"When life hands you lemons," Frankie Telfort recites the cliche with which he is all too familiar.
Blessed with sideline-to-sideline speed, the 4-star recruit was permanently sidelined by a heart murmur before fall camp of his freshman year. Primed to be the next great USC linebacker, Telfort was told that he would never suit up for the cardinal and gold.
"I was in a state of shock really. None of it seemed real to me. I didn't really believe it maybe until the whole year was over," explained Telfort (photo by John McGillen), who arrived from Miami in 2009.
Matt Meyer came down from Stockton a year previous. The 6'7" man mountain was supposed to anchor the offensive line until one misstep in fall camp completely shattered the bones and joints in his right foot.
"You try to move on as quickly as possible with school and what not, but I don't think it really set in that I was not going to play anymore until after my junior year," said Meyer, who needed steel plates to fuse together the deteriorating bones.
Telfort and Meyer are uniquely gifted, not just with NFL caliber athleticism, but the will, intelligence and imagination to carve out a life not wearing pads.
Meyer did not sit around licking his wounds. Instead, during his freshman year, he and a friend formed a bottled water company, which emphasizes environmental sustainability in a notoriously unsustainable industry.
Waiakea Springs boasts "the highest quality water in the world" since it is filtered through 13,000 feet of lava in Hawaii. The first bottles will hit shelves in the next two months, but you can learn more about them on Facebook.
"For all the players who are lucky enough to come here and actually receive a scholarship, you really can't take advantage of too many things," said Meyer (Photo by Kathe Osborne), a sustainable policy major. "USC has so many resources that no matter what your situation, you can take advantage of the tools and excel at the highest level."
Telfort continues to follow his two passions, football and medicine. He is hoping to earn a spot as a graduate assistant, so he can develop as a coach, while earning his master's in kinesiology, which could eventually lead him to medical school.
"I want to take this opportunity to make the best of my academic situation and learn more about the game of football," Telfort embraced the positive. "Life is long man, you might as well have a couple of jobs. Why not?"
While they do seem preprogrammed for success, Meyer and Telfort are only human. They do miss the game and wonder what could have been.
"It's kind of a double-edged sword because as a player knowing all the knowledge that I have now, I could have been great as a player," Telfort said about his coaching perspective.
Meyer was in the same recruiting class as LT Matt Kalil, C Khaled Holmes and Dallas Cowboys RT Tyron Smith. "They seem to be doing very well without me," Meyer said with a smile.
Telfort and Meyer accept that life's challenges happen for a reason. They don't pretend to know what is coming next, but whatever it is, they will adapt and overcome.
"No matter what, I'm passionate about just about everything I do," Meyer summed up the self-belief readily apparent in he and Telfort. "If I get something else thrown at me, I'll just keep moving and do something different."
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