By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Mother Nature almost defeated Mekhi Sargent.

She almost caused him to surrender and to give up a dream of playing big-time college football because her wintry Midwestern blast was something Sargent couldn’t have even imagined while growing up in the tropical paradise of Key West, Fla.

Sargent never had been to the state of Iowa and he knew nothing about the state or about the Iowa football program when he took a leap of faith and enrolled at Iowa Western Community College to play football in 2016.

He was a fish out of warm water and he didn’t like it.

But Sargent also didn’t like the thought of quitting and throwing away an opportunity to change his life, so he purchased a big, cozy, warm jacket and has been dealing with the cold ever since.

Sargent has gone from being an unheralded high school running back recruit to a first-team junior-college All-American to now a key piece to Iowa’s offense as a third-year sophomore.

He had a costly second-half fumble in last Saturday’s 14-10 loss to Northwestern, but it was his only fumble of the season and the good with Sargent still far outweighs the bad.

Sargent still hates the cold and dark Iowa winters, but has learned to deal with the discomfort because there is too much at stake.

“It was super tough, man. There were some days when I wasn’t motivated to do anything because of the weather,” Sargent said at Iowa’s weekly press gathering on Tuesday. “It was just terrible. But I learned fast with school and football that no matter what, you’ve got to get through it. The weather can’t hold you back.”

Sargent is taking the same approach with his fumble and with Iowa’s three-game losing streak in that he won’t let either hold him back.

He is determined to help the 6-4 Hawkeyes right the ship at Illinois on Saturday, just like he was determined to play big-time college football.

Sargent has lived in Iowa for over two years after having redshirted his first year at Iowa Western Community College in Council Bluffs.

His family and friends back home in Key West are proud of what Sargent has accomplished, especially under what they consider to be extreme and almost unbearable conditions.

“My mom came up here and she was like it’s so cold it feels like your feet and your hands are being chopped off,” Sargent said. “She was like son, I don’t know how you do it.”

Sargent does it one day at a time, fueled by self-discipline and the desire to better himself.

He already has defied the odds just by making it this far because Sargent’s opportunities coming out of high school were slim to none.

If not for a chance encounter with a junior college coach, Sargent’s path to Iowa probably wouldn’t have been cleared.

A former assistant coach at Iowa Western was impressed with Sargent’s performance at a summer camp heading into Sargent’s sophomore year of high school and they sort of stayed in touch.

Sargent would go on to rush for nearly 5,000 yards in high school and make first-team all-state, but the scholarship offers never came.

He reconnected with the assistant coach from Iowa Western and the next thing you know Sargent is headed to a strange and sometimes cold place to play football.

After redshirting his freshman year, Sargent rushed for 1,449 yards in 10 games last season, earning first-team JUCO All-America honors.

Sargent was a late addition to Iowa’s 2018 recruiting class, but Iowa wasn’t necessarily his top choice.

Sargent admitted on Tuesday that he would’ve preferred to sign with a warm-weather school that was closer to home. That was his hope upon arriving at junior college; to play well enough at Iowa Western to attract the attention of some big-time programs from down south and ultimately earn a scholarship.

But that never happened, and just like the circumstances coming out of high school, Sargent’s best opportunity came from within the state of Iowa.

He caught Iowa’s attention with his performance last season and there was already a connection with Iowa senior receiver Nick Easley having played at Iowa Western.

Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz saw something in the 5-foot-10, 210-pound Sargent that apparently no other Division I coaches saw and that meant a great deal to Sargent.

It also meant three more years of freezing in the winter, but Mother Nature is no a longer a threat to Sargent.

“That was another decision I had to make,” Sargent said. “I thought I would be somewhere else after Iowa Western. But a lot schools didn’t reach out.

“And the University of Iowa and coach Ferentz reached out, so I just made my decision. I can handle (the cold). I’ve been up here for two years already, I can handle it.”

Sargent made an immediate impression after joining the Iowa program this past summer. He showed the ability to run and catch, and a willingness to block.

His versatility has since carried over to the season where Sargent has 454 rushing yards and a team-leading six touchdowns and 12 catches for 142 receiving yards.

He also has stopped his share of blitzing defenders.

“He’s matured a lot,” Easley said of Sargent. “He works really, really hard. He doesn’t say a lot. He just comes in and does his job. He’s a really talented player. He runs the ball really well.

“So I’m definitely proud of how he’s shown his abilities this year.”

Easley, who is from Newton, is also proud of how Sargent has stood up to Mother Nature’s winter wrath.

Easley helped convince the Iowa coaches to offer Sargent a scholarship after they had spent one season together at Iowa Western in 2016.

“I talked to some of our coaches about him in the past when they asked,” Easley said. “I just told them the type of kid he is and the kind of player he is. They understood his talent. They just wanted to know more about the person and I told them how good of kid he is and how hard that he works.”

Sargent had his best game from a statistical standpoint against Penn State, rushing for 91 yards during the 30-24 loss on Oct. 27 in University Park Pa.

“I give credit to my teammates, especially to my o-line,” Sargent said. “They made it possible for that game. We were all hungry and determined to get into the end zone. That’s why I was recruited to come here, to make plays, and I felt like I did a very good job of that.”

Sargent was dressed for the cold on Tuesday, wrapped in his big, cozy warm jacket.

He laughed when thinking back to how much the cold weather used to affect him.

Sargent has learned to adapt, but his warm-weather roots are still very noticeable. That became apparent when Sargent was asked if he had ever played football in cold weather before coming to Iowa.

“I have but, like the high sixties,” Sargent said.

Needless to say, Sargent’s answer drew laughter.

He might be an Iowa football player, but his ties to Florida run deep.