By: Jacob Eisenberg
When South Dakota State’s Zach Zenner showed up to the NFL combine last month, he raised eyebrows in interviews by revealing something about himself that most coaches hadn’t ever heard from a player before: he had already been accepted into medical school.
While most NFL hopefuls look at their career goals as “football or bust,” Zenner is extremely close to fulfilling a childhood dream of playing in the NFL while remarkably staying on track to reach his ultimate goal of becoming a doctor afterward.
For Zenner, football was always a passion but not necessarily a realistic career option. While he excelled at running back in high school for his small Minnesota town, he drew little interest from Division I programs. Most major recruiting websites didn’t bother to make him a recruiting profile page. The only program of notoriety to show interest in Zenner was the hometown University of Minnesota – and they wanted him to try to walk on.
Now, only five years later, Zenner has become a poster boy for the NCAA by becoming the ultimate Scholar-Baller.
Zenner was named to the 2014 Capital One Academic All-America® Division I football team for his outstanding scholarship in the classroom. He majors in biology and has compiled an impressive 3.87 G.P.A through his five years at South Dakota State.
In the past year alone, Zenner researched colon cancer in the classroom, took up piano for hobby and testified twice in front of South Dakota’s state legislature on behalf of the university to secure funding for a new football stadium.
Did I mention that he also found time to build homes and perform missionary work in Jamaica?
"We've been blessed with many, many guys that you'd say are the picture of a student-athlete – and I mean that," his head coach John Stiegelmeier told the Argus Leader. "And Zach's a notch above, a different level. I'm bold enough to say I don't think we'll have another guy like him."
But for all of his credentials as an individual and scholar, Zenner is equally distinguished on the football field.
Zenner’s only the second player in FCS history to rush for 2,000 yards in separate seasons. He’s rushed for 100 yards on 30 separate occasions game and has set a new Missouri Valley Football Conference record for yards on the ground, compiling 1,300 more rushing yards than anybody else in Valley history.
"I sound phony when I'm talking about Zach Zenner," SDSU receivers coach Josh Davis told the Argus Leader, "because I start talking about how accountable he is, how great his work ethic is and how he's been for us for four and a half years. I fear that a lot of the NFL scouts are questioning my credibility as a liaison."
When coaches and teammates try to pinpoint what it is exactly about Zenner that makes him so successful, they all seem to point toward his effort and commitment to excellence:
"I hate when people say, 'Well, he's a freak' or 'He's superhuman.' That's a discredit to his work ethic, to his effort," Jacks strength and condition director Nate Moe told the Argus Leader. "Is everybody going to have the level of success he had? No. But can everybody work at that level and be much better than they are? Yeah. That's what people should look at."
“His breathing, his feet pounding,” Stiegelmeier told the Columbia Daily Tribune. “He literally goes full speed every rep.”
All of Zenner’s hard work has paid off. He was invited to the NFL combine in February, where his tests and measurable proved he has the physical tools to succeed at the next level. Factor in his professional mentality and it seems plausible that Zenner will find a home in the NFL at some point.
Even though Zenner succeeded on his MCATs, that didn’t exempt him from the NFL’s compulsory wonderlic test. He felt comfortable with the exam but believes it didn’t properly capture his full mental capabilities.
“I just wish the test had a Henderson-Hasselbach pH question or something,” Zenner joked to Fox Sports. “Then I would have been able to separate myself.”
If an NFL team does, in fact, pick up Zenner, his long-term career goal will be put on pause. Still, Zenner does not shy away from stating his ultimate ambition proudly:
“My goal after football is to become a surgeon.”
Maybe we should get used to calling him RB Zach Zenner, M.D.