Iowa OL Dace Richardson all way back from injury

Jan 3, 2010 - 12:19 AM MIAMI SHORES, Fla.(AP) -- Dace Richardson rushed to rehab a broken left ankle so he could play in the Orange Bowl.

On Saturday, word finally came down from Iowa's coaches: The offensive lineman will get a chance to play against No. 9 Georgia Tech in what could be his final game.

"I feel ready; I feel strong," Richardson said. "They just wanted to make sure I was ready to go. From that standpoint, I'm grateful."

Richardson sat out the final month of the season after breaking his ankle Oct. 24 at Michigan State. It was the latest blow to a career almost cut short 16 months ago by chronic knee injuries.

Considering all he'd gone through just to get to South Florida, it would have been tough to deny him.

"He's done a really nice job to get back to this point in time," offensive coordinator Ken O'Keefe said. "I don't know that he would be ready to play a 60-minute game if he absolutely had to. But he'll be ready to do something."

Richardson's impact may be best measured by the fact that his partial season didn't keep Big Ten coaches from voting him to their all-conference team. He did it while playing three positions. He began the season at right tackle until Kyle Calloway recovered from injury, moved to left guard for four games, then shifted to right guard to make room for the emergence of Riley Reiff.

But it came to an abrupt halt in the first quarter at Michigan State, getting tangled in a pile on the game's opening series.

"I definitely knew it was broken," Richardson recalled. "I heard it snap."

It had the potential to be a spirit-crushing injury. Until this season, he hadn't played a down since 2006, sidelined again and again by knee injuries that had medical staff telling him he might be done.

Richardson fought back from those troubles; he wouldn't let this one keep him down, either. In fact, his spirits got an unlikely boost when doctors told him the broken ankle would take a month to heal.

That meant he had a chance to play in Iowa's bowl game.

"I was definitely thinking about being back for the bowl," he said.

Richardson had no plans to tune in when the all-conference team was unveiled on the Big Ten Network during the season's final week, but he found out soon enough when friends began texting and calling him.

"They'd tell me congratulations and I'm saying, 'Congratulations for what?"' Richardson recalled. "It was definitely a pick-me-up from where I was at the time - I was still in a cast at that point."

Rehab would come soon enough.

"That injury against Michigan State, I don't know that anyone thought he'd come back for this game," tackle Bryan Bulaga said. "To see him back now, I think it says a lot about Dace's character and resiliency."

Despite all the time lost to injuries during his Iowa stay, Richardson says he never got to the point of asking, "Why me?"

"I just feel like God has a plan," Richardson said. "I've become a stronger person because of the injury. It taught me that if I want to be the best, you have to work hard to get there. At first maybe I didn't appreciate that as much."

Richardson also has a big decision ahead of him - whether to apply to the NCAA for a medical exemption that would give him a sixth season of eligibility or try giving the NFL a shot. As a senior, he doesn't face the Jan. 15 deadline to declare early entry, but he can't apply to the NCAA until May.

"(School officials) feel like I have a good enough case where it should be a slam dunk for me," Richardson said, "but the NCAA's weird. So who knows?"

For now, Richardson will simply enjoy being with his teammates for at least one more game, on a big stage.

"What a great story," Hawkeyes coach Kirk Ferentz said. "From my observations, I don't think he's ever enjoyed football any more than he did this year."