Maryland redshirt senior linebacker Durell Nchami has experienced two season-ending injuries during his college career.
After a breakout freshman season in 2018, Nchami dealt with a knee injury in 2019 and a shoulder injury in 2021. The 6-foot-4, 260-pound linebacker is now back healthy and looking forward to taking the field each Saturday until the end of the 2022 season.
Nchami says this is the best he has felt since returning, most recently from a shoulder injury. He wants to continue to get better each week and be someone his coaches and teammates can count on.
“It’s just an extreme blessing,” Nchami said. “I’m just so happy to be back out here playing with my teammates, having fun, and overall having my body feel good. I feel like this is the best my body has felt in a while.”
Terps head coach Michael Locksley is happy to have Nchami’s veteran experience back on the field.
“Most people know of him as a pass rusher, but he has improved his ability to play the run,” Locksley said. “… Coming back off of [knee and shoulder injuries], it’s great to have a guy with his type of experience back and helping us on defense.”
Nchami, a native of Silver Spring, Md., and graduate of Paint Branch High School, flashed his talent as a freshman in 2018, tallying 15 total tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss (fourth on the team), one sack and a blocked kick in 10 games.
Nchami said he learned from former Terps defensive players Jesse Aniebonam, Bryce Brand, Antoine Brooks Jr. and Darnell Savage Jr. during his first year in College Park.
“It was a very good experience because I learned from the older guys,” Nchami said. “Playing with guys who are first-round draft picks and against them, and preparing myself for that level of competition early, I got a good tell of what it means to be playing in the Big Ten against really good competition.”
In 2019, Nchami dealt with his first season-ending injury. It was the first time he had been out for an extended period. Nchami suffered a torn ACL during the preseason, causing him to miss the entire season.
“It was tough because at that time I lost someone very close to me,” Nchami said, referring to his grandmother. “It was kind of like a little spiral down. I had to bounce back and get myself up from that hole. I had to remember this is really what I want to do in life. The training room became my life. Making sure my body is as strong as it could be. The weight room became my foundation for everything I do.”
His mother, Prudence Macho, said it was difficult to see her son not being able to take the football field.
“It was hard for me to see him down because as a mother it is hard for you to see your child not doing what he loves,” Macho said.
Macho added that the post-surgery process was challenging for her son.
“It wasn’t an easy task for him. He was in pain,” Macho said. “We had to apply ice to the area to keep the swelling down, and also help him with his pain medications.”
Nchami doesn’t believe the knee injury halted his momentum for the following season, describing it as “a bump in the road.” Nchami returned to the field in 2020, but it was a shortened season because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nchami appeared in three contests during the five-game season, posting five tackles, three tackles for loss and two sacks.
In 2021, Nchami was looking forward to playing a full 12-game season for the first time since 2018. The linebacker appeared in the Terps’ first six games before suffering a shoulder injury that required surgery. In six games, Nchami tallied nine tackles (four for loss) and finished fourth on the team in sacks with three.
Instead of thinking of what could have been, Nchami used the injury as a learning experience and called it a “blessing in disguise.”
“Am I going to look back and say, ‘Oh, man, I could have done this, I could have done that,’ or am I just going to be like, ‘OK, this is it. This is what I’ve got to do to get better and improve on things.’ My outlook on it is I improved on parts of my game that I needed to work on.”
Nchami also believes he progressed faster than expected during his rehab.
“I was progressing faster than I really should have,” Nchami said. “I just naturally have a stronger upper body so it was easier for me to come back. It wasn’t necessarily that bad of an injury, [but] they had to clean up some things.”
It is often forgotten that college athletes are students first. The challenges Nchami faced in staying on the field carried over to his work in the classroom as well.
“It was a struggle,” Nchami said. “School was tough. I took a step back from school a little bit, but I fought back toward the end of the semester and graduated this year.”
Prior to his final season in College Park, Nchami earned 2022 Pro Football Focus Preseason Second Team All-Big Ten and 2022 East-West Shrine Bowl 1000 honors. He enjoyed a breakout game against Purdue Oct. 8, racking up four tackles (three for loss), two sacks and a forced fumble. However, he cares more about his team’s success.
“I have to stay focused on my craft and make sure I do everything I can do to help my teammates win,” Nchami said. “It’s always going to be the team first. That’s what I want my biggest success to be, for this team to win.”
As the college football season continues, more NFL scouts will take a look at Nchami as well as his teammates. It’s a dream for Nchami to play professional football, but for now, he’s focusing on this season.
“That’s my ultimate goal, to start my career there,” Nchami said of the NFL. “But the first thing that I’ve got to do is take care of business now and that will take care of itself.”
Photo Credit: Kenya Allen/PressBox
Issue 277: October/November 2022
Originally published Oct. 19, 2022