Michigan State football: LB Darius Snow's return from injury carries shades of 'Rocky'

EAST LANSING — Darius Snow’s first play in more than a year didn’t turn out as he hoped: Watching former teammate Germie Bernard run past him for a touchdown in mid-September.

Then again, few things for the Michigan State football linebacker have turned out as he'd hoped over the past two years. That the fourth-year junior was even able to return to the field to absorb the contact of a block showed the kind of fight befitting of one of his fictional idols who kept getting up every time he’d get knocked down.

“I’d love to be Rocky,” Snow said Tuesday with a big grin. “I'm a Philly guy.”

In the movies, win or lose, Rocky Balboa displayed a trademark resiliency in overcoming adversity.

In real life, Snow’s comeback from a major injury that cost him almost all of last season shows the same toughness and grit he learned from his real-life heroes: his father, former MSU and NBA point guard Eric Snow, and his uncle, former MSU and NFL linebacker Percy Snow.

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Three games into Snow's return, the latest in that lineage has emerged as a vocal leader for an embattled program following the ouster of Mel Tucker. With that, Snow’s role also continues to expand heading into Saturday’s road trip to Rutgers (noon, BTN) after a season-ending injury to fellow linebacker Jacoby Windmon.

Channeling the lessons he learned from his father, Snow pulled his teammates aside after practice Monday. Interim head coach Harlon Barnett, a former Spartan teammate of Percy’s, agreed.

“Darius wanted a few minutes with the team himself, and he shared some things with them. So we stepped away as coaches and let him share,” Barnett said Monday. “It was something that he said he had talked to his dad about, and he felt like he wanted to share with the team. So that was good. The leadership has stepped up. And especially at a time like this, it's very crucial.”

The message? It was personal.

“It's an acronym that's BCEF,” Snow recalled. “And it's Believe, Compete, Endure and Finish. And it goes for life. I felt that was something I could share with the team. I said that at the end of the day, you really can't accomplish anything if you don't believe in yourself first. And then when it comes to a ball — really, anything in the workforce, in America — the best win, and you gotta compete. And then you have to endure at some points in life.

“You're gonna come across adversity, and you're gonna come across things that don't go your way. But how can you get through it? And at the end of the day, you gotta finish.”

Snow wouldn’t specify the exact nature of the significant injury to his right leg, which he suffered from taking a helmet from teammate Chester Kimbrough going to make a tackle in the 2022 season-opener against Western Michigan, but he admitted it required multiple surgeries. The 6-foot-1, 230-pound converted defensive back also did not estimate how close to 100% he is now, after what he called “a roller-coaster ride” of a recovery.

“I don't know if I can put a number on it personally,” he said. “I can say that I'm getting closer to being myself."

Snow did, however, quickly rattle off the number of days it took for him to return for the first time, running back onto the Spartan Stadium grass Sept. 16 with about 10 minutes left in the first quarter against Washington.

“At that point, it had been 374 days since I was able to play,” he said, “and I was eager to get back.”

On that first play in more than a year, Snow shifted into the slot with MSU’s goal-line defense after a Huskies formation shift. Washington receiver Ja’Lynn Polk stood him upright with a firm block as Bernard zipped around the edge for a 1-yard touchdown run on an end-around.

But that really was the first round for Snow, who moved to linebacker during preseason camp in 2022 after starting the final eight games of 2021 at nickel back en route to finishing third among the Spartans with 87 tackles.

Snow’s role increased the following week in a home loss to Maryland with Windmon out. Then in MSU’s most recent game, a 26-16 loss at Iowa on Sept. 30, Snow recorded three of his five tackles this season and received more snaps alongside Cal Haladay, Aaron Brule and Jordan Hall.

His playing time should continue to evolve after Windmon was announced as being out for the rest of the season before the Iowa game.

And he should continue to compete with the legacy of his family and the spirit of Rocky guiding him.

“The key to being resilient, it's about the consistency of doing your job. And at the end of the day, man, just play hard. Play hard,” Snow said. “You gotta want it. We talk about being Spartan dogs, you gotta want it and you gotta go get it. That's what it is. Being resilient is what this program is about, it's what it's always been about. And that's what we've got to go out and do.”

With all of that comes a healthy dose of humility and perspective.

Snow originally signed as part of Mark Dantonio’s final recruiting class in 2020, went through the coaching change and coronavirus pandemic in his first season, then made a position switch at Tucker’s urging before the injury. One doctor told him he had a 30% chance of merely playing football again, let alone returning to his previous level. Snow went to another doctor for his procedures and focused on attacking his rehab to get back, all while continuing to put in work to earn his undergraduate degree in graphic design in May. (He's now doing graduate coursework in digital media.)

Tucker’s tenure at MSU ended just as Snow returned, serving as a reminder to the rest of his teammates about what to prioritize — academics and football — and how to avoid the outside noise with the seven-game vacuum that remains.

By believing. By competing. By enduring.

By finishing.

“There's a quote that my dad and I spoke about recently, but it's come about a lot in my life. Perception as you allow it can be the biggest piece of your reality,” Snow said. “And everybody can perceive things to be a lot worse than they are, especially when the main things in life aren't going as you would expect it. For me personally, when you hit a point where you can't do the normal things — there was a point where I couldn't walk and I had to get rides everywhere and stuff like that — you can start to become more grateful for things that you took advantage of, or that I took for granted, I should say. Like even being able to go make your own food.

“So at the end of the day, we get a chance to play ball. And that's what we're here to do.”

Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State football: Darius Snow shows his 'Rocky' roots in return