UCF Knights QB McKenzie Milton’s long road back from injury | College GameDay – YouTube
It wasn’t, thanks in part to a team of doctors at the Mayo Clinic. [ Times (2018) ]
McKenzie Milton’s story more inspirational than “Rudy” | Commentary Mike Bianchi, Orlando Sentinel
It only seemed appropriate that Florida State was playing Notre Dame on Sunday night because this was an even more inspirational story than “Rudy.”
Rudy Ruettiger, a short, average kid who wanted to dress for the Notre Dame football team. Rudy’s story is one that is used to demonstrate the power of single-mindedness and determination in the face of all odds.
Rudy grew up in a steel mill town where most people ended up working, but wanted to play football at Notre Dame instead. There were only a couple of problems. His grades were a little low, his athletic skills were poor, and he was only half the size of the other players.
However, he had the drive and the spirit of 5 people and has set his sights upon joining the team.
A group of men playing a game of football:
Florida State Seminoles quarterback McKenzie Milton, who entered in the fourth quarter, sets up to throw a pass against Notre Dame on Sunday night. Unlike the famously enhanced and dramatized version of the movie about former Notre Dame walk-on Rudy Ruettiger, however, the story of FSU transfer quarterback McKenzie Milton is 100 percent true. No, really.
It’s true.
You couldn’t even begin to make this stuff up.
Think about it:
A kid from Hawaii comes to play quarterback half-a-world away at UCF, leads the Knights to an undefeated season, a self-proclaimed national championship and a national-best 24-game winning streak. … Then, after suffering a gruesome knee injury against the team’s biggest rival in the final regular-season game of his junior season, he nearly had his leg amputated.
… Yet spurred on by his intense faith and incredible perseverance, he is able to endure 33 months of countless surgeries and painful rehab sessions to get himself in position to play again. …
But wait, he then chooses to leave the school he loves because his best friend and Hawaiian blood brother Dillon Gabriel had become entrenched as the starting quarterback. He transfers to Florida State and nearly leads the underdog Seminoles to a come-from-behind victory against storied Notre Dame. The fact that Notre Dame won the game 41-38 in overtime Sunday night is mostly irrelevant.
This still goes down as one of the most remarkable comeback stories we’ve ever seen. “God is real,” Milton said afterward. “I’m not tooting my horn, but nobody’s ever come back from an injury like this. This is the answer to prayers; thousands of people praying for me, coaches believing in me. I’m not here without all of the support, all of the prayers ….and the healing hands of God.”
When Milton — known by family, friends and adoring UCF fans as “KZ” — trotted onto the field in the fourth quarter Sunday night after FSU starting quarterback Jordan Travis got knocked out of the game, I’m not going to lie to you; I got misty-eyed. There is a long-standing rule that says members of the media are forbidden from cheering up in the press box, but thankfully there is no rule against tearing-up in the press box.
For those of us who were in Raymond James Stadium in 2018 when KZ went down with that ghastly injury, it was surreal seeing him back to his magical self Sunday night, dropping back and throwing darts as he led FSU down the field on two fourth-quarter scoring drives to tie the score 38-38 with 40 seconds left in regulation.
Said FSU coach Mike Norvell: “As we went into this week, McKenzie kept saying, ‘Coach, I’ll be ready. I’ll be ready.’ You never know when the opportunity is going to present itself and McKenzie was ready. He’s such a competitor. Everybody knows his story and what’s gone into it. He’s somebody you cheer for.” Even Travis, the redshirt freshman who has been battling Milton for the starting quarterback job, was cheering for him loudly and proudly.
“I couldn’t get the smile off my face,” Travis said afterward. “It gave me chills seeing somebody who’s been through so much come back and be able to perform that way.” Milton’s first pass was threaded down the middle 22 yards to Ja’Khi Douglas.
Then on 3rd-and-11, he hit Keyshawn Helton for 15 to set up the touchdown that pulled the ‘Noles within 3. On the next drive, he executed a nifty shovel pass to Darion Williamson for 12 yards to set up the tying field goal.
And all the while he was taking shots from the hard-charging Notre Dame defense and even got sacked and dragged down by the leg that was almost amputated in 2018. Who will ever forget the sick feeling an entire stadium and national television audience had after KZ scrambled right to try to get a first down and USF cornerback Mazzi Wilkins came in low for the tackle. Unfortunately, Wilkins’ helmet slammed directly into Milton’s right knee and destroyed it.
Milton’s leg bent in a way legs are not meant to be bent. His lower leg was contorted and hanging limply from the knee. ESPN did not replay the injury because of its graphic, grisly nature. Players from both teams encircled Milton and prayed together. UCF head trainer Mary Vander Heiden sprinted onto the field and told him not to look at his leg, but he already had.
When it was quickly determined that Milton’s lower leg had just a faint pulse and blood flow to it was minimal at best, he was rushed to Tampa General Hospital, which just so happened to have the only Level 1 Trauma Center in west Florida with specialty surgeons on-site 24 hours a day. If Milton’s traumatic injury had happened in some small college town, he might be wearing a prosthetic leg today.
However, surgeons at Tampa General successfully performed emergency arterial bypass surgery that restored blood flow to his lower leg. When Milton woke up from the surgery, he pulled the sheet back just to make sure his leg had not been amputated. He saw a big metal external fixator attached to his leg but, thank God, his leg was still there.
What ensued were dozens of surgeries and excruciating rehab sessions in which the physical therapist bent and flexed the reconstructed knee, painfully popping and breaking up the excessive scar tissue that has formed around his knee joint.
Still, it was a longshot that he would ever play football again. In fact, when Milton kept badgering his renowned orthopedic surgeon — Bruce Levy of the Mayo Clinic — about his chances of playing football again, Levy finally told Milton: “Imagine you’re a rookie and it’s your first at-bat in the major leagues. The bases are loaded and you hit a grand-slam home run. Then you do it three more times in the same game. That would be what I think are the odds of you being able to play football. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but I’m not aware of anyone that’s done it.”
Well, guess what? Here we are three years and four grand slams later and KZ was on the field looking as magical as ever on a night when the Seminoles honored the late, great Bobby Bowden, who, had he been alive Sunday, would have said about Milton,
“Dad-gum, that boy has more guts than a long-tailed cat in room full of rocking chairs.”
One of the most motivational, inspirational stories in sports history.
McKenzie Milton was one of the most dynamic players in the country before the injury. Every McKenzie Milton Touchdown at UCF (All 92)
UCF QB McKenzie Milton’s serious leg injury | College Football – YouTube
“I never anticipated in a million years,” Levy said, “that he’d be able to get back to this level.”
Unlikely odds
Milton and his knee had already been through a lot before they got to Levy in Minnesota.
A hit from USF cornerback Mazzi Wilkins’ helmet dislocated his knee, damaged a nerve and tore an artery and ligaments. Milton needed emergency surgery at Tampa General Hospital to restore blood flow to his leg and two more surgeries soon after.
McKenzie Milton had to be carted off the Raymond James Stadium field in 2018.
Within a few days, UCF’s Dr. Michael Jablonski reached out to Levy, whom he knew from a knee dislocation surgical skills course they took together. Their second-opinion conversations turned into a visit from Milton, his family and UCF medical staff.
RELATED: The other side of that hit on UCF quarterback McKenzie Milton
Milton’s knee was swollen, stiff and sore, Levy said, “as you can imagine with a devastating injury like that.” And the injury was devastating, even by Levy’s standards. Of the 10,000 operations Levy has performed, only a few hundred are comparable.
Levy told his patient as much when Milton asked about playing football again. If any athlete has ever returned to the field from that kind of damage, Levy wasn’t aware of it.
Levy compared Milton’s odds of playing again to a rookie making his MLB debut hitting a grand slam in his first at-bat … and then doing it three more times in the same game.
RELATED: The 13 transfers who will shape Florida’s college football season
“So you think there’s a chance?” Milton asked.
Levy answered: “There’s always a chance.”
FSU quarterback McKenzie Milton has been healthy enough to play for the Seminoles.
Four-team Mayo Clinic operation
The next step was a four-team, seven-hour operation at one of the nation’s premier medical facilities.
A vascular team led by Dr. Gustavo Oderich moved Milton’s blood vessels out of the way so Levy and his team could start reconstructing the ligaments. Dr. Robert Spinner’s neurological team mobilized the damaged nerve so Levy could operate on the ligaments more. A radiology team stopped by periodically to check Milton’s blood flow.
The surgery accomplished Levy’s first goal — no amputation. Milton met the second goal months later through grueling rehab.
Then Milton and Levy could start thinking about the bonuses. First it was running. When Milton sent Levy a video of him sprinting across a field, Levy had to watch a handful of times to believe it.
Dr. Bruce Levy is the professor of orthopedic surgery at the Mayo Clinic
Dr. Levy helped save McKenzie Milton’s leg (and football career). Milton told Levy during one visit that he needed his heel to be able to touch his butt so his leg wouldn’t snap during a tackle. Levy said none of his previous patients were able to regain that much flexibility.
A few months later, Milton sent Levy a picture of his heel tucked all the way back. When Milton returned to Minnesota for his two-year checkup, Levy sent him through the same kind of return-to-play tests he uses on patients recovering from torn ACLs: running, jumping, cutting, strength.
Milton passed everyone.
Levy had no medical reason to hold him back, so he said the decision to play again was between Milton and his soul. Milton answered without hesitation: I’m playing.
McKenzie Milton’s comeback is ‘miraculous,’ even to his Mayo Clinic surgeon. The surgeon who helped save the former UCF star’s leg never would have thought he’d be vying to start at FSU.
McKenzie Milton picks FSU: QB room analysis, impact for Mike Norvell on recruiting trail.
FSU quarterback McKenzie Milton, is competing for the Seminoles’ starting spot.
‘He certainly defies all odds’
Thirty-three months after being carted off the Raymond James Stadium field, Milton is finally set to play again. He transferred from UCF to FSU in the offseason and continues to battle Jordan Travis for the Seminoles’ starting spot.
RELATED: FSU quarterback battle: ‘I just want to be right,’ Mike Norvell says
Milton has practiced enough — first on UCF’s scout team last fall and then through spring and fall camp with the ‘Noles —
That he’s no longer thinking about his knee. But Levy is.
“As excited as I am,” Levy said, “I’m nervous, too.”
Levy worries about every patient, but his concern usually eases once he clears them. Not with Milton. Not with an injury like his. Not after seeing him grind for two-plus years for the chance to play again. Not when another bad hit could jeopardize Milton’s leg — again.
The worry will not, however, keep Levy from the Doak Campbell Stadium sideline next Sunday. Levy will be there, in an FSU polo shirt, to watch Milton make his Seminoles debut. Even if he still doesn’t know how it’s possible.
“There are some things we can’t always understand and can’t always explain,” Levy said, “but he certainly defies all odds —
Just his pure will and drive and belief in himself that he can do it.
#MiltonStrong
Notre Dame Fighting Irish at Florida State Seminoles | Full Game Highlights
“I’ve never met any patient like that.”