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| Friday, September 29 Staley improves after almost every injury By Ed Graney Special to ESPN.com | |||||
| Bad joints, man.
This is the explanation for why Luke Staley has spent more time on an
operating table than football field, why one of the Mountain West's best running
backs is more familiar with doctors than opposing teams, why he can tell you
as much about the knee and shoulder as he can the draw and dive.
Staley is the BYU sophomore with oh-so-scary ability and oh-so-shaky-health. He returned to action last Saturday and promptly ripped off a career-high 167 yards on 28 carries in his team's 10-7 victory against visiting UNLV.
The trainers were ready, though.
Extra ice and athletic tape awaited. The X-ray machine was warming up.
"It has been an unfortunate thing for him," said BYU coach LaVell Edwards. "It's crazy. You can't believe the build on this guy. It's as if he was chiseled from granite."
The story: It seems Staley (6-foot-1, 225 pounds) has loose joints, to
the point where he can pull a thumb back to his forearm. His older brother,
Dustin, also suffers from joint laxity. And when this happens, a player with
tremendous talent completes only one of his last five seasons dating back to high
school.
He tears up his shoulders and knees and calves. He has a bone bruise one
month and a stress fracture the next. Tendons are taken from his biceps and
placed elsewhere. Cartilage becomes scarce.
"There isn't much you can do except recover and do the rehab and not think
about it too much," Staley said. "I feel faster now than ever."
This is why: Surgery actually corrects joint laxity, because when you repair ligaments, you tighten joints.
Staley when sound is as good as the MWC has, a back with 14 touchdowns in
the 11 games he has played for BYU. The Cougars were 8-1 when he went down last year. They finished 8-4.
"I really haven't had many as good as he is," Edwards said. "It makes a huge difference when he's playing, no question."
The operative word, of course, being "when."
Around the Mountain West Air Force
The non-conference schedule from hell ends this week when the Cougars travel to Syracuse, their first meeting with the Orangemen. "We're not as healthy as I'd like us to be when traveling East and playing on carpet," Edwards said. "But the game is there, so we'll go and play it." ... Edwards, who will retire at season's end, continues to receive farewell gifts. His take so far: A rocking chair from Virginia coach George Welsh, a Falcon carving and golf clubs from DeBerry and two roundtrip tickets to Hawaii from UNLV coach John Robinson. ... Aaron Edmonds is certainly giving what can be an outstanding defense more than enough chances. The punter has already pinned opponents inside the 20-yard line eight times. ... Wide receiver Margin Hooks has caught a pass in 29 straight games, the fifth-best current NCAA streak. Colorado State CSU is 7-0 under Sonny Lubick coming off a bye and travels to Nevada on Saturday. "I don't know if there is a secret to playing well after on off week," Lubick said. "I think it gives you a chance to get some people healthy and get in a few more practices than usual." Such was Lubick's plan this time, but the weather didn't cooperate. Snow storms moved the team inside to a gymnasium one day, and plans to add wrinkles to the offensive scheme were scrapped. ... Lubick is concerned about Nevada quarterback David Neill, who carved up the Rams for 429 yards last season. CSU escaped 38-33 in Fort Collins. "He looks even better now," Lubick said. "I don't think it will be too tough convincing our guys about how hard this game is going to be up there." New Mexico It appears the Lobos have found themselves a quarterback just in time for conference play. Rudy Caamano completed 12-of-15 and hit his first seven passes in a 35-28 win against Northern Arizona. "He is getting better each week," said New Mexico coach Rocky Long. "He is not a finished product by any means, but he is more accurate with the ball and our offense seems to be moving forward." ... New Mexico opens league play by hosting Wyoming. The Lobos lead the conference in sacks with 15 and appear to be -- as Long predicted before the season -- a better overall defense without All-American Brian Urlacher. "I'd love to have Brian back, but we are playing very well as a unit," Long said. "We're playing very hard on that side of the ball. The sacks have come because we're either covering well in our man defense or people are struggling to pick up our blitz package." ... Long might want to change his halftime speech a bit. The Lobos have yet to score in the third quarter this season. UNLV The improving defense that kept UNLV in its 10-7 loss at BYU must take another step in its development: Escaping long drives. The Cougars ran the final 5:33 off the clock and ended with 11 more minutes of possession time. ... Even during the down times of recent seasons, the Rebels have been sound when defending the pass. Kevin Thomas is a junior cornerback who suffocates one side of the field and seniors Randy Black at safety and Amar Brisco at the other corner add experience. "We're getting after people much better up front this year, which helps the secondary," said coach John Robinson. "We also have very good assistant coaches working with those guys back there." ... The sign of an improving program: UNLV players after barely falling in Provo were not content with just playing the league's most prestigious team close. The Rebels were mad about the lost opportunity. Fuming. "We're not the fall guys any more," Robinson said. "We're not the bottom dwellers. In order to get off the bottom, you first have to believe it's possible. Opponents still might have more skill than us at certain spots, but we're going to compensate in others." San Diego State Never has there been a team in more need of a bye. The Aztecs are 0-4 to begin a season for the first time since 1955 after being routed at Oregon State 35-3. SDSU gets this week off to prepare for its conference opener at Wyoming on Oct. 7. "Obviously, we're not a good team," said Aztecs coach Ted Tollner. "It's my responsibility ... We can't do anything offensively. There is no bright spot on offense. We can't make a play. I thought we were a better team than this. I don't feel that way now, and that makes it tough. We have to do something to salvage the year. I knew 0-4 was a possibility, but this ... This is our worst nightmare." Consider: In four games, SDSU has 33 punts and 26 points. The Aztecs rank 111th in scoring nationally. ... SDSU is also killing itself on special teams with a net punting average of 27.6 yards, which ranks 106th nationally. Hang-time and depth by punters Justin Sisco and Brian Simnjanovski could be better, but SDSU is tackling like it never hit anyone. "It's the most disappointing part," said special teams coach Wayne Dickens. "I don't care if the ball goes 15 yards or 50 yards, if you don't tackle someone, it's coming back in your face." Meanwhile, SDSU continues to do nothing on its returns, averaging 7.9 yards on punts and 14.9 on kickoffs. Utah Speaking of 0-4 teams. The Utes haven't lost their first four to begin a season since 1986, when they started 0-7. Ron McBride insists this is no time to panic, that his team is every bit as good as conference leader Air Force. "We played very hard (against Air Force), and I can't ask for anything more," he said. "This is new territory for me. I've never been 0-4 at anything." ... Golden Whetman will apparently be replaced as place-kicker. Question is, what took so long? Whetman is a poor 1-of-9 on field goals. Ryan Kaneshiro, a junior who hasn't sparkled during past opportunities, gets another chance. ... Say what you want about the record, no conference team is as dangerous when returning kicks. Steve Smith has returned one for a score and had two more called back. Patrick Dyson returned a kickoff 98 yards for a TD against Air Force. It is a conference record and the third longest in Utah history. He's averaging 32.8 yards on six returns. "It's nice knowing that any time each one gets the ball, they can hit a home run," McBride said. Wyoming It's a safe bet head coach Vic Koenning won't be sending holiday greetings to the Nevada staff. The Cowboys lost defensive tackle Damon Roark for the season with a broken ankle during Saturday's 35-28 defeat. Koenning said the injury came off an intentional chop block. "Their players are obviously taught to go below the knee," Koenning said. "It's unfortunate they have a coaching staff that teaches it. (Roark) broke the ankle in three places. It was obviously intentional." ... Koenning said the sting of losing to Nevada (an 18-point underdog) still existed once returning to practice Monday. The game that was delayed for more than an hour because Nevada's team bus was stuck behind a 12-car pileup saw the Wolf Pack rally from deficits of 14-0 and 21-7. It didn't help Wyoming's cause that several defensive linemen were ill. "We basically ran out of gas," Koenning said. ... Jay Stoner returned at quarterback and threw for 206 yards, moving to No. 2 on the school's career list. He needs 1,391 yards to pass Tom Corontzos for the all-time lead. "(Stoner) played well against Nevada, but he's still holding the ball too long at times," Koenning said. "He just needs to cut loose and let it go." Ed Graney covers college football for the San Diego Union Tribune and can be reached at ed.graney@uniontrib.com | ALSO SEE Big East notebook Big Ten notebook Big 12 notebook Big West notebook Conference USA notebook MAC notebook WAC notebook | ||||
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