College Football Report: 2011 NFL Combine is Just Another Step for Mark Herzlich and Nate Irving:

In an odd way, the NFL Combine has long been the world’s biggest male pageant.

It may not come with as much endorsement as Miss America, but make no mistake about it, the future Pro Bowlers and All-Pro's on hand at the NFL combine will be set onto the biggest stage they’ve endured during their current draft process and football career.

They’ll be graded, tested, literally sized up and even ridiculed. In the end, and just like in the game they play, there’s going to be winners and there’s going to be losers. Their trophy, however, won’t come until April’s Draft.

Febuary 23 marks the start of the 2011 NFL Combine, where the eyes of NFL scouts, coaches and hierarchy personnel will be on the qualities and numbers of 335 collegiate football players. Two players, however, may be watched and critiqued more than any others.

In 2008, North Carolina State linebacker Nate Irving (left) and Boston College linebacker Mark Herzlich (below) were at the top of their games. Two of the best linebackers in the college ranks at the time, Irving and Herzlich weren’t just becoming household names to the coaches and players they faced from week-to-week, they were also gaining the watchful eye of NFL scouts.

Irving became a leader within the heart of the Wolfpack defense. Despite missing three games and battling through another with a midseason injury, he still brought in 84 tackles and four interceptions.

NC State went 0-4 during Irving’s injury stretch. When he returned, the Wolfpack rallied behind Irving’s 38 tackles in the final four games, winning all four to become bowl eligible. He’d pick up honorable mention All-ACC honors in just his redshirt sophomore season.

Herzlich, already a well known linebacker at B.C., built on an impressive 2007 season and 2006 Freshman All-American season. In the first game of the 2008 season, Herzlich recorded eight tackles and an interception. In the second, against Georgia Tech; 13 stops, 11 solo. The junior was off to yet another notable campaign.

The Eagles made a trip to the ACC title game and Herzlich finished the season with 110 stops and six interceptions, two of which he returned for touchdowns. Gritty on field play and eye-black turned into face paint made him a fan favorite throughout the country. He earned ACC Defensive Player of the Year honors and received numerous All-American recognitions. He was also a finalist for the Butkus award.

There was no team, no play and no player Irving and Herzlich couldn’t terrorize on the field in the ACC.

Then came the 2009 offseason and the off-field incidents that would forever change both young men’s lives, let alone their football careers.

The first devastation came just a month after the 2009 Boston College Eagles first spring practice. Herzlich was tagged as a preseason first team All-American after turning down the NFL Draft just months prior to return to B.C.

On May 12, 2009, an MRI revealed Herzlich had a rare form of bone cancer in his left leg called Ewing’s Sarcoma. The good news was that the cancer hadn’t metastasized, but it would be a fight unlike any other Herzlich would have to overcome, a fight for his life.



Doctors told Herzlich he’d most likely never play football again. Never again explode into a ball carrier from a blind side blitz. Never again snatch the ball from the air and return it for six. Never again feel the energy of 50,000 screaming fans as he sprints onto the field.

Never, was clearly a word Herzlich would hold onto as motivation.

Five months into treatment, on Sept. 29, doctors broke the news to Herzlich that no traces of the cancer could be found. He’d gone through six hours of chemotherapy every week, eventually finishing on Nov. 3. On the 21st of the month, a titanium rod was placed through his left femur where the cancer had been removed.

A month after Herzlich was delivered his life altering news in May, N.C. State’s Irving would experience his own ordeal.

In June 2009, while heading back to school from his hometown and parents house in Wallace N.C., Irving’s Chevy Tahoe went off the road, hitting two tree’s while coming to a rest in a ditch at 4:30 AM. He had fallen asleep at the wheel.

The devastation to the vehicle was as dramatic as if a car compressor had smashed the truck. Somehow, Irving survived, but sustained a collapsed lung, a compound fracture to his left leg, a separated shoulder and multiple broken ribs.

The accident came just two months before the start of summer football camp, but Irving’s season was over before it started.

A rod and four pins would immediately be placed into his leg during surgery. A long recovery for Irving was in store.

A year later, Irving would make it back and would later be ruled a full participant for the start of the Wolfpack’s spring practice.

On Sept. 4, 2010, both men suited up for the first game of their respective team’s season. For Herzlich, it was just three days after he’d put pads on for the first time since the Eagles 2009 spring practice.

A short learning curve back was met for each, but both players battled their way into their respective starting positions. Once again, they also both drew the early glaring eye of NFL scouts.

They were named co-winners of the 2010 Brian Piccolo Award, given annually to the ACC’s “most courageous” football player in the ACC.

Irving brought in third team AP All-American honors, registering 92 tackles, 21 for a loss and seven sacks. Herzlich recorded 65 tackles and four interceptions. In his last regular season game for B.C. against Syracuse, Herzlich sealed the win for the Eagles on a fourth quarter leaping interception.

No matter what the outcome was for Herzlich and Irving’s final season was, the remarkable fact that both were able to come back from overwhelming measures is truly amazing. Two men typically known for delivering blows on the field, were then forced to overcome traumatic hits off the field.

Herzlich and Irving will now need to overcome the NFL Combine. The biggest microscope examining their football futures, either has seen.

You can bet that during the 2011 Combine in Indianapolis, NFL minds will have questions and opinions regarding both player’s history and health. Herzlich and Irving will answer those questions, though. They’ll respond to the negative critics and prove they’re both back to the form they once were, if not better.

There are a few questions they certainty won’t need to address, though. Their toughness, determination and ability to overcome adversity wont be in question. Qualities that go a long way in the game of football, and life.