Kadero Terrell thought about the question, but not for very long.
Who would?
Football is a strange game, but there aren’t many players who have been able to go from practice squad linebacker at the junior college level one year to starting defensive end at the Big 12 level the next.
So Terrell didn’t waste any time trying to search his memory for a reasonable answer when asked if he knew of anyone who had made such a gigantic leap. He just said what any reasonable person would.
“I’ve never heard it,” he said.
But he has lived it.
That’s right, in the span of only a few months Terrell has gone from junior college scrub to Division I relevancy.
Kansas State released its inaugural depth chart for the 2009 football season on Tuesday, and with previous starter Brandon Harold out with an injury Terrell ended up being named a starter at defensive end.
Obviously, that dropped a few jaws.
And why not? It’s the feel good story of the early season.
“I am one of the happiest guys on the football team,” Terrell said.
Coming out of high school, Terrell expected to play Division I football. He was a two-star recruit in Florida, and he said he received interest from several big-time colleges. He even thought he was going to land with Urban Meyer and the Gators for a while. But he said poor grades got in the way, and that took him to Garden City Community College.
He said he redshirted his first season there and spent last year on the practice squad, because in the state of Kansas junior colleges are only allowed to offer 12 out-of-state scholarships and Garden City’s coach didn’t want to use one of them on him.
He said he’ll always remember the day he was cut from that list.
“I’ll never forget the day,” he said. “August 24th, 9:15 in the morning. I had my meeting and I was told I wasn’t going to play that year. It was very, very disappointing. From that point on it was either you can go down or you can go up. … I just said, ‘Hey, I’m still going to go up.”
Did he ever. Somehow, he caught the eye of Bill Snyder and Kansas State. Somehow, he convinced them to let him come to Manhattan and play. Somehow, he played well enough in preseason practices to not just do well at a new position but do well enough to start.
How did he do it all? A little bit of luck and a lot of hard work.
“He’s a focused young guy,” Snyder said. “Tries very hard. Works diligently at it. He’s got some physicality. He was a linebacker. He’s got some quickness and adds some quickness to that position, which might make him a little bit better pass rusher.”
How long will Terrell stay the starter? How will he do against UMass on Saturday? We’ll have to wait and see.
But no matter how he does, he has produced quite a story.
Said Terrell: “From going to a point where you felt like you were going to be nothing to a point where you’re in the starting lineup it’s amazing it’s a blessing.”
12 Comments
I could find a high-schooler to write better than this. You should be offering opinions and information not dumping your fluff-piece file. Holy balls.
All this ridiculous piece is about is how a guy who couldn’t make the practice squad at GCCC is good enough to start for KSU. Smelly, you’re too transparent.
Also, writing genius, did you see how I used you’re? It means you are. Now check your twitter update on this same story and see how you used it.
I can’t believe that we are stuck with Smelly.
Good story. On the one hand it sounds a little scary that a guy like this slips through to start on a Big 12 team. But on the other it has the opportunity to make for a huge recruiting pitch to future players. K-State will likely need quite a few diamond in the rough guys just like they had in the early 90’s to get this thing turned around. I hope Terrell proves them wrong and turns out to be a good player (obviously).
I don’t know how you guys could read that. Was that in English?
No, cire I put it in bablefish and had them translate it from crap to English. It still sucked though.
Terrell broke his leg. Is that also a feel good story?
Nice article and I like the way Terrell thinks, calling how things have turned out “a blessing”. He has the right perspective and I hope he contributes.
How about this “feel good story”? Guy who couldn’t beat out a JUCO practice squad player now starting at DE for KSU now that the “feel good” guy broke his leg.
Pretty sure Kellis had something to do with this injury. Be builds up K-State, then tears them down.
SMELLIS! >:(
Somehow he caught the eye of Snyder? Prince is the coach that recruited him, not Snyder. He committed on 10/2 and Snyder was announced on 11/24. Check your facts. You can obviously link to stories on the internet, next step, research your own stories on the internet. Or, even ask the person you are writing the story about.
F for use of English language
F for content
God why did you take Jeffrey away from us so early?