Sunday, August 9, 2020

The inspirational story behind one of the college football players pushing to form a union





I had never heard of Rencher, and just assumed he was also a star player. SI:
Darien Rencher is a reserve running back in the Clemson football program. The rising fifth year senior and former walk-on is also possibly one of the most inspirational stories on the team.

Rencher is a product of TL Hannah High School in Anderson, just down the road from Clemson. After a stellar freshman season in high school, interest in the running back started to soar.

However, after tearing his left ACL playing basketball before his sophomore season. then tearing the ACL in his right knee, along with his MCL and PCL in a preseason scrimmage the following year, most teams started to back off.

Two surgically repaired knees would not deter the 5' 9" 195 pound running back, and he would eventually earn a spot on the Clemson roster as a walk-on. After redshirting in 2016, he played 42 snaps the next two seasons before finally earning a scholarship in 2018.