FORT COLLINS — As if his Colorado State teammates needed any more incentive to reverse course, senior safety Klint Kubiak provided another reason.
If the Rams (3-4), winless in the Mountain West, can get to a bowl, there’s an outside chance Kubiak might recover from surgery on a torn pectoral muscle in time to rejoin the team. CSU would need to win at least three more games to qualify, however.
Kubiak, the team’s leading tackler (48) until linebacker Mychal Sisson overtook him Saturday, underwent surgery last Thursday. He initially didn’t think anything of it when he stretched his arm back on a late goal-line tackle against Utah on Oct. 3. He continued playing.
“It’s just heartbreaking news, being my senior season,” Kubiak said Monday. “Running out of that tunnel on Senior Day against Wyoming (Nov. 27) would have been great being in full pads, but it didn’t work out for me.”
Kubiak, whose surgeon gave him an eight-to-10-week recovery period, spent most of his career rehabbing from one injury or illness after another. Last summer, he said his goal was playing one season injury-free. He missed one year with a bleeding ulcer, then missed the second half of the 2008 season with a knee injury. He returned to play in the New Mexico Bowl.
His brother Klay, a reserve quarterback, went home to Houston last week to undergo shoulder surgery. Their father, Gary, is the coach of the Houston Texans. Klay met up with the Rams in Fort Worth for the TCU game. Klint stayed home.
“There wasn’t much to say. He’s just encouraging us to keep our heads up,” Klint Kubiak said of his father. “There have been a lot of great things that have happened to me in the last 4 1/2 years, and I’m thankful to be part of Colorado State.”
He plans to go into coaching if he doesn’t have a shot at pro ball.
Besides losing one of its leading tacklers, CSU soon will find out the fate of leading rusher Leonard Mason. Coach Steve Fairchild confirmed Monday that Mason, who has 511 yards on 107 carries, has bruised ribs, but it isn’t known when he will return.
Natalie Meisler: 303-954-1295 or nmeisler@denverpost.com
