Rushing back to action

One practice down, 28 to go.

That's how Citadel running back Rickey Anderson felt as he walked off the field after the first day of fall practice Monday morning. With two knee surgeries in two years behind him, the redshirt freshman can't wait for the Aug. 30 opener with Webber International.

If he can make it unscathed through the next 28 practices, that contest will mark the first football game in almost two years for the 6-0, 200-pounder with loads of potential at a position where the Bulldogs need it most.

"I'm very excited, really at a loss for words," Anderson said after the three-hour workout at the Maybank Triplets field. "I haven't been in that type of atmosphere for a while, and there's going to be so much adrenaline pumping through me. I can't wait."

Neither can Citadel coaches wait to see the impact Anderson might have on an offense that's losing one of the most productive backs in the Southern Conference in Tory Cooper.

At Cape Coral (Fla.) High School, Anderson was gifted enough to earn recruiting attention from FBS (Division I-A) schools after rushing for 729 yards and eight touchdowns as a junior. He ran the 100 meters in 10.9 seconds and also played basketball at Cape Coral.

Even after Anderson tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee during a 7-on-7 summer passing league just before his senior season in 2006, he verbally committed to South Florida. He played in two games in his senior season before re-injuring the knee and undergoing surgery.

But when the Bulls wanted to "grayshirt" Anderson — delay bringing him into school until January 2008

— he decided to go elsewhere and signed with The Citadel last year.

"When we recruited Rickey, a lot of bigger schools were very interested in him," Citadel coach Kevin Higgins said. "But tearing your ACL as a senior makes it difficult to be recruited by those big schools. And that's one thing we try to do here, find a player who can be a difference-maker. Sometimes you have to take a chance to find those players, and we took a chance on Rickey."

But before that chance could pay off, Anderson tore the ACL in his right knee while returning a kickoff just a few days into fall camp last year. A second knee surgery cost him a second year of football, and was a potentially devastating blow.

"It was tough to take," Anderson said. "Before my senior year in high school, my dad told me it would be my best year, and then I got hurt. I didn't understand it then, but I know everything happens for a reason and I know I'm here for a reason."

Anderson said he considered giving up football after his first knee injury, but talks with friends and relatives — which include NFL players Santana Moss and Sinorice Moss — convinced him otherwise.

"They said that if I loved the game, I had to stick with it," Anderson said. "Every good player has at least one bad injury, and you have to work through it."

Restricted to limited contact in spring practice, Anderson will face another major test when the Bulldogs begin contact drills Friday and Saturday.

"We'll slowly bring him into the fold," Higgins said, "and hope he holds up."

If he does, Anderson will have a great chance to team with sophomore Cody Wilson in replacing Cooper's 1,041 rushing yards, 33 catches and 21 touchdowns from last year.

"Rickey has good speed, and for a big back has pretty good change of direction and good vision," Higgins said. "He can catch the ball out of the backfield, which we like a lot. He's got everything we're looking for, in even a bigger guy than you normally look for at that position.

"So far, he looks very good."

Notes

More than a week after they reported for athletic cadre, none of The Citadel's incoming freshmen have left school. That's a good sign ... Tight end Ben Carnell, best remembered for quarterbacking the Bulldogs to two victories in 2005, is done playing after suffering a neck injury in the spring, Higgins said. Carnell, a senior from Hanahan High School, will take a medical redshirt and act as a student-coach this season.