MGCCC’s Rankin headed back to Super Bowl

PERKINSTON — For the second time in as many years, former Mississippi Gulf Coast offensive lineman Martinas Rankin is headed to the Super Bowl.

Rankin plays for the Kansas City Chiefs, and they will take on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Feb. 7 at the Bucs' home stadium. He became the second former Bulldog to win a Super Bowl ring last year.

There's a big difference this time around from last year, though. He watched from the sidelines last year on injured reserve when the Chiefs beat San Francisco 31-20.

Last week, starting left tackle Eric Fisher left the AFC Championship game with an Achilles injury. That leaves the Chiefs with a couple of options: bring in a new right guard and shuffle guys around, or just insert Rankin into the starting lineup at left tackle.

Kansas City hasn't revealed its hand yet, but head coach Andy Reid has called the 6-foot-5, 311-pounder from Mendenhall "smart, tough, and a good athlete."

 "I love Rank. We got a chance to see him some last year as a player, and we're very excited about him as a player," Kansas City offensive line coach Andy Heck said. "He's been working his tail off."

The Chiefs traded for Rankin before the 2019 season, and he started five games before injuring his patella (kneecap). He started the season on the physically unable to perform list, which kept him out of games until a Week 17 start against the Chargers, where he played tackle every offensive snap. He also played special teams in the 38-24 win over Buffalo in the AFC Championship on Sunday.

The Chiefs have said Rankin was ready to play before that start in the regular-season finale, but they didn't want to change a winning hand. Kansas City was 14-1 in the regular season before playing backups against San Diego.

Rankin has focused on things he can control.

"My motivation to get back is just I want to be better than I was even before the injury," Rankin said. "You know, keep pushing. There's a lot of people in the world that go through a lot of tougher things than getting hurt doing something they love to do, like playing the sport that I play, so that's one thing I've always kept in mind. It's just that there are worse things in life, so I should just embrace the challenge ahead of me and just keep persevering, and I feel like the story of my life is perseverance. You know you get knocked down, but you got to keep getting up, and that's what I'm going to do and what I'm going to continue to do."

According to Pro Football Focus grades, Rankin allowed only one pressure in 53 snaps against the Chargers. It's part of a pattern of excellence that started at Gulf Coast, where he was an NJCAA All-American. At Mississippi State, Rankin was named to the All-SEC First Team in 2017 by the conference's coaches and was on the SB Nation All-American Honorable Mention list. He also won the Kent Hull Award, given to the top college offensive lineman in the state of Mississippi.

Rankin was a two-time member of the SEC Academic Honor Roll and made the Dean's List at State, finishing with a 3.3 GPA.

That all happened after not having a single offer from a four-year school coming out of Mendenhall. Steve Campbell recruited Rankin to play at Gulf Coast, coaching him his freshman season. After Chad Huff took over the Bulldogs program, Rankin was coached by current offensive line coach Les George. 

His collegiate performance got his name called in the third round of the 2018 NFL Draft. Houston drafted him, and Rankin started four games for the Texans as a rookie, playing in all 16.

He's hoping getting back on the field this year is an important step in his goal of being a big-time contributor on a big-time team.

"I definitely feel like I was progressing to really help this team do some big things," Rankin said. "When (the injury) happened, that was probably one of the things that hurt me the most. The fact that I was just kind of really starting to figure out that I can really be a dominant player in this league and really contribute to a Super Bowl-contending team, Super Bowl-champion team. So that part was tough just because of that. Each week I was coming out there, working on the things I need to work on and to see that happen, it was kind of hurtful, but like I said, I'm just going to keep persevering. We're all going to get knocked down at some point in life, so you know you can't hang your head too long."

He didn't, and now Rankin has a shot at playing in his first Super Bowl and picking up a second Super Bowl ring.

For more information on MGCCC's 10 intercollegiate athletic teams, follow @MGCCCBulldogs on Twitter and MGCCCBulldogs on Facebook, and go to mgcccbulldogs.com.