Nov. 26, 2009
By John Denton
UCFAthletics.com
Click here to receive the Knights Insider via email
UCF defensive end Darius Nall was asked about what he had to be thankful for in this time of year and almost immediately the redshirt sophomore's eyes welled up with tears and his heart filled with joy.
Nall, you see, considers himself to be the luckiest man on UCF's football team these days.
Nall's comeback to the UCF football team this season is as good a story as any in college football this year. For all that Nall's done, not even Tim Tebow can hold a candle to the feats of UCF's defensive end.
And no one is happier about overcoming a brush with a life-threatening moment than himself. A flood of emotions usually hit him after every game, and they came rushing back this past Saturday when Nall registered two sacks In UCF's 49-0 rout of Tulane.
``It crossed my mind at the end of the game, thinking, `Man, I'm still here, I'm doing this,''' Nall said. ``I remind myself that all the time. And it makes me feel really good.''
It was two years ago that Nall, then an All-Freshman Conference USA pick for UCF, started experiencing a burning sensation in his chest following a workout.
A myriad of tests ultimately revealed that Nall had a baseball-sized mass attached to one of his lungs. A biopsy showed the mass to be malignant and a major surgery followed. He was cut from his breast bone all the way around to his backbone and the cancerous tumor was removed.
Through it all, Nall kept wondering if he'd ever play football again. But his concerns were much deeper than that. ``When you're 19,'' said Nall, now 20, ``you're not supposed to hear that you have cancer.''
The happy-go-lucky kid from Douglasville, Ga., was the calmest person throughout the process. But he admitted later, ``Every surgery I went in for, I just hoped that I woke up.''
He missed all of last season while undergoing radiation treatments and about a year ago he was deemed cancer-free. He returned to the practice field last spring and was admittedly slowed by all he had been through. But eventually his strength and stamina returned, Nall returned to being one of Conference USA's best defensive ends.
Nall is a part of a UCF defense that ranks third in the nation against the run. And the speed rusher has been really good against the pass, too. He has four sacks and seven quarterback hurries. Two of those sacks came last Saturday as UCF delivered the largest shutout victory in Conference USA history.
``It was good to set a quick tone and get a couple of sacks because I had been kind of out of it the past couple of weeks and it was good to come back and do what I could,'' he said. ``When we play this way defensively we're unstoppable. When everybody is doing their job and we hold each other accountable, we're unstoppable.''
After overcoming all he's been through, Nall considers himself to be somewhat unstoppable. He said beating cancer the way he did taught him something about himself and it taught him to be thankful for all he has in his life. This holiday, Nall said, is all about giving thanks.
``I'm just really proud of myself, proud of my family, proud of my teammates and I'm just proud of life in general,'' he said with a wide grin.
John Denton's Knights Insider appears several times per week on UCFAthletics.com. E-mail John at jdenton@athletics.ucf.edu.