Confusion crossed Zaire Kitchen’s face.

Standing in Rutgers’ practice bubble, a day before the Scarlet Knights left for St. Petersburg, Kitchen shook his head. He looked down at the scar on his right knee, he looked at the two on his left knee and then the senior safety said, “I forgot. I forgot which one came first.”

They’ve defined him and they’ve branded him, these three complete knee reconstructions he had in a five-year span. They’re a testament to every cell of his character and they’ve been the stirring model for every Scarlet Knight who’s undergone any kind of surgery. And Zaire Kitchen can’t even remember their most basic details.

“Hey, I’m more than just the injury guy,” he said, laughingly protesting. Seeing the raised eyebrow, he laughed again and said, “Well, I want to be more than the injury guy.”

Consciously lost memory or not, Kitchen has certainly earned at least that: he is indeed more than just the injury guy.

As is tradition, the Scarlet Knights carried their seniors off their practice field Thursday, two days before that group will play its final game in the St. Petersburg Bowl, against Central Florida. Each of those seniors has a story and each has indubitably had a flash wondering if he’d get to that final sweet moment. But none wondered so strongly, and none got there so astoundingly than Kitchen.

“I did wonder,” he said, admitting he’d readied to trade his jersey for a coach’s shirt two winters ago. But he never did and so, he quickly said, “the dream’s still alive. My dream is still out there.”

Kitchen isn’t the can’t-miss natural he once was, he knows that. He was an All-State prospect at Hightstown High in New Jersey and then one of the country’s top safeties out of Hargrave Military Academy. He’d had his right knee reconstructed (after much prodding, Kitchen “remembered” it was the right) as a high schooler, but it hadn’t scared off any recruiters. He came to Rutgers and was an immediate impact, playing from the season’s first game.

Then in the 11^th, against Syracuse, he felt a familiar wrench and knew he’d popped ligaments in his left knee. He rehabbed and trained and pushed and was back three games into the next year. When again in the season’s 11^th game, this time against Pittsburgh, he again felt the wrench, again heard the pop and again found himself having a knee reconstructed.

Both times the knee gave way too late to get Kitchen a redshirt year and both times the fight back was more of a slog than the previous time. But fight he did, playing in all 13 games last year, snagging special teams’ MVP honors and then starting all 12 games for Rutgers this year. He has 61 tackles, five pass break-ups and an absolute lock on the Knights’ perseverance trophy.

He won’t say how long getting ready for a simple practice takes, but it may as well be a practice session in itself. There’s treatment and ice and massage and absolutely no psyching up, he said.

“No, I love football,” he said. “There’s no questioning playing now.”

Physically, coach Greg Schiano said, “Zaire’s not as gifted as he was when we saw him as a high school senior in our camp. (But) what he’s done is, he’s worked incredibly hard to be a really, very, very smart, intelligent, resourceful football player.”

That he is, with junior safety Joe Lefeged saying he can’t imagine not having Kitchen to key off. Lefeged said there’s no mistakes, physical or mental, out of his secondary-mate, and he even sometimes wonders if the three surgeries are mere urban legend.

“No, I’m a little slower,” Kitchen said. “But I’m stronger and I know I’ve done everything I can to compensate for not having the same physical ability.”

Schiano said it’s not so much compensation as simply adding another facet to an already strong game. “Whatever he may have lost through his surgeries is (almost irrelevant),” he said. “He’s made himself stronger physically and he’s made himself a coach on the field which has allowed him to play at a high level this year.”

And so he will, for the final time as a Scarlet Knight Saturday. After that, he does want to participate in Rutgers’ Pro Day and hopefully get a few tryouts. If not, though, he promised he’s a realist. He graduates in May with a degree in criminal justice and he has another dream waiting: to be a DEA agent.

“I understand my position,” he said. “I’m not going to prolong anything if it’s not there. I won’t chase that NFL dream forever.”

And hey, he already has the key if that’s the case: he’ll know how to forget that dream was ever there.