UGA’s Sturdivant, Owens work to get back on field

Athens — Jeff Owens, Georgia’s rehabbing defensive tackle, was taken aback by a question last week from Dave Van Halanger, the Bulldogs’ director of strength and conditioning.

“Coach Van asked me, ‘Where do you see yourself being next year at this time?’” Owens said. “I looked at him, and I was, like, ‘I have no idea.’ Because if you asked me that same thing last year, I never would have thought I’d be standing here.”

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Curtis Compton /ccompton@ajc.com

Georgia defensive lineman Jeff Owens injured his knee in last year’s season opener against Georgia Southern. Owens hopes to be back on the field to start next season.

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Many of Georgia’s best-laid plans went awry in 2008, starting with season-ending knee injuries to arguably their two best linemen: Owens (lost in the opening game of what would have been his senior season) and offensive tackle Trinton Sturdivant (lost in an August scrimmage for what would have been his sophomore season).

Both had to deal with the anxieties of ligament-reconstruction surgery, with long and lonely months of painful rehab, and with a fall sans football. By all accounts, both now are on pace to return to the Bulldogs’ lineup in 2009 — Owens for a fifth year of eligibility at a time that he expected to be starting an NFL career.

“I thought I had my life planned out,” Owens said, “but now I just take each day and live life to the fullest.”

“It changed my whole [outlook],” Sturdivant said of his injury. “When I come back … I’m just going to cherish every moment I’m out there with my teammates.”

Knee injuries are jolting for athletes, even though surgical advances have made comebacks common from injuries even as serious as the ones Owens and Sturdivant sustained.

Sturdivant, who started 13 games as a freshman at the key left-tackle position, said his injury occurred while he was blocking on a play-action pass. Another player, “out of nowhere,” lost his footing and fell into Sturdivant’s leg. Sturdivant knew the injury was severe as soon as he heard — yes, heard — it.

“I just heard everything crackle and pop,” he said. “It was disgusting. … My left knee bent in and touched my right leg. That’s when I knew it was nasty, man.”

Three ligaments were torn. “My ACL, my MCL, my PCL,” Sturdivant said. “I think that’s it.” He feared, he admits now, his football career might be over.

“Initially, it was a big blow for me and my whole family — my goals and everything,” he said.

But a few weeks after surgery, as he saw the first signs of progress and was able to put a bit of weight on the knee, “I knew I would come back.”

Owens, who started 24 games at defensive tackle the two previous years, went down in the season opener against Georgia Southern.

“A freak accident,” said Owens, who is from Sunrise, Fla. “I was running to the ball, jumped over a guy and landed on my [right] knee. It buckled, and that was all she wrote.”

One ligament was torn, the ACL, which Owens said was reconstructed in surgery by borrowing from his hamstring.

As Georgia’s season unfolded without the intended leaders of their lines, Sturdivant and Owens headed off to do the lonely work of rehab.

“It’s tough, a grind,” Owens said. “It’s constant, every day, every day, just trying to get back to 100 percent. Keep pushing through the pain. A lot of pain. A lot of agony. You just got to fight through it.”

The hardest days were the Saturdays.

“It was real tough, seeing my boys out there playing and me not able to play with them,” said Sturdivant, who is from Wadesboro, N.C. “It was crushing, really crushing.”

Both players are upbeat now. Sturdivant says he’s jogging, and Owens says that’s an understatement: “He’s, like, almost sprinting.” Both say they’re able to do much, but not everything, in the weight room.

Most importantly, both say they have had no setbacks — “no regression,” as Sturdivant puts it. Neither will be available for spring practice, but if all goes well, Georgia coaches and trainers expect both to be cleared for action by summer.

“A lot of guys, back in the day, couldn’t come back from an ACL,” Owens said. “I just thank God I have an opportunity to try to make a comeback and try to get back to 100 percent.”