Denver South standout Phillip Lindsay (22) is looking forward to college after a knee injury cut short his final prep season.
File photo by Patrick Miller
Just imagine what kind of numbers
Phillip Lindsay could have put up with two good legs.
The record-setting running back from
Denver South has endured a strange, painful, and, ultimately, all too-short senior season. After Lindsay set the all-time rushing record for the Denver Prep League during the Rebels' season-opening victory against Mesa Ridge (Colorado Springs), the standout running back complained of a nagging pain in the back of his knee.
Lindsay and the Denver South training staff figured it was some sort of lower hamstring strain. Lindsay missed one game, returned for one more standout performance, and then was waylaid by the final diagnosis: a torn anterior cruciate ligament.
"I did it in the first game, and I went to four doctors and even played in another game," said the University of Colorado-bound Lindsay. "They checked it, pulled on it. And they said nothing was loose. If anything, I thought it was a lower hamstring strain. I was cutting on it.
"The second game I didn't play, but I thought it was getting better. In the third game, I was cutting on it and had over 60 yards in the first quarter. It turned out I was cutting on nothing but bone, but I didn't feel it."
On Sept. 14, Lindsay helped lead the Rebels to a big rivalry victory against Denver East, rushing for 139 yards and a touchdown on only nine carries. However, the fortunes of his season turned in a remarkably swift fashion in a matter of days.
Still afflicted with the nagging knee pain, Lindsay had an MRI exam the following Monday. He received his diagnosis on Tuesday and that Wednesday, Sept. 19, Lindsay was under the knife.
"I broke down at first," Lindsay said. "It was my senior year and I wanted to be out there with my team. You spend four years on the varsity and then you tear an ACL, and it really hits you. But you can't feel sorry for yourself. That's not how I'm going to get back."
Lindsay said that in the wake of his surgery he heard from the coaching staff at CU, which reaffirmed its commitment and confidence that Lindsay will be an integral addition to the Buffaloes' program in 2013. Within about two weeks of the surgery Lindsay reported he was walking about three-quarters of a mile without his crutches. ("I limped a lot, but I made it," Lindsay said.)
Moreover, Lindsay has been coming to grips about the sudden end to his prep career. In the season-opening win against Mesa Ridge, Lindsay gained 160 rushing yards and surpassed his father, Phillip Sr., as the all-time leading rusher in the DPL. The younger Lindsay is grateful he was able to add to the family legacy before the premature end to his prep career.
"I got to break my father's record and that felt good," Lindsay said. "Even though it didn't finish the way I wanted to, I'm still very proud of what I was able to do. I feel like I did what I had to in high school and I'm ready to move on to college."
