He beat cancer and earned a starting spot on his college football team
AMES, Ia. — Mitchell Meyers’ emotional story has taken another turn.
If Iowa State played a football game this weekend, the guy who has whipped cancer is a starting defensive end.
“To me, it’s got to be one of the greatest stories in college football this year,” ISU coach Matt Campbell said after practice Wednesday night. “Here’s this kid that missed a year and a half... we didn’t give him anything.”
Meyers played all 12 games in 2013, and started every game in 2014.
He was diagnosed with cancer the following year, and underwent both radiation and chemotherapy over the following 13 months.
"I've played here, I've started here," Meyers told the Register last month. "Obviously I've had a big setback, and I think that I can overcome this. But, for me, I'm not looking for handouts. It's nothing like that.
“I want to contribute, because I'm good enough to be on the field and help the team win."
He learned last December that he was cancer free.
"To be honest, it's amazing what he's doing for our football team right now, how he's sky-rocketed up the depth chart," Campbell said.
Meyers, a 6-foot-4, 255-pound senior from The Woodlands, Texas, has beaten out J.D. Waggoner and Jhaustin Thomas, among others, for the right to start in the Sept. 3 season-opener against Northern Iowa at 7 p.m. at Jack Trice Stadium.
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