Some “what if?” stories require imagination. This one doesn’t.

Because before injuries changed Shai McKenzie’s football career, we already got a glimpse of what was coming.

As a junior at Washington High School: 2,689 rushing yards. 41 rushing touchdowns. He led Washington to the WPIAL championship game.

Then his senior season started.

In barely more than two games, McKenzie rushed for another 650 yards and 11 touchdowns. He was averaging more than 18 yards per carry.

Then his knee gave out. Torn ACL. Senior season over.

And incredibly, that wasn’t the last time.

Roughly a year later, after fighting his way back and earning immediate playing time as a true freshman at Virginia Tech, McKenzie tore the same ACL again.

That’s why Part 5 has one simple question: What if Shai McKenzie had two healthy knees?

 

Wash High Had a Problem

If you watched WPIAL football around 2012, you remember the name.

Shai McKenzie wasn’t simply having a nice season at Washington. He was destroying people.

As a junior, McKenzie carried the ball for 2,689 yards and scored 41 rushing touchdowns. He averaged well over 11 yards per carry. Washington reached Heinz Field for the WPIAL Class AA championship.

And McKenzie established himself as one of Pennsylvania’s top running backs.

One playoff performance tells you how heavily Washington could lean on him. 42 carries. 300 yards. Four touchdowns.

That’s not a highlight-reel player getting five touches. That’s a workhorse putting an offense on his back.

 

Then Came Senior Year

McKenzie entered 2013 with enormous expectations.

He was already over 4,000 career rushing yards. He had become one of the WPIAL’s biggest recruits.

And he was chasing even bigger numbers.

Then he started his senior season like somebody playing Madden on rookie mode.

Through two games and part of a third: 650 rushing yards. 11 touchdowns. On only 36 carries. That’s more than 18 yards every time he carried the football.

Not 18 yards per catch. Per carry.

Then came Charleroi.

 

One Play Changed Everything

McKenzie was running in the open field when his right knee gave out.

The diagnosis eventually came back: Torn ACL.

His high school career was over. Just like that.

He finished his Washington career with 4,865 rushing yards despite essentially losing almost his entire senior season.

Now think about what we lost.

He had 650 yards after barely more than two games. What happens if he plays the entire season?

 

Does He Reach 6,000?

That’s the first “what if?”

McKenzie needed roughly 1,135 additional yards to reach 6,000 for his career.

Considering he’d rushed for 2,689 the previous season and had already put up 650 in only a fraction of his senior year, 6,000 wasn’t some ridiculous fantasy.

Does he reach it? Does he go well beyond it? Does Washington make another run to Heinz Field? Does he challenge more WPIAL records?

We’ll never know. The ACL took those answers away.

 

But College Coaches Still Wanted Him

Here’s what tells you how highly McKenzie was regarded. The injury didn’t suddenly make major programs forget who he was.

Virginia Tech. Pitt. Florida State. Georgia Tech. Arkansas.

McKenzie remained a major recruit.

Virginia Tech’s own recruiting material listed him as a four-star-caliber Pennsylvania prospect and noted his combination of power, speed and patience.

Eventually he chose Virginia Tech.

And he attacked rehabilitation with one goal: Play immediately.

 

He Enrolled Early for Rehab

McKenzie graduated early and enrolled at Virginia Tech in January.

Part of the reason was simple. He wanted access to elite rehabilitation. He wanted to get that knee ready. And he didn’t want to redshirt.

That’s how badly he wanted to get back.

Remember, this is a teenager coming off an ACL tear. A lot of players would’ve accepted losing another season. McKenzie was trying to get himself onto an ACC field months later.

And he did.

 

Then We Saw the Talent Again

August 30, 2014.

Virginia Tech versus William & Mary. McKenzie’s first college football game.

Nine carries. 106 yards. Touchdown. That’s 11.8 yards per carry.

Different uniform. Different level. Same explosiveness.

The kid who had been terrorizing Western Pennsylvania defenses was showing he could produce in college too.

 

Five Games Into College……

McKenzie was contributing immediately as a true freshman.

He had 269 rushing yards through five games and was second on Virginia Tech’s team in rushing.

Then against Western Michigan, he ran for 87 yards and a touchdown.

And his right knee went again. Same ACL. Torn again. Season over.

Two ACL tears. Same knee. About a year apart.

The first ended his high school career. The second interrupted his freshman college season.

That’s brutal.

 

Now the “What If?” Becomes Real

One ACL tear can change a running back.

Two?

That’s an entirely different challenge.

Especially when your game is built around explosion. Planting. Cutting. Accelerating. Trusting your leg when you see daylight.

McKenzie had already shown Virginia Tech what he could do. He didn’t need three years to prove he belonged. He ran for 106 yards in his first college game.

That’s why I wonder: What happens if that second ACL tear never occurs?

 

What Does His Sophomore Year Look Like?

Instead of spending another offseason rebuilding the same knee, McKenzie spends it getting stronger. Instead of worrying about rehabilitation, he’s developing as an ACC running back. Instead of trying to regain what he lost physically, he’s building on a freshman season where he was already earning carries.

That’s an enormous difference.

Development isn’t only about talent. It’s about continuity. Every time an athlete suffers a major injury, development stops.

Rehabilitation becomes the sport.

 

Running Backs Need Explosion

This is what makes McKenzie’s injuries particularly important.

He wasn’t a quarterback who could potentially compensate by becoming more cerebral in the pocket. He wasn’t a lineman whose game was primarily size and technique.

McKenzie’s calling card was the thing ACL injuries threaten most: Explosion.

His Wash High coach Mike Bosnic described McKenzie as the type of player who comes around “once in a coaching lifetime,” praising his rare combination of size, strength and explosiveness.

That description matters.

Because that’s exactly what injuries kept interrupting.

 

He Kept Playing

And this is important. McKenzie’s story didn’t end with that second ACL tear.

He returned to Virginia Tech.

The lingering effects of the knee injury limited him, and his role never returned to what it had looked like during those first five college games.

He eventually graduated from Virginia Tech and transferred to Hampton, where he continued playing football.

Years later, he even reached the XFL.

So this isn’t somebody who simply quit when things got difficult. He kept trying to play.

 

But Think About the Timeline

This is why Shai McKenzie belongs in this series.

At approximately 17 years old: ACL tear. Rehab. Return.

At approximately 19: Same ACL tears again. Rehab again.

Those are years when an elite running back should be physically developing at an incredible rate.

Instead, McKenzie repeatedly had to teach his body how to do things it could already do before. That’s the part statistics can’t fully measure.

 

Imagine a Healthy Senior Season

This might be the biggest missing piece for Western Pennsylvania fans.

We never got the full final chapter of Shai McKenzie at Wash High.

A year earlier: 2,689 yards. 41 rushing touchdowns. WPIAL championship appearance.

Then he entered senior year older, stronger and even more highly regarded. And immediately averaged more than 18 yards per carry.

Imagine getting another 10 or 12 games of that.

The numbers could’ve become absurd.

 

Imagine Him Today

Now put that version of McKenzie in today’s recruiting world.

Every long touchdown is clipped immediately. Every run is on social media. National recruiting accounts are posting him.

And if the ACL happens?

He also has modern NIL possibilities and today’s transfer environment waiting on the other side.

The portal wouldn’t erase an injury. But it could make finding the best opportunity afterward much easier.

McKenzie actually encountered how restrictive the old transfer system could be when he decided to leave Virginia Tech. His release reportedly barred transfers to ACC schools and several Virginia Tech nonconference opponents.

Today’s landscape is completely different.

 

Don’t Reduce His Story to Injuries

That’s important too.

Shai McKenzie wasn’t great because we think he might’ve been great. He actually produced.

Nearly 4,900 high school rushing yards despite losing most of his senior year. A 2,689-yard junior season. 41 rushing touchdowns that year. 650 yards in barely more than two games as a senior. 106 yards on nine carries in his first college game.

Those numbers happened.

The hypothetical begins after them.

 

That’s What Makes the Question So Good

Sometimes people throw “what if?” onto anybody who was highly recruited and didn’t become a professional star.

That’s too easy.

McKenzie’s case has a specific turning point. Actually, it has two.

Right ACL — 2013.

Right ACL — 2014.

Remove those two injuries and we get an entirely different football timeline.

Maybe he becomes an ACC star. Maybe he reaches the NFL. Maybe he doesn’t.

There are no guarantees.

But we would’ve gotten the opportunity to find out.

 

Give Shai McKenzie His Flowers

Before the injuries, Shai McKenzie was one of the most explosive running backs Western Pennsylvania had seen in years.

He wasn’t living off recruiting rankings.

He had the numbers. 2,689 yards as a junior. 41 rushing touchdowns. 650 yards and 11 touchdowns in barely more than two games as a senior.

Then he came back from a torn ACL and went over 100 yards in his first college game.

That’s why I’ll always wonder. What if the first ACL never tears? What does that senior season become? What if the second ACL never tears? What does his Virginia Tech career become? And if Shai McKenzie gets four or five uninterrupted years to develop with the explosion he showed at Washington? How far does football take him?

Nobody can answer it.

But unlike some sports hypotheticals, we don’t have to imagine whether the talent was there.

We saw it. The only thing we never got to see was how far that talent could go with two healthy knees.

That’s the “what if?”

And that’s why Shai McKenzie belongs in Pittsburgh’s Greatest “What If?” Athletes.

This is Part 5 of DrewSchifino.com’s series, “Pittsburgh’s Greatest ‘What If?’ Athletes,” preserving the stories of Western Pennsylvania athletes whose talent deserves to be remembered.