“Tradition was a big part of it,” said Skinner, a graduate student in finance. “Coaches are great, also it’s a good academic school with a good business school. It was the best of both worlds.”

Skinner arrived on campus and received a redshirt his first year. In 2005 Skinner saw some action as a back-up lineman. The following year Skinner was still a backup, but got playing time in 10 games.

Skinner was injured during the 2007 season with knee problems. He tried to come back this spring but realized he wouldn’t be able to play football anymore. Skinner has had ailing injuries that date back to high school.

When he was a junior in high school someone fell on his leg and he tore his ACL. He decided to skip surgery so he could play the rest of the season and ended up helping his team win the state championship.

“I went to the doctor and he gave me the option to have surgery or get [the knee] scoped and come back in a couple weeks,” Skinner said. “I knew we had a chance to win the state championship, and I wanted to help them do that.”

Even though Skinner no longer plays football he is still considered very much a part of the team. He is a player-coach for the offensive side of the ball – he studies film and gives tips to the offensive line players to make them play better.

“I try to help out anyway I can,” Skinner said. “Its hard not being out on the field, but at least I’ll be able to walk.”

Skinner doesn’t have as much time to study film as he used to because of his schoolwork job-search.

“He’s in grad school right now so he’s got a tremendous amount of academic work going on,” said defensive player-coach Christopher Rietschlin.

Skinner is in graduate school studying finance and said he hopes to find a job soon.

When football is over and he leaves OSU, he will always have the friends he made here and will remember the experiences of being a part of the football team.

“It’s a great experience going through [football] with them, and it makes you closer friends with them going out and working hard every day,” Skinner said.

Since football is no longer an option, Skinner has found other activities to fill in his free time between studying.

“I can’t really run anymore, so I started [biking], also I like lifting weights and playing Xbox,” Skinner said.

Skinner said when he gets the free time, he especially enjoys a good game of Madden NFL [the video game]. As for his favorite team – “Broncos, I’m a big Denver fan.”

Matt Lang can be reached at [email protected].