ASU fifth-year senior Berg finally gets his moment

By his own admission, Marcus Berg would call his five years at Alabama State a long journey.

As he nears his 25th birthday, Berg is a little wiser and more mature than his Hornet teammates, which has helped a defender coming off of two surgeries on his left knee more thankful for the opportunity to start at cornerback.

"It's just a humbling experience," said Berg, who sat out 2013 after a knee injury, his second. "I tore it out of high school, then I finally knocked all the rust off and was working my way back up the depth chart, working with the 'ones' and then ... it goes out again.

"That makes you humble, and it made me realize that any day can be my last day. So I work hard like it's my last day."

Berg committed to Ole Miss as a senior at Fletcher High in Jacksonville, part of a 2009 signing class of Florida stars that included Trent Richardson (Alabama), Bryce Brown (Miami), Onterrio McCalebb (Auburn) and Aaron Murray (Georgia). All of those players are currently in the NFL. Berg, meanwhile, is just trying to make the starting lineup at a Division I-AA team. His first knee injury came three days before he was supposed to sign with Ole Miss.

"I used to wonder about what might have been," he said, "and then I started getting more and more into church and God. I just figured it was meant to be like this, I just have to make the best of my situation. ... It could have been a lot worse. I might not be playing at all anymore."

Berg played just three games (including the SWAC Championship Game) at ASU as a freshman and 10 as a reserve in 2011, still struggling to adapt to life at cornerback.

He worked his way into the starting lineup against Bethune-Cookman in the 2012 season opener, but that was a tough day for everyone in the Hornet secondary. He was bumped from a starting role for the season. In 24 career games, he's made just one start and 26 tackles, never intercepting a pass and never forcing a turnover.

Sitting out 2013 might have been the toughest. As a much-maligned secondary took its lumps, Berg could only sit on the sidelines.

"It was frustrating because I got hurt right before the season started, and I tried my best to make it back, but the doctors just said it was best for me to sit it out," he said. "I had people asking me when I was going to play, when I was coming back, but it wasn't a single-person thing, it was the whole unit needed to be tweaked and needed to be better. It wasn't like if I came in, the worries would all stop."

He never gave up on trying to improve. And Alabama State coaches never gave up on him, naming him the starter in the season opener.

"I think Marcus Berg has been around the campus and been around the program for a long time," head coach Reggie Barlow said. "I think he understands the commitment and the work ethic it takes to be a solid football player. I just think the stuff he has been through over the years has finally given him that voice of confidence. He's coming into his own. He has the skill set, the size, to be a good cornerback.

"I think being a fifth-year senior, being mature and wanting to be a leader, he's at a point now where he will be really able to help the young guys and get us to where we need to be."