The Hardest Part Wasn’t the Knee

Dru DeShields will run onto the field at Ohio Stadium Saturday as Kent State’s starting quarterback.

The remarkable part isn’t that Kent State is a huge underdog against Ohio State. It isn’t that DeShields grew up just down the road in Beloit.

It’s that there was a time when a couple of doctors told him he might never play football again.

DeShields tore the ACL in his right knee three times.

The first came during his senior season at West Branch High School in 2022. He hyperextended the knee in the second game of the season, but kept playing and played well.

DeShields threw for 3,932 yards and 46 touchdowns, rushed for another 679 yards and 16 scores, and helped West Branch finish 12-2. He finished his career with 12 school records.

Eventually, doctors determined he had injured both his ACL and meniscus, requiring surgery.

His senior basketball season was essentially lost, outside of a ceremonial Senior Night appearance. DeShields later admitted sitting around the house left him bored and “kind of sad.”

He wanted to compete.

Just 4½ months after surgery, he was back doing exactly that, running the 100- and 200-meter dashes for West Branch’s track team.

Then came Kent State…and another ACL tear.

During the summer before his freshman season in 2023, DeShields tore the same ACL again. His freshman football season was gone.

So he rehabbed, sometimes twice a day, and came back for Kent State’s 2024 fall camp.

Then it happened again. A third ACL tear in the same knee.

DeShields later described the experience as “very tough mentally.” For a couple of days, he considered giving up on football. A couple of doctors told him he might never play again.

DeShields kept looking until he found a doctor who believed playing again was possible. He has also talked about how important his faith, family, teammates and friends became during the process.

Finally, in 2025, he got to play football again.

DeShields became Kent State’s starting quarterback and appeared in 11 games, throwing for 2,030 yards, 18 touchdowns and only three interceptions. Against Akron, he threw five touchdown passes.

Those numbers are impressive, but they aren’t the best part of the story.

DeShields has said that players who suffer ACL injuries now come to him with questions. He talks with them about rehabilitation and shares resources that help them.

Three knee injuries changed him, not just as a quarterback, but as a person.

The first ACL tear cost him most of his senior basketball season. The second wiped out his freshman football season at Kent State. The third made him briefly wonder whether it was time to stop playing altogether.

Saturday, No. 12 gets to take another snap.

But DeShields got more than football back. The experience also gave him something to offer the next player who suddenly finds himself wondering whether his own career is over.

The Scarletude Perspective

We usually hear comeback stories after we already know the ending.

The player recovered, returned, and everybody applauded.

The hard part happens before that, during periods of doubt, when nobody knows how the story ends.

DeShields struggled. He admitted the process was difficult mentally. He considered walking away.

But instead, he chose to keep believing even when that belief seemed unbelievable.

This is resilience.

You get knocked down, find a way through it, then turn around and help the next person get back up.