Maryland’s Jake Funk has become numb to pain so the tumult of 2020 can’t faze him
In some ways, this 2020 season, as chaotic as it has become because of the pandemic, has served as an attention-grabbing endeavor for Funk. He’s accumulated 336 rushing yards, more than triple the total of anybody else on the team. He was an integral force in the Terps’ overtime win against Minnesota and the historic victory at Penn State, the school where Funk’s dad played but years later never offered his son a scholarship.
But it’s now mid-December, and Funk has only played three games. Maryland canceled two matchups after a coronavirus outbreak in the program, then Funk missed another. Maryland prepared to play last weekend at Michigan, but the Wolverines became yet another program forced to cancel because of the virus. So Funk has spent the last four weekends at his home in Damascus, watching college football from the couch — usually Army, where his younger brother plays, or the team scheduled to face Maryland the following week.
“A lot of this stuff, in terms of how bad things can get,” Funk said, “it’s not even comparable to some of the stuff that I’ve been through.”
Funk’s college career has been defined by having football taken away for reasons outside his control, but this feels different from each of the last two years when Funk tore his ACL. When rehabbing his injured knee ligament, Funk watched his teammates continue on without him, but if he wanted to sprint onto the team bus, he physically couldn’t. This time when he watches from afar, Funk feels fine. He wants to play. But the virus has dashed Maryland’s hope for anything that resembles a complete campaign.
With the limited opportunities, Funk has shown flashes of the running back he can be when healthy. Funk says his knee feels great. His brother, Josh, who runs a fitness-focused physical therapy company, said Funk is stronger and faster than before. Funk exploded for a 221-yard outing against Minnesota, more rushing yards than he had previously recorded during an entire collegiate season. Afterward, Funk called his older brother from the field, and the two shared an emotional moment. The game validated the running back’s last two years of work.
Funk has played well this season, with Coach Michael Locksley considering him an every-down back who can run, block and catch passes. Funk will be honored with the other seniors before Saturday’s home game against Rutgers. Then Maryland will play a cross-division matchup next weekend and potentially a bowl. Funk has a maximum of three games left — and possibly another year if he decides to use the eligibility relief granted by the NCAA.
Despite his injury-free status, this will be the third straight season that Funk hasn’t played four consecutive weekends. But he still has time to tout his ability as Maryland’s No. 1 back and lead the Terps to a winning record for the first time since 2014.
“He’s one of the few guys that you see today that just does everything right,” said linebacker Chance Campbell, one of Funk’s close friends. “He had a lot of things not go his way. … It’s easy to root for him.”
Through his Maryland career, Funk waited behind a bundle of talented running backs — Trey Edmunds (now on the Steelers’ injured reserve), Ty Johnson (on the Jets’ active roster), Anthony McFarland Jr. (on the Steelers’ active roster) and Javon Leake (on Washington’s practice squad). As Funk inched toward more playing time in 2018, he broke his hand during an early season practice and needed surgery. Funk returned in November, primarily with a role on special teams, and tore his ACL against Ohio State. Before that season, Funk hadn’t skipped a game in years. He never had a setback during high school, never missed a practice.
Funk asked the staff not to publicize his knee injury, so his torn ACL went largely unnoticed until the spring. Funk takes an objective approach to his recovery processes, only wanting to know what’s next on the path to a return. “All that other stuff would have been distractions,” said Funk’s dad, Jim, describing his son as a private person.
“We always talk about him being on a rail,” Funk’s dad said. “He’s on that rail and you can hit him and you can knock him around while he’s on that rail, but very rarely does he ever get knocked off of it.”
In 2019, McFarland and Leake still topped the depth chart, but Funk began the year with strong performances in the first two games. Then his season halted, and the long recovery process began again, when Funk partially tore his ACL against Temple. This time, Funk needed a second surgery to clean out an infection in his knee. He lost about 25 pounds and was on intravenous antibiotics for a month.
Funk worked back to full strength while his team played its first season under Locksley and continued his rehab during the pandemic. When players couldn’t be on campus, Funk worked with his brother and regularly lifted weights with a few friends in a neighbor’s barn.
“There are very, very, very few people that really understand what the last two to two-and-a-half years have been like for me,” Funk said before this season’s opener, when he started for the first time in his career.
Funk describes the feeling as numbness. He’s become numb to pain, to nervousness, to being fazed by the tumult of the 2020 schedule. “I’ve gone through so much to where it’s like, ‘All right, what’s next?’’’ he said.
This week, what’s next is Rutgers, senior day and the opportunity to win a third conference game. However short this season has become for Funk, he proved he belongs on this stage. Funk dreamed of playing big-time college football, but initially only schools outside the major conferences recruited him.
Wisconsin offered Funk a scholarship to play linebacker. Funk planned to commit if he didn’t pick up a scholarship from Stanford during a camp. Before the flight home from California, Funk said Wisconsin pulled the scholarship because a few other linebackers committed in quick succession. He started his senior season uncommitted and unsure where he’d end up.
When Locksley took over as Maryland’s interim coach during the 2015 season, he immediately extended an offer. Funk’s assessment as a two-star recruit is now featured on his Twitter header photo, but he broke records at Damascus High. As a senior, he rushed for 2,866 yards and scored 57 touchdowns, a single-season state record. Locksley believed in Funk. He says Funk “embodies the DNA of the DMV.” Locksley trusted that a player who succeeded to that extent on the local high school football scene could also thrive in major college football. The two eventually reunited after Locksley’s return to Maryland as the head coach, with Funk now one of the team’s few seniors.
“One of my all-time favorite players,” Locksley said last season. “And I know you’re not supposed to pick your children and say he’s my favorite child, but Jake is one of those guys that is hard not to really love and love hard.”
Funk wants to be remembered as “somebody who didn’t care what anybody said about them and just believed in himself.” Funk feels fulfilled with how he’s led the young group. His success prompts teammates to ooze genuine joy. Funk had three major injuries over the course of 15 months, but in his return this season, he has excelled.
“You wonder if I had a full season under my belt, what could have been,” Funk said. “But you’ve got to be able to just play with what you’ve got.”
This season’s shortened slate will factor into whether he returns for next year, but Funk says he’ll make the decision after the Terps’ final game. It’d be his sixth year at school. Perhaps he’ll want to move on regardless. Funk could bid farewell to college football with only an abbreviated stint as Maryland’s top running back, but in that time, he has — and still can — generate those sparks of success, each one a reminder of the persistence that preceded the breakthrough.
