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http://dispatch.com/football/football.php?story=dispatch/2005/12/06/20051206-E1-05.html&chck=t
Carpenter hopes leg heals before bowl game
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
Tim May
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
<!--PHOTOS--><TABLE class=phototableright align=right border=0><!-- begin large ad code --><TBODY><TR><TD><TABLE align=center><TBODY><TR><TD align=middle></TD></TR><TR><TD class=credit width=200>NEAL C . LAURON | DISPATCH </TD></TR><TR><TD class=cutline width=200>Bobby Carpenter stood on the sideline and exhorted his teammates after suffering a broken leg during the game against Michigan. </TD></TR><TR><TD align=middle>
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Whether Bobby Carpenter plays another down for Ohio State remains to be seen. But if he does not play against Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl, he said, at least he left the field with his dignity intact.
OK, maybe he was hopping as he exited just one play into the game at Michigan two weeks ago. But how many in the general population would even hop knowing they had a broken bone in their lower right leg?
"I’ve always told myself if I can crawl or get off in any way, I never want to be carted off the field," he said. "It’s not a great experience to get carted off.
"I hate guys that lay there for 20 minutes and then get up and jog off. If it was that bad, you should have walked off to begin with."
Besides, he was hopping sad that day. The senior linebacker from Lancaster had planned to make his last two games as a Buckeye the best of his career. Instead, after X-rays proved he’d broken the nonweight-bearing fibula just above the ankle, he stood on the sideline with tears in his eyes while rooting his team to the win over the Wolverines.
He said he has been told by team medical personnel he has about a 30 percent to 50 percent chance of playing in just the fifth game ever between OSU and Notre Dame.
"It’s a six- to eight-week heal, and a normal person could be fine, you could walk around after six weeks, but could you play in a college football game, Division I?" Carpenter said.
It will be an almost game-time decision. He doesn’t anticipate even being cleared to walk freely or jog until after the Buckeyes arrive in the Phoenix area on Dec. 26 to begin on-site preparations.
As the team returns to practice Wednesday, he will busy himself with upper body strength work and stationary bike rides, and limited ankle deflection movements to keep flexibility in the joint.
"That way when the time comes to run, I hopefully will be able to," Carpenter said. "That’s the biggest thing. They said the fracture should be healed, but it’s the ligaments and ankle joint itself that will determine whether it’s functional enough to play."
There’s no doubt about his goal.
"I want to play," Carpenter said.
His pass-rush ability against Notre Dame’s celebrated new passing attack would be a plus for the Buckeyes. Yet he also has been projected in many circles as a first-round NFL draft pick, so he was asked whether that thought might weigh heavily on whether he pushes it to play against the Irish.
"Not a whole lot," said Carpenter, who ran a 4.52-second 40-yard dash for pro scouts last March. "I’m going to play in the Senior Bowl on Jan. 28. . . . People will tell you not to play (in the Fiesta); and people will tell you, ‘Oh, come on, play.’ A lot of my teammates are getting behind whatever I want to do.
"But I told them, ‘Guys, you mean a lot to me. I feel very privileged to get to play with such great players like you. And I want to try to play with you one more time.’ If it’s my decision, I’m going to play. The doctors have more to say about it than I do."
OSU senior tight end Ryan Hamby had to sit out the last four games because of a knee sprain, so he knows how Carpenter feels. He also knows Carpenter’s energy was missed.
"He’s our emotional head-case leader, and we need him out there," Hamby said. "Because Bobby is Bobby, we love him, and we’ve got to have him."
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