Denise Gordon waited in her son's apartment. She'd watched him hobble off the field a few hours earlier, not even a half into his Arkansas State debut.
The phone rang. It was not a pretty prognosis. Dahu Green's left ankle was broken, and in all likelihood, he wouldn't play again that season.
After a season sitting on the sidelines following Green's transfer from Oklahoma, it was the cruelest of fates. Yet, it was just the beginning on an injury-riddled run that's seen the 6-4 wideout play just a dozen games over three years since arriving in Jonesboro.
Green's collegiate career will come to an end today against Texas State, concluding the rarest of journeys, prolonged by an additional year by covid-19. When Green walks back into the very locker room where he'd headed with the untimeliest of injuries 1,183 days ago, he'll strip off his pads, eager to put them back on again.
As much as it represents an end, it's most certainly not the end.
"Oh my god, if I'd done something for seven years, I'd be like, 'Alright, let me find something else,'" Gordon said. "[But Dahu] is going to the NFL. ... That's all he wants."
Green grew up in Moreno Valley, Calif., as the youngest of Gordon's eight children. She insisted she was going to have a son and on May 14, 1997, along came Dahu.
He played pee-wee football as young as 7 years old, but Green got really serious by the time he reached high school. Eventually, he went to his mom and promised that if they moved to Oklahoma, he'd earn a full Division I football scholarship.
Gordon, Green and the youngest of Dahu's sisters, Monee, moved to Oklahoma City when Dahu entered 10th grade. They had no more than a couple of suitcases, but hopped on the bus, rode 19 hours east and arrived on a Sunday.
The next day Green was in class at Westmoore High, where he went on to be a consensus three-star recruit, ranked sixth among all Oklahoma prospects after catching 14 touchdowns as a senior.
"The first thing that stuck out to me about Dahu was just how genuinely great a young man he was," said Adam Gaylor, Green's head coach at Westmoore. "He was super kind to [all the coaches' kids and] out of his way to make sure they were having fun."
As much as Green's personality quickly endeared him to folks in Oklahoma City, it was perhaps his downfall with the Sooners. Although he appeared in 15 games, including 7 during his true freshman season, Green caught only 3 passes.
It didn't help that Oklahoma Coach Bob Stoops retired after the 2016 season, Green's second year with the Sooners.
"They had too many athletes there for a guy that was just a little distracted," former ASU Coach Blake Anderson said of Green's time at Oklahoma. "He'd be late for this, he'd miss that. He was just a little hot-and-cold. I just think he had a lot of things pulling at him."
Anderson had a relationship with both Riley and Cale Gundy, Green's position coach at Oklahoma, and they found him a home with the Red Wolves.
But it took more than two full years for Green to find a rhythm. He sat out the 2017 season, then fractured his ankle is ASU's season opener against Southeast Missouri State on Sept. 1, 2018. Green could've returned for the bowl game that December but opted to keep his medical redshirt.
The following summer, he went down diving for a ball in a preseason practice. It wasn't correctly diagnosed at the time, but Green had torn his PCL, MCL and meniscus, and he didn't return until midway through the 2019 campaign.
"I've always been a big believer in mental toughness," Green said. "That can get you through anything if it's your mindset."
Green only played five games in 2019 and opted out after six games last year. His knee injury hadn't fully healed and after playing through pain, he opted for surgery.
Green went to Las Vegas, where his mom had moved from Oklahoma City. He was rehabbing when recently hired Coach Butch Jones called him.
If Green was going to be a part of the Red Wolves program, he needed to return to Jonesboro.
"Finally, I'm like, 'Hey Dahu, we want you to be a part of this football program,'" Jones recalled. "'But you've got one week to get back or we're moving on.'"
As soon as the doctors cleared him, Green was on a flight back to Arkansas.
"It was a no-brainer," Green said. "They watched my film and told me they wanted me back. And I told him, 'That film ain't nothing, Coach. That was me half-speed.'"
Green hasn't necessarily been the star that perhaps was expected of him out of high school. He only has 14 receptions this season, compiling 215 yards and 2 touchdowns.
But he's been a veteran presence for a young receiving unit featuring the likes of wideouts Corey Rucker, Jeff Foreman and Te'Vailance Hunt as well as true freshman tight ends Emmanual Stevenson and Seydou Traore.
"His best asset is when guys are down and in bad moods, he comes in with the energy," ASU wide receivers coach Derrick Lett said of Green.
Green's mom may be confident in her son, but it's far from a given that he'll have a pro career. Lett said that while scouts have had their eye on Green, he probably needs to add about 10-12 pounds to his current 200-pound frame.
Green is planning on staying around the Red Wolves for the spring semester, preparing for his upcoming pro day.
It's a drastic change in the kid who was missing meetings seven years ago. But for a 24-year-old, that's an eternity.
"I love everything about him," Jones said of Green. "When you look at his track here and the setbacks, he just continues to show resiliency and perseverance and I have a ton of respect for him."