Former NC State defensive end Kentavius Street will come back ‘better than ever’ from knee injury

Darian Roseboro was down when he first had heard about Kentavius Street’s knee injury.

Then the N.C. State defensive end had a chance to talk with his former teammate.

“He’s always a high-spirited guy,” Roseboro said after N.C. State’s spring game on Saturday. “He’s looking forward to the process of getting back to where he was.”

Street, who started every game at defensive end last season for the Wolfpack, suffered a knee injury in a pre-draft workout last week. A projected late-round pick, Street suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament injury and will likely have to miss the 2018 season.

N.C. State coach Dave Doeren’s initial reaction to the news was like everyone else’s.

“It crushes my heart for that kid,” Doeren said. “We feel for him, and we’re praying for him.”

But then Doeren told Street about O’Brien Schofield, who played defensive end at Wisconsin when Doeren was an assistant there.

Schofield suffered an ACL injury during practice for the Senior Bowl before the 2010 draft. He went on to play seven seasons in the NFL at linebacker with the Arizona Cardinals, Seattle Seahawks and Atlanta Falcons.

Doeren told Street about the detour to start Schofield’s NFL career and his eventual success in the league. He was with the Seahawks during the 2013 season when they won Super Bowl XLVIII.

“This isn’t going to be the way you want to enter the league, but you’re going to enter the league,” Doeren said he told Street. “You can stay as long as you can stay, as long you take care of business.”

Street, a terrific athlete at 6-2 and 280 pounds, was one of the hardest working players on the Wolfpack defense the past four years. Roseboro, a senior, has no doubt how Street’s rehab from the injury will go.

“He’s going to come back better than ever,” Roseboro said.

The NFL draft starts April 26. All four of N.C. State’s defensive linemen from last season attended the NFL combine and, before Street’s injury, were projected to go in the draft.

LSU, in 2013, was the last school to have all four starting defensive linemen taken in the same draft.

This story was originally published April 7, 2018 at 6:32 PM with the headline "Former NC State defensive end Kentavius Street will come back ‘better than ever’ from knee injury."