STATE COLLEGE, Pa. – With Nevada backed up at their own 7-yard line and playing on the road against Notre Dame, Akeel Lynch took the handoff early in the second quarter like he’d done thousands of times before.
He darted to his left and picked up 7 yards, but he has no recollection of the play. The handful of seconds between when the ball touched his hands and when he dipped his head to brace for contact resulted in a helmet-to-helmet hit left Lynch sprawled on the ground with his arms frozen by his side.
As trainers huddled around him the television broadcast cut to commercial. The next image was of a woozy Lynch sitting next to the water cooler going through concussion protocol. The final box score read Lynch: 1 carry, 7 yards. The Wolf Pack lost to the Irish 39-10 and in the process Lynch’s life and his football aspirations would forever change.
“The trainers told me that I got up and they walked me off the field, but I don’t remember it,” Lynch said in a phone interview with DKPittsburghSports.com. “All I remember is getting the handoff and then being on the sideline.
“I was like, ‘Wow, what happened? That put everything in perspective for me.”
The same No. 22 jersey Lynch wore during his four years and three football season at Penn State was a different shade of blue after he graduated last spring and transferred to Nevada. He sought more playing time after budding superstar Saquon Barkley beat him out during Barkley’s freshman season and the Canadian-born back embraced his new opportunity out West.
What Lynch didn’t expect was to suffer a severe concussion last September against Notre Dame and then three weeks later endure another one, this time on a kickoff against Hawaii. The second time he didn’t lose consciousness, but it didn’t matter. It was another scary wakeup call about his future and his passion for the sport he loved faded.
“As a running back, you always get your head rung and it’s just the nature of the sport,” he said. “When I suffered another one against Hawaii that’s when I said, ‘You know what? I’m glad where football has taken me and it’s added another nationality to me and it’s done so much for me, but I got to know when to stop.’”
Sixteen days after his second concussion, Lynch announced he was walking away from the sport that propelled him to his own American dream. He said he could’ve returned, but his love for the sport was gone and before someone could force him to give up football he left on his own terms. The thought of maybe one day playing in the NFL or even being selected in the first round of the Canadian Football League weren’t worth the risk.
The boy from Toronto whose father was gunned down when Akeel was just 7 years old had chased Division I football scholarship opportunities in the states since he was 15. The sport that brought him to high school in New York and then to college at Penn State, where he earned a full scholarship and his undergraduate degree – while also becoming a fan favorite -- led him to Nevada. Lynch continues pursuing a Master’s Degree in Educational Leadership and would like to stay connected to football in some way.
“I think football did what it needed to do to help me pay for my education,” Lynch said. “The reason why I left home in Canada was to look for full rides because having a single mother I didn’t want to put the burden on her. Getting an education meant I would have to pay for it someway, somehow. Football was that vehicle.”
Since he stopped playing in October, Lynch said he doesn’t regret his decision. He walked away early enough that he doesn’t suffer from headaches and adjusted his diet to that of a non Division-I athlete. He still continues to workout and is still involved with football, this spring and summer working behind the scenes with the Nevada football program where he’s helping the freshmen acclimate to college football. He's stressing to them the value of going to class and getting their degree and cautions them that at any moment they too need to have a back-up plan.
He pointed to former teammate and scholar John Urschel as an example of someone who broke the mold, something Lynch said he's still working on. Breaking out of what Lynch calls a "football mentality," where some might think it's OK to pass through with their sights set on big-time paydays is what Lynch preaches to the freshmen.
That perspective is something he's gained in his life after football.
“After I stopped playing I made sure I wasn’t going to allow concussions to stop me from being me,” he said. “I realized that what happens to a lot of football players is they go through a depression. It’s not professional football, but we treat it as professional. We put our heart into it and when you lose something like that you kind of have a hole to fill. What I did was I really just grabbed books. … I just kind of re-found myself. I was like, ‘Okay, which direction do I want to go with it?
“I see that with a lot of football players where they cut out football completely because it didn’t give them what they want, but I’m like it gave you so much already.”
Football gave Lynch a college education, countless memories and a front-row seat to arguably the top back in college football. With Barkley set to be in the spotlight during his junior season, expect Lynch, who considers the Heisman hopeful a ‘little brother’ of sorts, to chime on social media in along the way.
During the Rose Bowl, it was the usual light-hearted Lynch who shared on Twitter that Penn State needed to continue feeding Barkley because after all, “I transferred for a reason.”
Lynch returned to Penn State in April for the annual Blue-White weekend and said he still considers Happy Valley home. He doesn't think about what could've been had Barkley not broken out as a freshmen, but rather what they both gained because of it, part of a winding journey that Lynch is at peace with.
"The only thing I ever told Saquon is you have all of the abilities so you’ve just gotta take care of your body. The first thing I asked when I saw him was, ‘How do you feel?’ I know he can lift the earth, but I want to make sure that when it comes to game time he’s ready to go," Lynch said. "He took all my advice and that’s what meant the most to me because I actually made an impact on him. That’s what I wanted to do before I left. Penn State is in great hands with Saquon. I think he’s the next Barry Sanders and the Heisman is his for the taking."
