Oct. 24, 2010
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By John Denton
UCFAthletics.com
ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFAthletics.com) - Brynn Harvey hoped to defy the odds and make a miraculous comeback from a serious knee injury in just five months. And even though the junior tailback worked as many as three times a day and got back on the practice field, the decision was made on Sunday to shelve Harvey for the season.
Harvey, who was selected to the preseason All-Conference USA squad, will be redshirted and will have two years of eligibility remaining for the Knights. He is expected to be fully healthy by spring drills where he will once again vie for the starting tailback job. He injured his knee last spring during drills.
The decision to redshirt Harvey, a Largo native, was made easier by the emergence of workhorse back Ronnie Weaver and the return of Latavius Murray. Weaver, a junior, ran for 130 yards against Kansas State, a career-best 150 against Marshall and scored three touchdowns in UCF's 41-14 rout of Rice on Saturday.
The Knights, 5-2 overall and 3-0 in C-USA play, host East Carolina (5-2, 4-0) on Saturday at Bright House Networks Stadium in the biggest game of the season. It's the latest in the season that two unbeaten teams in conference play have met since the league expanded to 12 teams.
And the Knights will face East Carolina and make their push for a conference championship without Harvey. He was named to the first team All-Conference USA squad last season after rushing for 1,109 yards and 14 touchdowns.
O'Leary wanted to give Harvey every chance to get back on the field that he could. Harvey often spent several hours a day with rehabilitation and strengthening drills in hopes of getting back on the field this season. He made it back to the practice field each of the past two weeks, but the fear was that he wasn't fully ready to return just yet.
``I think that's in his best interest,'' O'Leary said. ``He hasn't really run in an 11-on-11 situation yet and he's still a little ginger on that leg as far as what I see. And I would hate to put him in and have something happen and ruin a year for him. I'd rather see him have a year left. He has a redshirt year to give.''
Weaver, last year's Special Teams Player of the Year for the Knights, started this season as UCF's third-string tailback behind Jonathan Davis and Brendan Kelly. But so he's run for 458 yards and eight touchdowns while averaging 4.5 yards per carry. And he's certainly been helped in the running game by freshman phenom quarterback Jeff Godfrey, who has run for 351 yards and five scores.
Godfrey, Weaver, Murray and Davis all shared carries during Saturday's victory against Rice and they'll likely do so throughout the rest of the season to compensate for the loss of Harvey.
``I think we have to be the type of team that you play enough people and keep fresh guys out there. I think that's what I want to do,'' O'Leary said. ``We don't have a guy that can run like 30, 35 plays a game. We've got guys who can carry 15 times, quality reps. I think that's what kind of team we need to be.''
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John Denton's Knights Insider appears on UCFAthletics.com several times a week. E-mail John at jdenton@athletics.ucf.edu.