Carbondale Reporter

Senior LB Zach Burrola

CARBONDALE, Ill. — When fifth-year senior Zach Burrola tore his meniscus during the Salukis' game against South Dakota, the linebacker thought he had played his last game at SIU.

"I thought my season was over," Burrola admitted.

He didn't recall exactly which play he injured his knee, but initially, he had a weighted feeling in the area and also felt a pop. This pain increased the following day and Burrola knew the injury was more serious.

"It was hurting me a lot, I felt like it was a sharp knifing pain in there," he said. "It was really hard to walk and it was real stiff."

An athlete can play through a torn meniscus without doing further damage to the knee, as long as they can tolerate the pain. But with the injury occurring to Burrola so late in the year, there was uncertainty at first if he would play again.

"Being a senior, I thought football could come to an end for me… It was just kind of surprising and really shocking," Burrola said. "It was hard for me to kind of grasp the concept of me not playing again."

Rather than have surgery, Burrola talked it over with his family and elected to play through the pain.

"We decided my team needed me more for playoffs. So I wanted to rest my body for those last regular season games and get ready for the playoffs," he said. "And we got in so I'm fortunate enough to keep playing."

Burrola missed SIU's final two regular-season games versus North Dakota State and Indiana State. He was a force for the Saluki defense during the first nine games, accumulating three sacks, 47 tackles, and seven tackles for loss.

He gets daily treatment on the knee and does special exercises to strengthen the muscles around the meniscus and ease inflammation.

"Really just focusing on trying to get swelling down and take pain away as much as I could so I can come out here and just run around and be comfortable," Burrola said.

On the backs of a 38-9 victory against Sycamores in their last home game and impressive victories during the season, Dawgs were selected into FCS playoffs, giving Burrola another opportunity to sport maroon on gridiron and compete on playoff stage.

His impact was felt as he recorded seven tackles and a quarterback hurry in Salukis' 35-0 rout of Nicholls in first playoff home game at Saluki Stadium.

"It's weird because when ball is snapped, it all goes away and you don't really pay attention to what's going on," Burrola said. "You kind of just give your body up for team and you just perform best that you can."

Burrola went all-in on his senior season.

"Just being a fifth-year guy graduating this year it's almost like pride thing…this is year that I graduate," Burrola said. "This is team that I'm going remember most."

After victory against Colonels, Burrola is looking forward to their matchup against No. 4 Idaho with chance play with his team once more.

"It's whole lot excitement man It's just another opportunity go out there perform national television out here with my brothers We've built such crazy bond" said. "I'm super excited get out there Saturday."

Written by Howard Woodard