Mooney grad perseveres through injuries for Toledo

October 7, 2010 at 12:05a.m.

Mooney graduate Desmond Marrow hasn’t allowed injuries to keep him from playing — and starring — on defense for Toledo.

YOUNGSTOWN

Over the past three years, as Toledo senior cornerback Desmond Marrow missed two full seasons and part of another with hamstring and knee injuries, there were times when he got depressed, when he had to force himself to get up for his rehab, when he wondered whether he would be the same player he was before.

But he never doubted he’d keep playing.

“My parents and my family back in Youngstown have a real strong faith,” said Marrow, a 2006 Mooney High graduate. “We kept praying and I kept my faith up and kept with it.”

So far this fall, he’s been rewarded.

Despite missing the Purdue game with an illness, Marrow is fourth on the team with 28 tackles, helping the Rockets to a 3-2 start, including a 2-0 mark in the Mid-American Conference West. He made a career-best 10 tackles three weeks ago against Western Michigan, where he also had the first two interceptions of his career, taking one of them back for a touchdown.

The Rockets will play at No. 4 Boise State on Saturday in their last non-conference game of the year.

“It’s been a good season so far,” said Marrow, who shared Division IV defensive player of the year honors in 2005 with Coldwater LB Ross Homan, now at Ohio State. “It’s going to be sweet to play on the blue turf this weekend.

“It’s a big challenge and we’re going to go out there as underdogs, the same way we were against Michigan in 2008. We expect to win just like any other game.”

Marrow missed the 2007 season with a hamstring injury and played six games in 2008, tearing his ACL against Northern Illinois a week after beating Michigan. He spent last season rehabbing his knee injury.

“Initially, I was scared to run laterally or make certain movements,” he said. “But I kept strengthening the knee with the trainers and now when I go out there, I can’t even tell it was injured.

“People watch me and say they can’t even tell that I messed my knee up.”

He’s regained a swagger on the field — and off it, partnering with former Mooney teammate Derrell Johnson-Koulianos (now a receiver at Iowa) to create Make Plays or Die, Inc. The enterprise started as a motto (MPOD, for short) and now their phrase has a logo (the words rest on an EKG that has flatlined) adorned on T-shirts and hats.

Membership in the MPOD club is by invitation only — Penn State RB Brandon Beachum, another Mooney grad, is a member — and they even have a Twitter account (twitter.com/mpodinc.).

Marrow said he talks to Johnson-Koulianos almost every day — he maintains that if the former Cardinal QB hadn’t got hurt in the state semifinals, Mooney would have beat Coldwater in the 2005 state championship game — and is equally close with former Mooney RB Nate Burney, now at Akron. Unfortunately for him, the Zips don’t appear on the Rockets’ schedule this year, but Marrow will get to play former Mooney lineman Ishmaa’ily Kitchen when they play Kent State in two weeks.

While his immediate goal is to win the MAC, Marrow does have eyes on the next level, too. His uncle Vince played at Toledo and was later drafted by the Buffalo Bills. (Vince coached his nephew two years ago at Toledo and now coaches in the UFL.) His uncle Brian went to Wisconsin and now coaches Youngstown Christian and his uncle Ray played at Oklahoma State. His father, Duane, also played at Wisconsin.

“That’s always been my dream,” Marrow said of the NFL. “I’m still trying to get there.”