Jake Funk's resolve helps him continue to defy the odds
Indeed, Jake would, though it took some time for him to get a chance.He appeared in all 25 possible games across his freshman and sophomore seasons, but since he shared a backfield with a pair of future NFL running backs in Trey Edmunds and Ty Johnson, he was primarily a special teams contributor.
Johnson was still on the roster in 2018, but a boost of confidence from spring practices in early 2018 had Funk feeling good about what his junior season had in store.
"Was really going into the season thinking I was going to contribute a lot more," Funk said. "And then two years of injuries hit."
First came a broken hand in practice the week after their Sept. 1 season-opener against Texas at FedEx Field. That injury healed in time for Funk to face Indiana on Nov. 10, only for him to tear his ACL against Ohio State one week later.
Funk said in the Ohio State game, he was running downfield on a kickoff when he felt his knee buckle on him. It wasn't very painful – in fact, he was able to jog off the field – but something didn't feel right while running and cutting on the sideline, even with a brace on. He removed himself from the game instead of attempting to play, and an MRI later confirmed a torn ACL.
"Stay positive, stay focused," was the focus of the conversations after the injury between Jake and his parents, according to his mother, Alisa Funk.
"It's a setback, but keeping forging forward," she told him.
The family was there to support him, whether it was his parents taking him to doctor's appointments, or his older brother Josh Funk, who owns his own physical therapy practice – Rehab 2 Perform – in the DMV area and worked with Jake and Maryland's athletic training staff to get him healthy in six months and ready for the 2019 season – Locksley's first as head coach after spending the 2016-18 seasons on Alabama's staff.
By this point, Jake had dealt with two years of position battles in addition to those injuries, but Locksley dissuaded him from considering the transfer portal, convincing Jake there was a role for him.
However, in the third game of that 2019 redshirt junior season, he tore his ACL again in the same knee. Another pop in his knee, but "less than the time before," he said.
While it didn't feel as bad as the first time, Jake said something still felt off. Testing and feedback from athletic trainers indicated the ACL was still intact, but an MRI later revealed Jake had partially torn it, forcing him to make a critical decision.
"If you could play on this, we could put a brace on it, you can play the rest of the season," Dr. Leigh Ann Curl, the Baltimore Ravens' head orthopedic surgeon who fixed Funk's first ACL injury and would be doing it again, told him. "But if you have any aspirations to play at the next level, your knee would not pass medical protocols. So you either have to get it done now or get it done later."
So, Jake "bit the bullet," as he described it, and opted to get the surgery done in October. Season over, but it afforded him more time to rehab.
However, one week after surgery, he dealt with a knee infection that required him to be on an IV three times a day plus antibiotics for a month. In the process, he estimated he lost 20-25 pounds – from 205 to "about 180" – though he later got his weight back up.
By the time he recovered from his second ACL injury, the COVID-19 outbreak had shuttered programs' remaining spring practices and their facilities, forcing athletes to train at home. Similar to the first injury, Jake worked with Josh for his rehab, with the two of them collaborating with the Maryland staff. Jake worked with Josh 5-6 days per week, with occasional two-a-day workouts, with a "nice, steady build-up" as the goal, according to Josh.
"Especially if you look at pandemic time, you could almost be like, 'Man, well, you're going to be concerned he's not going to get as many reps on his legs and his knee in particular,'" Josh said. "We did everything we could to make sure that when got to the University of Maryland and was going back into training camp, that there was little to no drop-off and little to no period of time where he needed to acclimate to the physical stress of practice or position-specific drills."
Jake also did his part when not working with Josh, including conducting workouts in a neighbor's "gritty and blue collar" barn with rusty plates, dusty floors and no air conditioning to compensate for Maryland's facilities being closed.
"From rehabs to lifting to football-specific training, came back for the 2020 season a whole new player," Jake said. "Completely changed my body composition, dropped like 5% body fat, was eating healthier at home, just completely different player."
He was in great shape and poised to take on a major role as a redshirt senior, but the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on the 2020 season still loomed.
