Mr. Patience has earned his start

Published online on Saturday, Sep. 05, 2009

If there is one story that summarizes Ryan Colburn the football player, it starts on a couch.

His junior year of high school, Colburn spent an agonizing weekend at home on the sofa, puking and aching. A bad case of the flu, he figured.

On Monday, he went back to school and basketball practice. On Tuesday, he played every minute of a varsity basketball game. On Wednesday, he could barely walk.

By Thursday his coach had finally convinced him it could be serious, and that afternoon Ryan Colburn was on the business end of an open-backed gown and a scalpel. He was in surgery for 4 1/2 hours and then the hospital for 11 days, and there were moments his family actually thought the second of their four children might not make it.

They're still not quite sure how he made it five days with a ruptured appendix. Or how he played a game. His body just sort of encapsulated the infection and kept going. Is that possible? A body can't really do that, right?

Colburn never liked the word "can't." People told his family they couldn't keep sending him to a tiny little high school such as Central Valley Christian and expect him to get noticed by college recruiters.

He's not the kind of person who leaves friends behind for his own career possibilities, though, and he stayed at CVC, on a team with 23 football players, where in one season he played quarterback, strong safety, free safety, linebacker and defensive end. Not all at once, of course. It only seemed that way.

When the kicker got hurt, guess who had to kick the extra points?

Sure, he might have gotten noticed a bit more at Golden West, the bigger public school, might have been more than a two-star recruit, but he did get two offers to play Division I football, Fresno State and Boise State.

Hard to believe, but it has been 5 1/2 years since Colburn committed to Fresno State. That's a long time to wait for a chance. Not many would have done it.

Here's a fun fact: Mark Sanchez was named the New York Jets starting quarterback a couple of weeks before Colburn was named a college starter for the first time. And they were in the same high school recruiting class.

A lot of guys take long paths to success, but Colburn never transferred, never got suspended, never had scholastic issues, never even got injured. He's just waited.

Tonight, he gets his shot. Fresno State opens the season at home against UC Davis and Mr. Patience will be leading. An unreal 1,893 days after committing to the Bulldogs, he'll finally get a start.

"I really think the community will rally around the way he plays," says his dad, Ron. "They'll probably have to carry him off after the game. He'll be bloody."

They should at least applaud his diligence. Since Colburn arrived at Fresno State, he's watched Jordan Christensen finish an entire college career as a backup. He's watched Matt Faulkner transfer and Sean Norton give up the game. He stood by as Tom Brandstater struggled, then improved, then struggled again, and never complained when he felt he deserved a chance.

Colburn is playing for his fifth offensive coordinator at Fresno State. Frank Cignetti taught him how to study film, turned him into the football version of Richard Roeper. Steve Hagan told him he was too fat and too slow, so Colburn turned his body into a suit of armor, from 15% body fat to 6.5%.

Jim McElwain told Colburn he was too tentative, too careful, that he should just cut loose and "let it fly." They butted heads for a month before growing close.

Colburn and Jeff Grady, the current offensive coordinator, get along great, although it's hard to imagine anyone disliking Jeff.

But here's what I can't stop thinking: Do you think any of them ever really thought this day would come? Do you think Cignetti went down to little CVC thinking he was finding the next big thing, or even an eventual starter, or was he hoping to secure a serviceable backup?

Did any of them expect Colburn to improve so dramatically, to work so hard for so little reward? Did they ever foresee Colburn beating out a teenage phenom like Derek Carr?

At a funeral for a Fresno State student, safety Marvin Haynes came up to Ryan Colburn's parents and gushed about him, told them he'd never seen anyone so focused and dedicated. Normally, you couldn't get a defensive player to admit an offensive player exists, let alone gush about his toughness.

He's gained their respect and earned this chance. He did it with determination and guts. What's left of them.