Hlas: Getting through football career unscathed rarer than 12-0 season

IOWA CITY — Greg Mabin will go to the middle of the Kinnick Stadium field Friday afternoon, hug his family, give flowers to his mother, and then head to the Iowa football team's sideline to be a spectator.

He will be unable to start at cornerback for the Hawkeyes for the third consecutive week. Friday's game against Nebraska would have been the last he played in Kinnick.

The Nov. 12 win over Michigan that no one on Iowa's team will forget? It was the first time in 32 games that Mabin hadn't started. He got hurt at practice during the week of that game.

'Stepped on some guy's foot,' he said Tuesday, with his right foot in a boot and a crutch under each arm. 'They thought it was one thing, then it ended up being a little bit worse, and a little bit worse after that.'

His coach, Kirk Ferentz, said it was a fracture in his lower leg. That's not an occupational hazard for most of us.

At least Mabin will always have those 31 starts, and gets to be part of the best thing college football has, a Senior Day pregame ceremony.

All the blather from the outside world means nothing during those few, too-fast moments when the seniors get introduced one at a time to greet their families. They saw this through and endured plenty. Only their teammates, coaches and families know what it really took.

'Unless you're in our shoes dealing with what we deal in day in and day out with early lifts, the long practices, dealing with the stresses of being a college student-athlete, you can't really relate to it,' Mabin said.

'I don't mean that to bring anyone down or question anyone's intelligence or anything like that. It's just something you can't relate to unless you're in our position.'

So many in that outside world say the players get so much. Well, they give as much, and probably a lot more. But don't get the idea Mabin is complaining.

'We knew what we were signing up for when we signed our names on signing day,' he said. 'There are rewards. Free schooling, being around a great program, great coaches, great fans. There's definitely a lot of blessings and a lot of benefits.

'But it's definitely a lot of hard work I'm not sure most people could do.'

Major-college football players don't live a normal college student's life, answer to authority every day, and put their physical well-being at risk every time you step on the field.

Tuesday, Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz called a player's career 'a really challenging tour of duty.'

Hawkeye senior running back LeShun Daniels has remained healthy this fall, and you've seen the results. He has been terrific. But he doesn't need to rack his brain to remember hard times.

'I think the toughest thing was battling through injuries,' he said. 'As a sophomore I sprained my ankle early in the year and then I broke my ankle later that year. That was real tough, especially with the type of season we had. Everything about that was just extremely frustrating.'

'It's disheartening,' Mabin said. 'You put in so much hard work, so much effort, grind for so long to be in this position to play these 12, 13, 14 games. To have it taken away from you, it's something that's hard to deal with.'

Iowa senior wide receiver Matt VandeBerg was brilliant over this season's first four games, but then he broke a foot in practice and his year was done. He reached out to Mabin after the cornerback got hurt.

'I was just really down with myself, like I let everybody down, let myself down,' Mabin said. 'He kind of reassured me these things happen, try to stay positive and everything's going to work out.'

Mabin came all the way to this foreign land from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and gave five years to Iowa's program. He didn't play at all as a second-year freshman. By the second game of his sophomore year, he was a starter, and remained one. He earned everything he got here, and then some.

He had nine tackles, broke up a pass in the end zone, and had an interception at the Iowa 4-yard line that he returned 26 yards in the Hawkeyes' victory at Nebraska a year ago this week. Cheers to Mabin on Friday, and to all his senior teammates.