at most 14 games left in his college career, Antwine hopes to become more than just a sad, cautionary anecdote for parents to tell kids about the dangers of football.
“He could have gone long ago and just taken a scholarship and taken a medical (hardship) and helped in the weight room and just hung out,” defensive line coach Dan McCarney said. “He doesn’t want it. He keeps coming back. That’s how much passion, how much love he has for the game.”
ONE STEP FORWARD, TWO STEPS BACK
During a practice in October 2007, Antwine suffered from dehydration and lower back pain. Doctors discovered acute kidney failure and, after undergoing tests, the 290-pound lineman learned he had an unusual muscle failure called lumbar spine myonecrosis, a loss of blood pressure that kills muscle cell fibers.
One of his lower back muscles was dead.
After regaining normal kidney function, Antwine spent weeks in a wheelchair, then months learning how to walk again. He could only watch as the Gators continued without him, going 5-2 after his injury, including a 41-35 loss in the Capital One Bowl when Michigan torched the Florida defense for 524 total yards.
“I didn’t have a lot of time to be around my teammates,” he said. “I was kind of by myself.”
But while rehabbing was a grueling process, Antwine never considered quitting. And almost one year later, he was back on the field as UF took on LSU on Oct. 11, 2008.
About two months after making his 2008 debut, Antwine earned his first career start at FSU. After the game, however, he was not among the several Gators celebrating a 30-point blowout.
Playing in the rain, Antwine planted his foot in the soggy turf as he tried to quickly change direction. His body went one way, but his leg stayed firm in the mud, causing his ACL to tear.
“I was just like, ‘No, not again,’” Antwine said. “It was hard. I was just trying to think positive. ‘I’m all right. I’m all right.’”
After rehabbing his back, though, Antwine said coming back from a torn knee ligament did not worry him. And, by last year’s season opener, he was back in the lineup.
But, as has become standard during his time in Gainesville, bad luck struck Antwine again. In his second career start against Kentucky, Antwine suffered a shoulder injury. He sat out two games before making his return at Mississippi State, where he reinjured the shoulder. He sat out again until the SEC Championship Game, then underwent season-ending shoulder surgery.
LAST CHANCE
After missing spring ball, he is back on the field this summer. And while Antwine is still relatively unknown, McCarney thinks he could be the team’s best defensive lineman this season.
In training camp, Antwine flashed the speed, aggression, quickness and technique that once made him a prized recruit.
“I say prayers for him every day that he stays healthy because, God, he’s been through so much,” McCarney said. “And if he can stay healthy I think he will have a chance to be one of those guys who will be a national story for what he’s overcome.”
After suffering three season-ending injuries in three years, Antwine still puts on his pads every day, leading some people to ask how much pain the human body can endure.
“I don’t know,” Antwine said, “but I’m willing to find out.”
