How much pain can one man endure? Antwine just won't quit

Brandon Antwine has this love affair with football. It must be love. Otherwise, why would he go through so much pain trying to play the game? In his five years at the University of Florida, he's had a mysterious back ailment that hospitalized him and had even the doctors at Shands thinking he might not walk again much less play football, a torn ACL and a torn up shoulder that required surgery. Pain? He could write a book about it. Rehab? Been there and done that so many times that he knows all the routines by heart. 

If he were to walk away from football today, who could blame him? Yet, giving up the game has never once entered the mind of this 300-pound nose tackle, a fifth-year senior from Garland, Texas.

"I never really thought about that," Antwine said Thursday. "I have a really strong family support system behind me. I never thought about giving up."

The back injury, he says, was the worst. That happened late in 2007, his redshirt freshman season. The medical term for the condition, he says, is too complicated to pronounce but in layman's terms, the muscles in his back were literally dying. Doctors and coaches alike wondered if he would walk again, but Antwine beat that and came back to play in 2008. Urban Meyer still says that it's a medical miracle.

Just when things started going well for Antwine in the 2008 season, he popped his ACL on the wet, slick Doak Campbell Stadium turf.

"It was the Florida State game, the last game of the season and my first start that year," Antwine said. "It was raining on the field really bad. My foot got planted and stuck in the ground. My body wanted to go another way and my knee stayed one way. I got hurt just like that."

Considering all he had gone through just to play football again, he didn't want to think that his season was over. He remembers sitting on the sideline after the injury thinking "I'm all right ... I'm all right" but he wasn't all right. 

"I wanted to get back out there but when they told me I had tore it up I was like, this should be easy," he said. "My back injury ... I feel like that was the hardest thing I ever went through in my life. I thought the knee was going to be easy."

So he had the surgery, did the rehab and pushed himself in the weight room to get back on the field in 2009.   He played in the first six games of the 2009 season before tearing up his shoulder. He missed the last five regular season games before seeing the field against Alabama in the SEC Championship Game. 

Then came more surgery and more rehab. More pain, too. 

But it never occurred to him to give it up. He was willing to do whatever it takes to make it back for his senior season and there was no lack of support or encouragement from those who understand just how important football is to Antwine.

"The coaches, my family my teammates ... everyone around me was telling me you can get back to the game and do what you love to do," Antwine said. "I love doing it."

That he loves it so much inspires teammates and coaches alike.

"Most guys in the country and most guys that I have known would have done that [quit] and gotten the scholarship and the degree --- which he will do in December and not have to go through the pain and the heartache and frustration of trying to come back and trying to be a quality player," Florida defensive line coach Dan McCarney said. "I just love the kid. If he gets back on the field it's a huge plus and a bonus. He means so much to our team just being out there."

Considering all that he's been through, it's unlikely that Antwine could give the Gators 40-50 snaps per game at nose tackle but the good news is that he won't have to. The Gators have 16 scholarship defensive linemen so there's plenty of depth. McCarney wants to have six ends and six tackles ready to rotate in and out every game so Antwine will be able to pace himself.

Even with limited snaps, however, he knows there will be pain. How much can one man endure?

"I don't want to find out but I'm willing to," he said, later adding that he simply wakes up every day and "I thank God for another day."

One more day to do what he loves to do, even if it means more pain and possibly one more injury.

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McCarney said the number one defensive line has Justin Trattou and Duke Lemmens at the ends with Jaye Howard and Omar Hunter at the tackles. Howard, McCarney says, has a chance to have a special season. 

"He (Howard) is between 305 and 310 and he has to get in game condition but he's working well and he was one of the most improved guys in Mickey Marotti's [weight] room," McCarney said. "It appears right now that he has a chance to be one of the most improved guys on our defense."

McCarney said that freshmen Ronald Powell, Dominique Easley and Shariff Floyd are picking up the defense and starting to make some plays. 

TRASH TALKING: When Hunter lines up at nose tackle he knows he's going against the best center in the country in Mike Pouncey. He also knows he's in for a verbal assault that's not the kind of thing you'd repeat in polite company and with Pouncey, no topic or relative is off limits.

"When it comes to Mike, there's nothing off guard," Hunter said. "Everything is a go. I've heard about my mom, my dad, my brother ... everything."

Asked if he could repeat any of Pouncey's trash talk at the line of scrimmage, Hunter thought for a moment, then replied, "There's not a lot ... I can't think of anything actually."

Another of the trash talkers is senior defensive end Duke Lemmens, who Hunter says is "the funniest guy on the team."

Lemmens might make everyone laugh, but like Pouncey, what's said on the field needs to stay on the field.

"Funniest thing [Lemmens has said]?" Hunter asked rhetorically. "I can't repeat that."

DE-STRIPINGS: Three freshmen have lost the stripe on their helmet, the symbol that they're officially Gators. Wide receiver Robert Clark was the first followed by linebackers Michael Taylor and Neiron Ball. 

McCarney said he was proud of the three freshmen, adding that, "There have been guys who had theirs for three years in the past!"