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Chance Main of ‘Last Chance U’ finds home with Colorado
Chance Main enrolled at Colorado as a graduate transfer in January with two seasons of eligibility remaining. (Courtesy: @chance_main/Twitter)

Chance Main of ‘Last Chance U’ finds home with Colorado

BOULDER, Colo. (BVM) – Chance Main is stubborn. Those are his words.

A toxic trait for some, Main has utilized this attribute to keep his dream alive for the last five years.

The Cherryvale, Kansas native’s collegiate journey began rather publicly in 2018 when he was one of the featured players on Season 4 of the hit Netflix series “Last Chance U.” Main appeared in seven games for Independence CC and finished with 10 tackles to go along with 1.5 sacks, but the experience was much less glamorous than the show let on at times.

“‘Last Chance U’ the TV show was really just a small part of what was actually going on there at the JUCO,” Main said of his time at Independence. “It was great, man, but the thing is, JUCO is a totally different experience and only people who go JUCO really understand that.

“It’s not like you are recruited out of high school and this and that. You go to JUCO and you have the bare minimum, bare minimum. We kept our pads and stuff in our dorm room; we didn’t even have a locker room. That stuff just made me really appreciate whenever I did have the things and facilities that I do now.”

Main saw an upgrade in facilities — and game action — when he transferred from Independence to Incarnate Word (UIW), an FCS school in San Antonio, ahead of the 2019 season. A December graduate from Independence, Main called the transition a “quick turnaround” as he wanted to play somewhere else that spring.

He heard from Jacksonville State and Southeast Missouri State in addition to UIW, and although he wasn’t showered with options, Main was grateful for the opportunity to continue his playing career.

“I was really happy for those offers,” Main said. “At the time, I didn’t have anything. Other guys were picking up big Power 5 offers and stuff but I was happy with what I had.”

Main was only afforded one visit due to time constraints and took it to UIW where he felt his best scenario was to begin classes on time. The Cardinals also had a coaching staff that Main liked, a staff that would help him play his best football.

He played in 10 games for UIW in 2019 and registered 28 tackles, 11.5 tackles for loss, 2.5 sacks and five pass breakups. The 2020 season was postponed until the spring of 2021 due to Covid and Main was named a team captain while totaling 22 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss and four sacks across five games of the shortened season.

In the last game of that season, Main suffered a torn labrum in his shoulder that required surgery. It wasn’t the first injury during his time in San Antonio – Main also battled through a knee fracture and bone bruise which caused him to miss games — but the timing and severity of this one was nearly devastating.

“That was the one that probably hit the hardest,” Main said of his torn labrum. “That happened there at the end of that spring season we had and I tore that thing (labrum) up but I knew in my head – because I was not super happy there; I started to not be myself as much – that I wanted to get out of San Antonio and try something different.”

Main returned home to Kansas to rehab his shoulder and missed the entire 2021 fall season because of it. Despite plenty of collegiate experience under his belt and game film available, the uncertainty surrounding Main’s injury made it difficult for him to find his next destination.

“Nobody wanted to pick you up because you’re injured, you’re a liability, the injury didn’t happen at their school, this and that,” Main said. “Schools opened up and started talking to me but I said I have a torn labrum. They’d say, ‘Oh, OK, we’ll check back in with you’ then I won’t hear back from them.

“For a little bit I thought I’d never be able to do anything again with how horrible and painful that labrum and bicep tendon hurt.”

As Main rehabbed and began to hit the weights again in his home gym, a future first-round NFL Draft pick went to bat for him.

Jermaine Johnson II was Main’s roommate for two years at Independence and the defensive end duo became good friends. Johnson II began his collegiate career at Independence before transferring to Georgia and then Florida State where he was the ACC Defensive Player of the Year in 2021. The former Seminoles star was drafted No. 26 overall by the New York Jets in the 2022 NFL Draft.

Johnson II put in a good word for his buddy with the coaching staff at Florida State and Main took an official visit to Tallahassee soon after.

“That seemed like what we were going to do there for a little bit,” Main said of Florida State.

But when that fell through after the Seminoles signed a different player, Main enlisted the help of another friend: Jamar Montgomery, an outside linebacker at the University of Colorado. The Buffaloes’ coaching staff liked what they heard from Montgomery, what they saw on film from Main and in January, he enrolled at Colorado as a graduate transfer with two seasons of eligibility remaining.

“They (Colorado) got me here and I was a little bit on the skinny side and fundamentally a little rusty,” Main said. “They worked with me, worked with me and now I’m up there at the top of the chutes with the whole team. That’s exciting to have a year off and then come into a Power 5 and still put numbers on paper that are draft-able numbers, on paper anyway.”

Main said he immediately liked Boulder despite arriving in the middle of winter and having to brave the snow and cold. But the climate wasn’t the only form of adjustment Main would have to undergo.

“Being outside of football, you workout on your own for a year and then when you come back, you get a little shock of coaches detailing every little thing you do on how to workout,” Main said with a chuckle. “Once we got through that and all the coaches know me now and that I’m here to work and do everything, we all get along and I feel really good about it.”

Main’s journey is truly one of a kind. From not being highly recruited out of high school to appearing on “Last Chance U” to overcoming a torn labrum at an FCS school, Main’s reality as a Power 5 athlete was highly unlikely just a couple years ago.

Despite everything he’s given to the game of football, physically and emotionally, he feels like he hasn’t nearly given it his all yet. But in Boulder, Main plans to put it all out there.

“Some of it’s just being stubborn and knowing I can get more out of it than what I’ve got going on right now,” Main said of what keeps him going. “If you asked me ‘have you given it 100% throughout your whole career and feel good like you can quit right now? No.’

“I feel like this year coming up is going to be the year that I can say ‘hey, I gave it all I got. This is what I have and this is how it turned out.’ If you hold your arms out and look at your wingspan, football’s only going to be about a hand and the rest of it is life. Football’s just a short part of your life and I’m going to ride that [thing] out until it’s in the dirt, until I can’t get anymore out of it whether I hate it at times or love it.”

Main has spent time in Independence, San Antonio and now Boulder, but he’ll never forget the small town of Cherryvale, Kansas with a population just over 2,000 that he came from. In fact, it’s a big reason why he hasn’t given up.

“I feel like I’ve always been overlooked and just never really given the respect, I don’t know if that’s the right word for it, mainly because I’m coming from a small town,” Main said. “Nobody has done what I’ve done up to this point, coming from a school like that, stuck with it and done positive things outside of just going to work.

“I just really want to put myself on the map a little bit and show that I can do it. So far, that’s been going in the right direction.”