Dan Persa enters his final season at Northwestern University with plenty of expecations

FROM THE EXPRESS TIMES

Kirk Ferentz half-laughed and half-grimaced when asked about Dan Persa.

With good reason.

Two years ago, the University of Iowa's head football coach watched the Liberty High School graduate enter the game in the second quarter to overturn a 10-0 lead Ferentz's fourth-ranked Hawkeyes owned at home over before eventually falling to Northwestern University 17-10.

Last year, Iowa led the Wildcats by 10 points with 11 minutes to go in the game. And once again, Ferentz found himself left to watch Persa engineer an heroic comeback, throwing two touchdown passes to cap drives of 85 and 91 yards and defeat the Hawkeyes 21-17.

"Maybe with the exception of (former Indiana University quarterback) Antwaan Randel El back in the 1999-2000 period there, I don't know if a quarterback has played any better than Dan did last year against us," said Ferentz at the 2011 Big Ten Football Media Days at the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place in Chicago. "He'd been playing well all year, but he played a phenomenal game against us. He's a tremendous competitor. You hate to see any athlete get hurt, that was just a shame."

The injury Ferentz alluded to came on the memory-etching touchdown pass to win the game.

Persa rolled to his right and threw across his body towards the goal line on the left side of the field. Unable to see if his receiver caught the ball, Persa jumped in the air to get a better view.

When he landed, his season was over.

"They brought some pressure so I slid to the right and threw it," Persa said. "I jumped to see if he caught it and when I landed I felt a pop in my leg."

Northwestern's season popped as well, as the Wildcats failed to win their three remaining games, including a thrilling 45-38 loss to Texas Tech in the TicketCity Bowl in Dallas on New Year's Day.

Persa played just 10 games as the Northwestern starting quarterback in 2010, but his performance was such that he was named first-team All Big Ten quarterback.

At the summit of his collegiate career, Persa finds himself a candidate for nearly every major quarterback award, including the Heisman Trophy.

"It all goes back to preparation, and Dan figured that out a long time before he came to Northwestern," Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald said. "In our program, we've got a set of values and Dan embodies those, he goes to work. There's only one way that he operates, he gives everything he has at every given moment and that kind of work ethic is infectious."

Having broken his leg as a junior in 1995 when Northwestern went to the Rose Bowl, Fitzgerald, a two-time national defensive player of the year as a middle linebacker at NU, knows firsthand the effect that work ethic had in Persa's rehabilitation.

"He's going to come back to football not in the shape maybe the last time he played. That's going to be really frustrating. How you shake the rust off, look at it from a bigger perspective, yeah, you have to take it day-to-day," Fitzgerald said. "He's going to be back, it's going to be a little bit different because his body is going to operate a little bit different. He's 100 percent healed from the standpoint of the surgery, now it's about adding the strength, getting the conditioning level up, getting back to having fun. I know he's chomping at the bit to play football again."

Persa may be anxious to play, but not because of any chip on his shoulders.

"I don't think I have anything to prove to anybody else, it's more proving to myself that I'm back, that I'm fully healthy and I can do the things I did last year," Persa said. "Honestly though, I don't want to do those things, I don't want to rush for 500 yards. I'd rather have a running back run for 1000, kind of take the pressure off me to let me do what I do best, stay in the pocket, make throws and make plays. "

While putting up impressive numbers on the field, including a Division I Football Bowl Subdivision leading 73.5% completion rating and a 15-4 touchdown-to-interception ratio while rushing for nine more scores, it's character that has earned Persa the respect of his opponents and teammates alike.

"I think everybody in our program knew based on the work ethic of Dan, the selflessness he showed in playing special teams and doing whatever was asked of him, that everyone knew how special he is," said Al Netter, Persa's main bodyguard on the offensive line and Outland Trophy candidate. "After his freshman and sophomore years, everyone knew he was one of the leaders of this team. I wasn't surprised to see him elected captain (his junior year) even though he hadn't had a start."

Ferentz saw the same from the opposite side of the field.

"Dan Persa is a very dynamic performer and any time you lose a player like that, that's tough, it affects the football team, especially at that position," Ferentz said. "He is not only a good football player but a real leader on their team. To me, if you have Dan Persa playing quarterback, you have a chance to beat anybody."

While Persa may have one more season to shine on the gridiron, he is the first to recognize the value in what he has learned on the field and in the classroom.

"To have that education and that experience is invaluable, it's a great foundation upon which to build your life after football," he said.

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