Most of the Kansas football players rush off of the practice field and toward the locker-room at the end of practice everyday. But Patrick Resby takes his time.
Resby gently removes his helmet, steadily bends down to grab a Gatorade and casually glances across the Lawrence campus. He can see everything from the top of buildings on Mount Oread to the backside of Allen Fieldhouse. Then, Resby can’t help but smile.
“Oh yeah, everything paid off in the long run,” Resby said, “Because I made it to a Division One college.”
Resby, a junior defensive back, has a lot of things to grin about these days. At the top of the list rests the fact that he’s a starter on the third-ranked football team in the nation. Resby, who starts at strong safety for the Jayhawks, won the position battle in training camp and has gone on to repair what was a troubled spot for Kansas last season. But it all came so close to never happening.
Resby graduated from Forest Brook High School in Houston in 2004 and accepted a scholarship to play at Texas Christian University. The offer was withdrawn after Resby failed to meet NCAA standards with a low S.A.T score.
He found out so late in the year that his only option was to attend a junior college, attempt to get his academics under control and try to find his way onto a major college football team later. But after he received little attention at Navarro Community College in his first week, Resby thought his heart wasn’t into football anymore.
“I wanted to quit but my father had to talk to me and he told me to stick with it and it would pay off,” Resby said. “I was on the scout team; I mean I never thought I’d be on the scout team. It was just miserable. I have a scholarship to go T.C.U but I wind up at Navarro College on the scout team. It was real bad.”
Resby can laugh about it now but at the time it was anything but funny. He grew up in Texas with his father and five brothers, where they all shared the common interest of football.
Resby lists his father as his hero in the Kansas football media guide and shares the importance of his family with anyone who is willing to listen. Embedded in the culture of the Resby family was football, so it’s easy to see why the thoughts of quitting seem so outlandish now.
“I’ve always played football,” Resby said. “My dad coaches football and I’ve always known football.”
But at Navarro College Resby did more than just play football, he spent hours every day on school work. He said he became a mainstay in the academic advisor’s office, all the while he dreamt of getting another shot to play for a major college football team.
Resby now wants to become a teacher when he graduates from college. Kansas head coach Mark Mangino said that attending Navarro helped Resby meet his ultimate goals in more than one area.
“I think he probably grew as a player and a person in junior college,” Mangino said. “We really liked him on tape and he ended up being a guy that really wanted it. We’re thrilled to have him.”
But not as thrilled as Resby is to be in Lawrence. He’s quiet for the most part and careful to answer any question sent his way without sounding pretentious. His teammates describe him as happy and hard working.
It’s almost expected that a natural competition would exist between Resby and sophomore defensive back Justin Thornton. Thornton subs in for Resby and plays at his position often on passing downs. But Thornton said Resby’s contagious attitude made the two friends instead of rivals.
“We’re good friends off the field. We talk every day, we joke, we laugh,” Thornton said. “We don’t fight about competition, playing time or whatever. That doesn’t affect us. He’s always trying to get better.”
Resby’s happy go lucky mentality dissipates when he runs onto the football field on Saturdays. It is replaced with a sheer desire to win. Resby transforms from shy, supporting teammate to beastly headhunter.
He patrols the middle of the field like he’s a security guard working at a maximum security prison, quick to attack ball carriers who escape from the defensive front seven. When asked about Resby, the first word that came out of defensive coordinator Bill Young’s mouth was “physical”. Resby himself admits the best part of his game is his aggressiveness.
He endeared himself to Jayhawk fans in the first game of the season when he landed a gigantic hit near the sidelines on a Central Michigan wide receiver. Resby said the tackle, like all the highlight hits he’s provided, was off of pure instinct. He said all of the nation’s best tacklers posses a similar instinct.
But not many of those players had to salvage their football careers from the bottom of a junior college depth chart like Resby did. Resby knows he’s still got work to do if he wants to help Kansas reach the national championship game. But in the meantime, he still thinks about the day Mangino told him that he would be the starter.
“I had no words for it. I was so happy,” Resby said. “I called my pops and told him the good news. It was a way better conversation, it all paid off in the end.”
Resby finds himself repeating those last few words again and again. The rest of his teammates are in the locker room now and he starts walking that way slowly but surely after reflecting on his past for the last 15 minutes. Resby doesn’t hurry anywhere because he is right where he wants to be. It all paid off in the end.