JONESBORO - Adam Kennedy didn’t do much during Arkansas State’s practice Tuesday afternoon.
The Red Wolves’ senior quarterback didn’t do much Saturday or Sunday either as his teammates started preparations for their game against Ball State on Jan. 5 at the GoDaddy Bowl in Mobile, Ala.
Kennedy can’t do much of anything as he waits for a knee injury he sustained in the second quarter of ASU’s loss to Western Kentucky in the regular-season finale to heal, and that is the worst part about it.
“It’s horrible,” Kennedy said after Tuesday’s practice at Liberty Bank Stadium. “I can go get on the bike but I can’t do much on there, so it’s incredibly frustrating. It’s just time. It’ll heal, and it’ll be pretty good. I just have to let it heal first.”
The final hit Kennedy took during a regular season in which he was regularly battered came midway through the second quarter, when he took a snap and looked for Julian Jones on a deep post pass. Jones was covered, so Kennedy went to his next receiver. When he was covered, Kennedy took off running up the middle.
As he did, a Western Kentucky linebacker hit him on the back of the knee, Kennedy fell to the ground,and for the first time this season he didn’t get up.
Kennedy watched the rest of the 34-31 loss on the sideline in sweats while resting on crutches, and later it was revealed that he had dislocated his left kneecap and torn his patellar tendon.
Neither injury requires surgery - Kennedy said the knee actually popped out of place and then back in during the play - but it will probably take four to six weeks for the swelling to go down.
Kennedy and ASU quarterbacks coach Bush Hamdan set Thursday as a goal for his return, which would give him two days of practice before players head home for the holidays and about nine days when players return to get ready for Ball State.
Interim coach John Thompson said the task they are faced with is making sure Kennedy’s knee will hold up to whatever type of practice Kennedy is put through. Any sort of setback, Kennedy said, likely means he won’t play in the GoDaddy Bowl.
“We’ll be careful, but we want to get him doing some things,” Thompson said. “We won’t push him until he comes back, and then we’ll try to accelerate it a little bit.”
Hamdan said the struggle with Kennedy’s return is the way he usually prepares for games. Hamdan called Kennedy a “rep guy,” meaning he takes the bulk of the snaps in practice while preparing for an opponent.
“That’s something we’ve discussed,” Hamdan said. “When we feel he’s ready to go, we’re going to have to get him going and get it cranked up and ready to go.”
The knee injury was the most serious in a long line of nagging ailments during Kennedy’s only season as ASU’s starting quarterback.
It started when he took a shot to the head in the season’s second game at Auburn and played the last few minutes a bit woozy. Then he tore a tendon in his pinky finger Sept. 28 at Missouri.
He played with that finger heavily wrapped throughout the season, and he took regular beatings when he became a regular part of ASU’s running game, starting with a Nov. 2 victory at South Alabama, as he averaged more than 16 carries a game.
By the time ASU went to Western Kentucky, Kennedy said defenders started going for his legs rather than his upper body.
“I took some big-time hits,” Kennedy said. “I thought I would hold up and be good to go.”
Kennedy’s injury could have been worse. He said doctors told him he was fortunate he didn’t tear his anterior cruciate ligament, which would have required surgery.
Instead, he gets to tightrope the fine line between getting ready to play and making sure he doesn’t injure his knee again.
“It’s very difficult, making sure I’m able to play and healthy and not be too rusty from not having played,” he said. “We’re just trying to juggle it.”
Adam Kennedy glance
POSITION Quarterback CLASS Senior
NOTEWORTHY Started every game in his lone season as ASU’s quarterback. … Led the Sun Belt Conference in completion percentage (69.3), finished fifth in the Sun Belt Conference in passing efficiency (140.4), fifth in total offense (236.8 yards per game) and seventh in passing yards per game (193.9). … Rushed for 327 yards and three touchdowns over ASU’s final five games in which it went 4-1 to earn a share of the Sun Belt title and a bowl berth.
GoDaddy Bowl ARKANSAS STATE VS. BALL STATE TIME 8 p.m. Central WHEN Jan. 5 WHERE Mobile, Ala.
TV ESPN RECORDS Arkansas State 7-5, Ball State 7-2
Sports, Pages 19 on 12/18/2013