As Gardner Minshew mania runs rampant across the football world, East Carolina fans can’t help but wonder what could have been.

Minshew posted mix results in his two years at ECU as a part-time starting quarterback for the Pirates in 2016 and 2017 before electing to leave as a graduate transfer in the spring of 2018.

The quarterback ultimately ended up at Washington State, where he was a Heisman finalist and led the Cougars to a tremendous season before being drafted by the Jacksonville Jaguars in the sixth round. After Jaguars starter Nick Foles went down in the season opener, Minshew was thrust into action and he’s performed well ever since. Minshew went 20-of-30 for 204 yards and two touchdowns in a win over the Titans on Thursday night, adding to the hype.

But it turns out Minshew’s football path could’ve been much different if he followed through on a bold initiative his first year at ECU. After coming off the bench midway through the season, Minshew told the Pardon My Take podcast earlier this week he tried to intentionally break his right hand with a hammer in 2016 so he could get a medical redshirt and an extra year of eligibility.

“Here’s a story, the only group of people I’ve ever told is the Washington State football team before this last year and it was just about, ‘What would you do to play more football?’” Minshew told the podcast. “I went (to ECU) from junior college and the situation was I had two seniors above me, so I was hoping to go in there, redshirt and then be able to play three. It was an awesome setup. We get into about Game 4 and we moved our backup to running back and our starter got knocked out with a concussion. So shoot, I’m standing there and I go in and play about a half.

“Then we go in for the next weekend and the starter’s going to be back. So I’m like, ‘Dang man, I just played a half and really wasted a year on playing a half of ball.’ I was pretty pissed so I started looking around at what I could do and what my options were. The only thing I could do was to get a medical redshirt. But if I played in this next game, then that would be off the table. So I get an idea. I go home, I grabbed a bottle of Jack Daniel’s, and a hammer. And I go back in my room, I take a pull of Jack Daniel’s and put my hand down on the table and ‘Boom, boom, boom, one-two-three,’ and hit the hell out of my hand. I’m sitting there shaking, but I know it’s not broken, and I did it again. Still nothing at this point and knew it wasn’t broken. So another time, another pull, another three hits and that was all I could take. I couldn’t break my own hand.”

Gardner Minshew

Naturally, Minshew showed up the next day with a bruised throwing hand. He told the coaching staff and then-head coach Scottie Montgomery he slammed it into a car door to explain the injury. Minshew wound up playing the next game off the bench in relief of starting quarterback Philip Nelson, and eventually played in seven games with two starts in 2016.

“I ended up playing some and it was good getting that experience,” Minshew said. “I just had a swollen hand for a few weeks. I told the coaches I closed it in a car door.”

Minshew ended up opening the 2017 season as the team’s starting quarterback but was benched in favor of Duke graduate transfer Thomas Sirk a half into the season opener. Minshew still ended up playing in 10 games, throwing for 2,140 yards, and 16 touchdowns to seven picks. Minshew was lined up to be the starting quarterback heading into his senior year in 2018 before transferring out and citing “personal reasons” to play football closer to his home in Mississippi at the time.

After verbally committing to Alabama, Minshew wound up at Washington State, where he starred in Mike Leach’s offense. Through three NFL games this season, Minshew has thrown for 692 yards, five touchdowns and one pick.