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Malik Feaster
This past football season, Stephens County High School graduate and former Indian football player Malik Feaster finally found himself back on the football field playing for the Jacksonville State University Gamecocks after missing six months due to an injury. It was a long time coming for the Gamecock who will enter his senior season with JSU in 2022.
“This past season was good,” Feaster said. “It could have been better, but I had a good season coming back off from my injury which I did not know I would be able to play at a high level just yet or so quickly.”
The season prior to 2021, Feaster suffered a season ending injury. It occurred in JSU’s spring 2020 season opener. (Due to the COVID pan-demic JSU had a four-game fall 2020 season and a spring 2021 season).In the spring season-opener against Tennessee Tech, Feaster suffered a brutal leg injury that fractured his fibula along with tearing some of the cartilage in his ankle.
“I was going to make a play on the ball, thinking it was run play or a screen pass,” Feaster said. “I was coming downhill to make a play on the ball. My teammate came over and hit me and the ball carrier. Kind of rolled me up and broke my fibula and tore up my ligaments in my ankle.”
From that point on it was a long, tedious road to recovery. Feaster suffered that injury in Feb. of 2021 that caused him to miss out on the rest of the spring season that went all the way into May of 2021. From that point on the six-month recovery began. It took a toll on the former Indian. Not only did Feaster miss out on playing for that spring season he missed out on being on the sidelines for most of the games of that season.
Feaster was not able to be on the sidelines during some of the games due to his injury. It was too much of a hazard for him to be on the sidelines with his injury.
“I got hurt I was always chilling at my apartment on the couch with the TV on watching and supporting my teammates,” Feaster said. “I wanted to be out there and play with them.”
Feaster underwent surgery for his injury. After the surgery, he had to endure therapy to slowly regain strength in his leg which was a long process.
“So I got in a cast for about two weeks,” Feaster said. “Got out of the cast, got in a boot with two crutches. Did that for a few weeks. Then I could put down one crutch. I could put a little bit of pressure by using one crutch for a few weeks. Then after that I could walk on a boot for a little while for like three hours of the day for a few weeks. “Then I would progress without the boot for five hours a day until I was completely without the boot. Then that was when the rehab stuff come in like with the ankle pumps along with drills,” he said.
Finally, after the long healing and rehabbing process Feaster, was cleared to play in the fall of 2021. After experiencing one of the lows of his football career with his injury, Feaster got to experience the greatest moment in his football career so far. That moment came this past season when JSU got one of their biggest victories in program history. JSU, a Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) program played Florida State University a Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) Power Five program on the road.
FSU was a 27-point favorite going into the game, but the Gamecocks shocked the Seminoles on their home field upsetting FSU on a long, last play touchdown pass in the 20-17 upset in Tallahassee, Fla. Late in the game, JSU was down to FSU 17-14 when they faced a fourth and 10 on their own 41 with just six seconds left.
JSU quarterback Zerrick Cooper took the snap. Cooper took a few steps and heaved the ball to Damond Johnson who caught it in stride, made an FSU tackler miss, picked up one more block and took an open lane to the end zone with the no time remaining. The game winning play caused a JSU celebration on FSU’s field, but celebration was slightly delayed.
“Everyone was looking. I remember standing on the sidelines looking down the field to see if I saw a flag,” Feaster said. “I looked up the field and across. I looked everywhere and then I just ran out on the field. We all just jumped in on him and had a big pile. I was doing the little Tomahawk thing. It felt good.”
During Feaster’s JSU career, He has experienced some highs such as the Gamecocks winning an Ohio Valley Conference championship his freshman year and winning another one in the spring of 2021. But nothing higher than the upset win over Florida State.
“Honestly, if I don’t win a national championship in college or go win the Super Bowl then there right there would be my top moment since I have been playing sports,” Feaster said. “The atmosphere was like 82,000 people there. We already had the short end of the stick coming into the game. They thought they were just going to blow us out. We would not have a chance… It was insane we were jumping up and down we was just excited. I can’t even explain it. It was nothing but pure excitement.”
With experiencing the most special moment in his athletic career, Feaster wanted to share the moment with some of his friends he made back in Stephens County. Feaster along with his JSU teammates rushed into the locker and got their phones. They brought their phones out to share the moment with family and friends. Feaster Facetimed former Indian football teammates A.J. Howard and Jaquarius Walker.
“It was good. I Facetimed him (AJ Howard) and my home boy NuNu (Jaquarius Walker) who I used to play football and basketball with at Stephens County,” Feaster said. “I was just talking to them just telling them what was happening. I Facetimed them on the field right after the game, right there on the Florida State logo. It was just exciting I just wanted to share that moment with my boys,” Feaster said.
Feaster is now going into his senior season at JSU. The Gamecock cornerback said his goals in the 2023 season are to have a bigger impact on special teams. He is majoring in engineering and has goals to enter the NFL draft after his JSU career ends.
Feaster and the Gamecocks will open the 2022 season on Aug. 27 against Stephen F. Austin. The game will be played in Montgomery, Ala.