Football: The long road back
Spring is always eagerly awaited in Logan for the passing of snow and the re-emergence of the sun. This year, however, there is a buzz around the beginning of spring football for the Aggies.
The Aggies have won two-straight bowl games for the first time in program history and did so without star quarterback Chuckie Keeton last season. Keeton tore his ACL against BYU on Oct. 4 and had to watch the rest of the season from the sidelines. The Aggies finished the season 6-2 in his stead.
“It was a little difficult for me because I’m watching them, and the views that I had, I can see exactly what’s going on and I know what should be happening,” Keeton said. “At the same time, I was definitely happy with what they did. What happened last season was really what the definition of a team is. When somebody falls out, or in our case like seven people are out for the season, that’s when guys step up and they make a big impact on the team.”
Keeton spent the offseason rehabbing his knee and won’t play in any live game situations for the duration of spring ball. However, he will start participating in passing drills in the next couple of weeks. In the meantime, Keeton is doing his best to participate and help his team during spring practices.
“Now, I’m a lot more incorporated into everything. I have a little bit more of an impact than I did during the season, but with that it’s great to see all of these guys progress, and I’m definitely there to give my two cents on every play,” Keeton said. “They know that that’s what they are going to get. If it’s a good play or a bad play, they know that they’re going to hear something.”
From a coaching standpoint, spring football practices have carried an air of uncertainty due to the absence of Keeton and the success of freshman quarterback Darell Garretson last season, who replaced Keeton’s original backup Craig Harrison and was under center for the rest of 2013.
“We’re still kind of waiting to see,” said offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Kevin McGiven. “(Keeton’s) going through his rehab right now, and he’s just trying to get healthy and stronger. He’s doing some running around and making nice progress. It’s been a little bit of a holding pattern for us just to see where he’s at when he gets back, and if he gets back in there and he’s able to play like he had been, we’ll just need to move forward and evaluate things from there.”
McGiven tried to look at the injury to Keeton with a positive spin.
“It turned out to be a good thing in terms of the depth and the future of the program,” McGiven said. “Obviously you don’t want anyone to get hurt and the caliber of player that Chuckie is and having a team leader and the productivity he had early on in the season and the year prior. I mean, that is a big hit to a football team, but you look at it from the perspective of the future of the program and the depth at the quarterback position.”
The team relied on the running game in its offensive scheme toward the end of last season. McGiven said Keeton’s return does not necessarily mean the offense will rely more on passing.
“We’re going to be balanced on offense. We’re going to try to utilize all of our weapons,” McGiven said. “It just so happened that last year Joey DiMartino was doing a great job for us running the football and maybe protected Darrell a little bit in taking a little bit of pressure off of him, and you’d like the run game to be able to do that. We’re obviously going to gauge it based on our personnel and look at that and who we think we are in our offensive identity and try to play to our strengths.”
Spring football will continue without Keeton on the field, though he is optimistic about being able to strap up for fall practices.
“I’ve been thinking about it for a little while, it’s going to be something. I really can’t explain it right now or put it into detail, but I know it’s going to be a great feeling,” Keeton said. “I’m definitely looking forward to it, and I’m definitely looking forward to being with my guys again.”
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