Nov. 11, 2009
By John Denton
UCFAthletics.com
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His left ribcage bothering him so much so that he's needed two hours of treatment a day the past two weeks, UCF quarterback Brett Hodges feels it was the right decision for him to rest last Saturday and instead train his focus on Saturday's showdown against Houston.
Hodges, UCF's gritty starting quarterback, and tailback Brynn Harvey were held out of last Saturday's 35-3 loss to Texas after not practicing all week. Hodges struggled with badly bruised ribs that he injured against Marshall, while Harvey wore a walking boot and didn't practice because of a sore ankle. Accordingly, neither played against Texas.
Both are back on the practice field now and expecting to be on the field when the Knights (5-3 overall, 3-2 in Conference USA play) host No. 12 Houston (7-1, 3-1) at Bright House Networks Stadium.
Hodges, the hero in the 21-20 defeat of Marshall after throwing a touchdown pass with 23 seconds to play, said he could have played in an emergency last week, but he would have been limited by a rib injury. He knew by the middle of the week that the injury was going to preclude him from playing and that assessment was backed up when Rob Calabrese got most of the first-team reps in practice.
``With all the treatment that I got and (working with) the training staff, Coach O'Leary just thought it wasn't the best idea, as banged up as I was, to play to 100 percent,'' Hodges said.
The senior quarterback who has thrown for 1,558 yards and 10 touchdowns said it was difficult to stomach not being able to play against Texas, the nation's second-ranked team. But he understood the decision.
``It was pretty tough. As any athlete and competitor you want to play and be out there,'' Hodges said. ``(Playing) didn't happen for health reasons. I was there just standing on the sidelines to support Rob and trying to get the offense going as much as I can standing on the sidelines.''
Harvey wore a protective boot over his sprained ankle most of last week, an injury that he suffered late in the Marshall game. When he was held out of practice last week, he assumed that freshman Jonathan Davis would get the nod against Texas.
Like Hodges, Harvey said it was difficult for him as a competitor having to miss a game against one of the nation's elite programs. He said he was intentionally coy with teammates and students on campus about his playing status for the game because he was holding out hope that he would heal in time to play.
``Of course I wanted to play. That's one of the best environments in college football at Texas,'' he said. ``I want to say (he found out he wasn't playing) when I didn't practice all week. I really didn't practice for the game, so I knew I wasn't going to play.
``It was an expectation that I would play, but when everybody on the team asked me if I was playing I didn't have an answer for them,'' Harvey continued. ``I really didn't know until Friday.''
Both plan to be back on Saturday for a game that UCF must win to stay in the race to win the East Division of Conference USA.
``We're going to have to get some help from ECU and have them lose some games and that's possible with the schedule that they have coming up and playing some tough road games,'' Hodges said. ``We're taking it one game at a time and the next one is Houston. If we can win these next three, that's all we can ask for.''
John Denton's Knights Insider appears several times per week on UCFAthletics.com. E-mail John at jdenton@athletics.ucf.edu.