On the Mend
December 18, 2002 11:00 AM | General
December 18, 2002
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia University freshman Ernest Hunter can still remember the disappointment he felt when the team doctors told him his season was over.
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| Coach Rich Rodriguez is hopeful that freshman nose guard Ernest Hunter will be ready to play in the bowl game. (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks) |
Hunter, one of West Virginia’s promising, young defensive linemen, was pursuing Maryland running back Josh Allen at the goal line during the fifth game of the season when a Terrapin offensive lineman cut him below the knees.
“I was going one way and he was going another,” remembered Hunter. “He couldn’t catch me so he cut me.”
Hunter didn’t think anything major was wrong, but he limped off to the sideline to have his left leg examined. Shortly afterward, the team’s training staff gave him the bad news: his left fibula was broken and he was probably out for the year.
Hunter knows who did it and how it happened, but he’s not interested in replaying it over and over in his mind.
“I don’t want to relive it,” he said. “It’s bad enough that I had to be in a cast and use crutches for six weeks.”
So Hunter took to the long, arduous task of rehabilitation the same way he mastered the techniques needed to become an effective defensive lineman: he worked his butt off.
“It’s a long, tedious process,” he said. “But as the weeks went on and the rehab got more intense, my leg got stronger. I’m walking on my own two legs and hopefully I’ll be able to play in this bowl game.”
Having Ernest Hunter back in the lineup is something West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez is eagerly anticipating.
Hunter’s redshirt freshman season was progressing nicely before he was cut down. The 6-foot-3, 275-pound nose guard had three tackles including one for a loss against Tennessee-Chattanooga, and played most of the Cincinnati game in place of injured David Upchurch, making a pair of solo stops.
He earned his first collegiate start against East Carolina and performed well enough to earn another start against Maryland. Hunter’s presence in the middle enabled Upchurch to slide out to the end where he proved difficult for bigger offensive tackles to handle.
Then came Hunter’s injury and West Virginia defensive line coach Paul Randolph had to scramble.
It was only after Hunter was sidelined that he realized just how important he was becoming to West Virginia’s defense.
“I started to feel that I was making an impact on this team and helping them out,” he said. “I didn’t realize how crucial me being in there was until the coaches came up to me and started saying things like ‘we need you back’ or ‘we need you to be healthy.’”
Hunter had invested a great deal of time in the weight room and on the practice field to get ready for the season, and it was very difficult for him to watch from the sidelines after his injury.
“The very first game after the injury was really frustrating,” he said. “I knew we were going to win the game, but having the feeling that you weren’t really a part of it … that really got to me. As the weeks went on I got over it and realized that I couldn’t help what happened and all I could do was show my team support.”
And the best way for him to do that was to work as hard as he could to get back out onto the field – even if that meant doing some things he wasn’t supposed to do.
“I’m not supposed to run but I found this out the hard way,” he said. “I was doing a couple of exercises in the weight room and I went to the trainer and I said ‘I’ve been running a little bit. He just looked at me and said ‘that’s not good -- you’re not supposed to be running.’ It was disappointing to be told you can not run even though you feel like you can.”
Hunter worked diligently because he had no doubt that his teammates would come through and give him the chance to play in a bowl game this season.
“Deep down inside I felt this was the season for us to really do good things,” he admitted. “For every game that we played, I always had faith in my team that we’d win and play our very best. And that’s what they did.”
Right now Hunter is wearing a red “no contact” jersey and spent a good hour Tuesday afternoon pedaling a stationary bike. He says the doctors will soon decide whether or not he’s ready to play against Virginia in the Continental Tire Bowl on Dec. 28.
“As of right now, I’m looking at it like it is two-a-days for me,” he said. “It might not be so intense for the guys out there because they are already in game shape, but I’m not so I’ve got to do everything I can to get back into game shape -- even if that means killing myself on the Stairmaster, running or whatever.”
The Burke, Va., native, who has gained 10 pounds of muscle to increase his weight to 275 pounds, isn’t quite as far along in the rehabilitation process as Rodriguez would have liked.
“I was a little more hopeful that he would be farther along,” said the coach. “We thought he would be able to go full tilt and he’s not there at this point. Maybe by the end of the week we can get him into the mix a little bit more.”
“I’ve still got a bit to go, but I’m working really hard on it,” Hunter added.
If he is given the green light to practice, Hunter believes it won’t take him long to get back into the flow of things.
“Nose guard, although it can be complex at times, is a simple position,” he said. “I’ll just pick up where I left off, pick up the pieces and just get this ball rolling.”
Getting a healthy Ernest Hunter back would be a welcomed addition to the West Virginia defense.
