FORT COLLINS — Scott Carter will watch today as his Colorado State teammates run onto the field against San Jose State, just as he has watched each of the last two weeks since being injured.
But if Carter has anything to say about it, this will be the last time he watches from the sideline, despite facing long odds against getting on the field.
The senior defensive end doesn’t have just any injury. He suffered a torn left anterior cruciate ligament in CSU’s second game of the season against Northern Colorado.
Staring into a future without football, Carter, a former walk-on who earned a scholarship this year, made the decision to try to play the rest of the season with a torn ACL.
“I’ve been working pretty hard for the last four or five years to get into the position that I was in about three, four weeks ago,” Carter said. “I was moved around quite a bit, from O-line to D-line to O-line to fullback, back to D-line, so I never really got a niche for a position that I felt comfortable at. I was moved to D-line during fall camp and started to feel comfortable there.
“I got into a position to get substantial playing time and then come out for the second game of my senior season and blow my knee. Not really how I wanted to go out.”
And so he won’t go out that way.
The decision to try to play with a torn ACL wasn’t a quick one, nor was it easy, and it was arrived at after careful consultation with CSU trainers and physicians. Carter, who said he has no pain in the knee now, wanted to go back into the game when it happened.
“It was kind of a shock at first,” he said. “The first thing going through your mind is, ‘Can I play on this?’ But then when the trainers tell you, you really can’t and don’t allow you to, it sets in.”
Carter first explored applying for a sixth year of eligibility but was told it was not an option. A career in the NFL is a longshot. This is likely the final year he’ll play.
And although it is rare to play with a torn ACL, it isn’t unprecedented. Two CSU coaches, Todd Stroud and Greg Scanlan, played with torn ACLs in their college careers.
More famously in Denver, former Broncos quarterback John Elway won two Super Bowls without an ACL in his left knee. It can be done. Carter will give it a shot, donning a knee brace and, underneath, a knee “wrapped up pretty tight,” he said.
CSU team physician Rocci Trumper, who performs about 200 knee surgeries a year, said he sees “one or two” football players a year try to play on a torn ACL, and usually those are high school athletes.
Asked about Carter making it through the balance of the season on the leg, Rocci said, “It’s hard because you don’t know how many reps he’s going to get in practice, how many reps he’s going to get in games.”
But Rocci did make clear if there are any complications, no matter how small, “we’ll shut him down.”
Carter, who played at Mountain Vista High, will be able to give it a try. Carter said he has full range of motion in the left knee.
“I’ve ran on it, I’ve squatted on it, I’ve basically done everything that I can,” he said.
If all goes according to plan, Carter will run out on the field for the Oct. 15 game against Boise State.
Chris Dempsey: 303-954-1279 or cdempsey@denverpost.com
