This what they had all been waiting for.
Blake Ringwall, ESU’s junior linebacker, just hasn't been himself since returning from arthroscopic knee surgery that forced him to miss training camp and the first three games this season.
Since his return, he’s been in the starting lineup and he’s been putting up decent numbers. He had seven tackles against Washburn and another seven against Missouri Western. But Ringwall just wasn’t himself; he wasn't the linebacker that averaged a team-high 7.8 tackles per game last season.
“I’ve seen glimpses of what he was last year,” ESU linebackers coach J.J. Milanovich said last week. “I’d just like to see it on a more consistent basis and I know he has it in him. ... It’s just one of those things where (when) he does hit that peak he’s going to be spectacular.”
If this whole football coaching thing doesn't work out for Milanovich, he might have a future as a fortune teller. On Saturday against Truman, the real Ringwall returned.
Ringwall had 10 tackles. In the third quarter, he showed the burst that he had last season when he closed in on Truman quarterback Matt Ticich, who expected to have more time to throw the ball and didn’t anticipate Ringwall's closing speed.
“I’m starting to get back," Ringwall said, “feeling a lot better and more confident.”
He continued to show just that in the fourth quarter when he helped seal the victory for the Hornets, ending a Truman drive by forcing Ticich to fumble.
It’s been a long, slow return for Ringwall, who after never experiencing a serious injury in his life started having knee problems last season. He missed the final two games last season because of an injury to his right knee and then missed spring ball because of an injury to his left knee.
Milanovich, hired in the offseason as the linebackers coach, was relying on Ringwall to be the leader of the unit.
“I was counting on, with me not being here last fall, he was the bright spot I saw in the linebacking corps, I mean the true bright spot, the one that stood out as the playmaker,” Milanovich said. “He was the one that did things that you kind of went, ‘Wow, that's impressive.’”
Ringwall was also the only returning starter, and the other linebackers were all redshirt freshmen, other than junior Katrel Larkins, who moved over from safety.
“In the spring when he was out or didn’t practice that much, I asked him a lot of questions and when he wasn’t out there on the field, it was hard, because I didn't really know what I was doing at first so I had nobody to ask questions of,” Larkins said.
Ringwall stayed on campus this summer, and his knees had healed. Then one day he was trying to max out on the squat and he partially tore his meniscus in his right knee. The doctors told him time would heal his tear, but with training camp approaching, his knee just wasn't getting better and two weeks before camp he had to have surgery.
“It was hard because I was always getting treatment and doing rehab,” Ringwall said. “I was always sitting out watching practice and it was hard to interact with everyone because they were out there practicing.”
Since his return, he's teamed with Larkins to become a leader on the young unit.
“Now that's he's back, we ask each other questions and help each other out,” Larkins said. “I'm glad he's back.”
And on Saturday, Ringwall finally returned. Good news for the Hornets and bad news for MIAA quarterbacks.
“I think he's just now starting to come into himself,” ESU coach Garin Higgins said. "He's a guy that can be a difference over there on defense.”
hornetfan00 (anonymous) says...
really?
October 29, 2008 at 3:12 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )