For those of you who don’t remember, and you probably don’t, because I barely did, I wrote a column after the spring game last year and the opening line read, “If I were Oregon head football coach Chip Kelly, I would make Jeremiah Masoli wear two, maybe even three or four knee braces all day, every day.”
 
This was obviously satirical at the time, but as I continued on through my old column the other day, I couldn’t help but hear a few I-told-you-so’s going off in my head.
 
Knee issues are a part of any sport, and every athlete relies on them in one way or another. They get beaten on day in and day out, and in football there is no way to avoid knee injuries all together.
 
Just ask junior quarterback Nate Costa.
 
Costa has twice torn the ACL of his left knee, which has been twice surgically repaired, and before he entered the game against Cal two weeks ago it had been 1,049 days since he had taken a snap in a real game. Yet tomorrow afternoon, he’ll be under center for the No. 13 Oregon Ducks.
 
Coming out of high school, Costa was highly touted as the quarterback of the future for Oregon. During his senior season in high school Costa, threw for 2,252 yards and 15 touchdowns, while rushing for 1,709 yards and another 18 scores.
 
Head coach Chip Kelly and the rest of the Oregon coaching staff have thought extremely high of Costa during his time at the University, but I guess I never really understood why until this week. More than likely, Costa will start tomorrow against UCLA at the Rose Bowl — quite the venue for his first collegiate start — something that has been a long time coming for the Hilmar, Calif.-native.
 
In 2006, Costa was brought out of his redshirt season for cleanup duty against Portland State and USC. In his two appearances, Costa went a perfect five of five for 73 yards and ran seven times for 39 yards.
 
The following year he began dealing with knee injuries — torn ligaments suffered during an October practice.
 
A year later it was the same story. But this time Costa was named the starting quarterback in fall camp. And just two weeks before the season opener, he was sidelined for the rest of the 2008 season after his second major knee surgery in as many years.
 
But heading into the 2009 season, Costa was still able to find motivation to fight for the starting job, which he did exceptionally well. He was able to make a push for the starting job, though it was never truly out of the hands of junior Jeremiah Masoli.
 
For Costa, none of that will matter heading into
tomorrow’s game. He will finally get the chance to start his first game since graduating from high school.
 
I won’t claim to have been on the Costa bandwagon much over the past two seasons, but after hearing and reading about everything he has gone through to get to this point, it is nothing short of admirable. Without taking a single live snap, he has provided inspiration to more people than he probably realizes.
 
His willingness to stick with a physically demanding and often times dangerous game has shown just how much he loves it.
 
His passionate approach to the game has shown me a different perspective on things, a perspective that I hope I view sports with for a long time to come. A perspective that takes us beyond the touchdowns and the glory, to a place where people like Nate Costa thrive.
 
No matter the outcome tomorrow, it will be a day that Costa will not soon forget.
 
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