BRIAN ROSENTHAL / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Wednesday, April 4, 2007 7:00 pm
It’s been nearly five months since Cody Glenn, celebrating a hard-fought touchdown run at Texas A&M, jumped in the air, landed, and yelped, ‘Dang!’
Or some word along those lines.
That’s when the Nebraska running back first knew something was wrong with his foot. It’s been an injury that plagues him still today.
But Glenn would like to get one thing straight: The jumping and the landing in the end zone isn’t to blame for his gimpy right foot.
“A lot of people said I hurt it celebrating,” the junior from Rusk, Texas, said. “But I didn’t hurt it celebrating.”
Rather, Glenn said the injury occurred on his touchdown run.
“When I scored in the end zone, I ran a guy over,” Glenn said. “And when I ran him over, he grabbed my foot and twisted it, and then this big lineman came from the inside, and he tried to tackle me, too.
“He jumped on top of me, and he fell … straight on top of the back of my heel.”
Glenn initially thought he just banged up his ankle.
“When I first scored, I just jumped up, not thinking about it,” he said. “And then when I came back down, I was like, ‘Dang!’ It hurt. Then I started hopping.”
Glenn, who rushed for 370 yards and eight touchdowns last season, missed Nebraska’s final three games because of the injury. He entered spring practice less than 100 percent, and said Wednesday he’s probably 80 to 85 percent.
“It’s doing a lot better,” Glenn said. “It still hurts a lot. I can get through practice, but like right now, it’s hurting pretty bad. It’ll hurt pretty good tomorrow.”
Glenn said the fact he has little to no arch in his foot — he’s worn a special insole since bowl practices — had already been a problem. Now, this.
“It goes up into my ankle sometimes,” Glenn said, “and causes my ankle to hurt.”
Glenn said coaches hold him back in practice “just a little bit,” that he doesn’t receive as many snaps as he normally would.
As far as running the football, Glenn said making certain cutbacks can be tricky.
“If I’m going to the right, and I try to cut back left, and try to plant that right foot, it’s really hard. It hurts a lot,” he said. “When I try to do that, I kind of round it off, and I can’t make the quick cut like I normally do.”
Still, Glenn knows he’ll have to play through pain this spring, especially given Nebraska’s injury problems at running back.
Senior Kenny Wilson, already out with a staph infection in his knee, last week broke his femur while carrying a television set. He had surgery and is expected to miss the upcoming season. Freshman Marcus Mendoza is currently sidelined with a hamstring pull.
That leaves Glenn and junior Marlon Lucky as the only experienced running backs in spring camp.
“I don’t want to leave him out there by himself, have him do it all by himself,” Glenn said of Lucky. “I feel like I need to be out there.”
Sophomore Major Culbert is also in the mix, but the converted safety is still grasping the offense.
“Major Culbert has stepped up a lot. He looked real good today,” Glenn said. “Marcus, before he got hurt, he was looking real good. He’s just got a lot of learning to do. It’s a tough offense to learn.”
Reach Brian Rosenthal at 473-7436 or brosenthal@journalstar.com.