COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. – They are close friends, roommates and two of the established veterans the Saint John's University defense will look to for leadership under first-year defensive coordinator James Herberg this season. 
 
But Aiden McMahon and Andrew Molenaar share a bond that goes deeper than that. 
 
Both fifth-year senior linebackers know what it's like to lose an entire season after tearing an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). 
 
"The mental strain of it is even harder than the physical strain in a way," said McMahon, a 6-foot-1, 220-pound Maple Grove High School graduate who earned All-American honors after leading the Johnnies with 106 tackles a year ago. 
 
"Molly knows that just as much as I do. You want to get back to the athlete that you think you are and there's always doubt in your head. You're wondering if you're going to be the same as you were before. The key is putting your head down and not thinking about that. Just working as hard as you can, then going out and proving it when the time comes." 
 
For McMahon, the injury to his right knee came late in his senior season of high school football. It forced him to miss his final seasons of hockey and baseball and kept him sidelined his entire freshman year at SJU as well. 
 
"The coaching staff here did a great job checking in on me over the summer, then when I got here, they made sure they kept touching base," he said. "I was there at practice and they made sure things were trending in the right direction – that I was doing what I needed to do to make an impact when the time came. 
 
"In a program like this, we have a lot of freshmen coming in each year and it would have been easy for them to kind of forget about me because I wasn't on the field. But they never made me feel like a number. They made me feel valued as a person and a player. They made me feel noticed." 
 
In Molenaar's case, the injury came just three practices into what he thought was his senior season a year ago. The 6-foot, 220-pound Mounds View High School graduate was coming off a junior year in which he handled SJU's long-snapping duties. And after switching from defensive end to linebacker (the position he played in high school) - he was in line to compete for a starting spot. 
 
But in a single moment, all those ambitions were put on hold. 
 
"I knew something was wrong right away," said Molenaar of his left knee. "I wasn't sure what it was, but I know my body pretty well and I could tell something wasn't right. 
 
"After everything got diagnosed and I had surgery, the biggest thing was dealing with the disappointment. I'd been building to my senior season for the past three years, then all of a sudden, I couldn't be out there with my friends. It was hard." 
 
But Molenaar continued to come to practice every day and threw himself into his rehabilitation. 
 
"I couldn't walk for the first six weeks and it was tough to be stuck on crutches - moving as slow as possible," he said. "But there was some good that came from that. It forced me to slow down a little bit and not fly through everything. That was kind of nice to be able to take life at a slower pace." 
 
He was also able to draw advice and counsel from McMahon, who'd been down this road before. 
 
"He recommended the same doctor he'd had at (Twin Cities Orthopedics), and he was there checking in - asking how rehab was going," Molenaar said. "He helped me know what to expect during the whole process." 
 
It's a process Johnnies head coach Gary Fasching is quite familiar with himself. He tore his right ACL in the season opener against St. Cloud State during his sophomore year at SJU in 1978. He returned to play the final three games, but had surgery after the season and sat out all of 1979. 
 
"The mental and emotional toll it takes on you is more significant than even the physical pain," said Fasching, echoing McMahon's assessment. "You're missing a whole year of football. You're still around the team, but it's not the same. It's not easy to come back from that. It takes a lot of resiliency. 
 
"And we've seen that from both those guys. They hung in there and put in the work they needed to put in to come back and play at a high level." 
 
But their injuries aren't the only experience they've had in common. McMahon is the youngest of three siblings while Molenaar is the youngest of four. 
 
"You can definitely get away with a lot as the youngest," McMahon said.  
 
"It was cool because (older brother Mason and older sister Mannon) kind of paved the path for me in terms of the way they worked and the way they carried themselves. I definitely looked up a lot to them growing up." 
 
"I got to watch them experience things and learn what to do and what not to do from their example," added Molenaar of older siblings Josef, Anna and Daniel.  
 
Both players also made the decision to return for fifth seasons on a medical redshirt this fall - a choice each said was an easy call. 
 
"I love Saint John's so much and I don't really want to leave this place," said McMahon, an accounting (finance) major who has already accepted a job at Polaris Inc. in the Twin Cities starting in January. "On the other side waiting is a job and I have the rest of my life to work. So it was really a no-brainer. I didn't have to think about it all. 
 
"I love playing football and when the opportunity to play another year came up, I jumped at it." 
 
Now each are ready to be anchors Herberg (a former head coach at Rocori High School) can rely on as he takes over running the defense from longtime assistant Brandon Novak, who departed to take over as the head coach at Loras (Iowa) this past offseason. 
 
"It's a new defense and we're learning it together," said Molenaar, a strategic communication major who is living with McMahon and fellow senior Charlie Plum this fall.  
 
"It's nice to be able to walk through it with each other and figure everything out." 
 
"All defenses are pretty similar at their core, but there's definitely some new terminology and new checks we've put in," McMahon added. "There's going to be a lot of ability to fly around. There's less reading and more doing in this scheme.  
 
"That's kind of exciting. Brandon did a really good job here too. But after four years in the same defense, it's been fun to get to be a sponge and take some of these new things in." 
 
But no matter what the scheme or formation, both McMahon and Molenaar are determined to make the most of their final chance to play football.  
 
After all, both know what it feels like to have that opportunity taken away. 
 
"I want to enjoy every moment and not leave anything out there," Molenaar said. "I've always had that attitude, but it's intensified even more after being injured. I'm even more aware now of how lucky I am to get to do this. 
 
"I want to make every play count."