Prime Cut Three Surgeries Later, Arceneaux Returns For Utes

When he went down, Darnell Arceneaux, the Utah quarterback, knew he was done.

It was his shoulder this time. His throwing shoulder. Yeah, he’d made it through a concussion. Made it through back pains. Made it through surgery to correct shin splints. He even made it through three games on the sideline waiting for a metal rod to help heal his index finger so he could grip the football.

But this time he was done.

“I thought I would never be able to play quarterback again,” said Arceneaux. “In that one instant you really know it could be a career-ending deal.”

One instant. One hit by a UTEP lineman. One career over.

Two days later, Arceneaux was under the knife, having his separated shoulder surgically repaired. That should have been the end. Any QB with an IQ higher than his uniform number probably would have hung up his cleats right then. After all, in his Utah career Arceneaux was averaging a surgery (three) for every two wins he earned as a starting quarterback (six).

But three days after the shoulder injury, Arceneaux was talking about his plans for a comeback.

“I’m a competitor,” the junior said. “I have to play. For someone to take away football from me, that’d be like being a kid and someone taking you away from your mother and saying you can never see her again.”

As the son of a father who left him, Arceneaux, now a father himself, knows what it feels like to be left behind. He refused to be left behind by his team. He refused to let the game of football leave him behind.

He made it to spring ball. He could do nothing more than turn and hand the ball off. Leaving spring ball, he was named the Utes’ starter on promise alone.

The coaches and players had seen what he could do.

He could run. Before he was knocked out in the UTEP game, Arceneaux had gained 115 yards.

He could throw. As a sophomore, he completed 56 percent of his passes and threw five touchdowns in four starts.

He could win. He is 6-0 as a starter at Utah. He is 38-1 as a starter if you count his prep record at St. Louis High in Honolulu.

“He’s just so flashy,” said wide receiver Chris Christensen. “A leader. He’s got that booming voice and he can be pretty bold. He can’t stand to lose.”

“He can pretty much do it all,” added Washington State QB Jason Gesser, a former high school teammate of Arceneaux. “He is real athletic. He can drop back and throw the ball. When he wants to, he can run the ball, too. He is able to make things happen on the field.”

When Gesser saw his old high school teammate back in the islands this summer, Arceneaux was far from doing it all.

“He could only throw the ball about 30 yards because of the surgery,” Gesser said. “But he said he was going to be back and be there for this game.

True to his word, by the time fall ball rolled into Salt Lake City, Arceneaux was jitterbugging in the pocket, hitting the hot receiver and picking up the blitzes.

“He even throws a tighter spiral now than he did,” said Christensen. “I think he’s stronger than he was.”

Maybe both mentally and physically.

“I’ve gotten bigger and stronger,” Arceneaux said. “My body weight is up. My arm strength feels great.

“When you are hurt and have to watch everything, you realize how lucky you are to even have played football,” he continued. “Now that I’m back I guess I realize how lucky I am to still be playing football.”