19 September 2024
Nick Monroe was on an otherwise routine work trip in Palm Beach County, Fla., in May 2023 when he endured a “life-changing experience.”
The Gophers cornerbacks coach was between stops in fertile recruiting territory when he says a tractor-trailer ran his Nissan Armada off the road and onto a field. Authorities told him his rented SUV flipped an estimated four to six times.
“They thought it was done,” Monroe shared with the Pioneer Press earlier this month. And by “it,” he means his life. “They thought it was over with. I got life-lined in a helicopter to a trauma center.”
But Monroe was wearing his seatbelt and was saved, in part, by so many deployed airbags that “it felt like a giant pillow factory.” But the now-45-year-old was far from comfortable, sharing he suffered a concussion, a fractured clavicle on one shoulder, a torn rotator on the other arm and a damaged eyelid on top of other injuries.
“The back and the spine were pretty jarred up there for a while,” Monroe continued. “I don’t remember how many stitches I had, but I got some good scars on the body.”
Monroe was hospitalized for a while in Florida, with his wife Nicole flying down to be by his side. He couldn’t feed himself for a period and couldn’t drive for half a year. He underwent multiple surgeries, including more care in Minnesota.
“But nothing that truly took away my ability to live a normal life,” he shared. “Nothing to take away the way I’m a husband or a father. Nothing to take away the way I coach.”
Monroe shared his harrowing story with the Gophers football team two days before they shut down Rhode Island on Sept. 7. Head coach P.J. Fleck calls on assistant coaches to speak to the team each Thursday during the season; he often asks staff members who have coached against teams in that region of the country or guys who aspire to be head coaches someday.
Monroe, a Mahtomedi native, used his personal experience to relay a message of gratitude to Gophers players. It hit Max Brosmer in a sweet spot.
Soon after Brosmer transferred in from New Hampshire in January, the Gophers quarterback shared that gratefulness was one of the first words he wrote down at his locker inside the Larson Football Performance Center.
“It just reassures me that this place is definitely home — and for our whole team as well,” Brosmer said last week. “His message was one of the best that I’ve heard throughout my whole college career. The first thing I said to him afterward was, ‘Thank you. I appreciate it. It really meant a lot to me.’ I still think back to it it. I have a ton of notes from it.”
The Gophers want to express their gratitude Saturday when they play in one of the richest rivalries in college football: the Battle for Floyd of Rosedale against Iowa at Huntington Bank Stadium.
Monroe’s infectious personality has shown on the recruiting trail in Florida and led to the nickname “Swag Daddy” before he joined the U in January 2023. His accident came before he coached a game at the U but after stops at Allegheny College, Colgate, Bowling Green and Syracuse.
Yet a car accident wasn’t necessary for Monroe to be grateful to coach at Minnesota. His father Marty was a graduate assistant with the Gophers in 1994-95. Nick grew up a fan and said he was named “most valuable defensive back” at a youth camp at the U in 1995.
“It was just anything Golden Gopher football; that was the dream,” Monroe said. “Every Saturday, you were either watching TV or you were listening on the radio.”
Monroe decided not to walk on at Minnesota and took an opportunity at Division II St. Cloud State, where he was a four-year letter-winner at cornerback. He graduated college in 2001, so it’s been a long road back to his favorite college program, now 23 years later.
Monroe’s recovery included an inability to throw passes in practice last year and came with ribbing from fellow coaches when he could only bench press the 45-pound bar in the U weight room. Now he has some zip on passes in practice and can again lift 225 pounds. But off campus, he won’t drive anything other than an SUV or truck and is hesitant to pass tractor-trailers on roads.
Part of Monroe’s message to the team two weeks ago included enjoying the journey and not focusing on reaching the destination.
“You can’t ever wish away time, because time is something that you can never slow down, and it’s never something that you know how much you have left,” Monroe said. “If you start wishing away time, then you’re going to lose appreciation for all the fun things and all the family things and all the beautiful things that go into this game, including the tough times, including the sacrifice.”
For cornerbacks such as Ethan Robinson and Justin Walley, that message has resonated as they go through their senior seasons.
“We have a lot of young players that wish it was their time, wish, wish, wish,” Robinson said. “But now that I’m here — when you get there — you wish you had that time back. Don’t wish away time. Stay in the moment, play every moment that is right in front of you, just live and enjoy your life.”
Robinson, who joined the U from FCS-level Bucknell, said Monroe can be a hard-driving coach.
“If you don’t match (his) energy, you are going to stick out, so you have to come to practice ready to work every single day,” Robinson said. “You have to come, kind of, with your shield on because you may make a good play, but he’s going to coach you on what you could have done better and what you could have done wrong. In the same sense, he will give you your compliments and will tell you what you did good. He’s always looking to help you. That is exactly what I was looking for in coming to a school, so I can’t even complain.”
After the Floyd of Rosedale game, Monroe will likely visit with his wife, 8-year-old son Wyatt, his mom, dad and friends. They will talk about the game, but his Gopher dad won’t fret or focus too much about the Xs and Os.
“What he cares about is how hard we play; don’t ever take that away,” Nick said. “Coach them really hard, but love them harder.”
Nick is doing that with more purpose after his life was overturned on a South Florida field 16 months ago.
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