Rogers adjusts to life off the field

PULLMAN – Gary Rogers has discovered much in the past three weeks.

He’s found it’s tough to sleep with a neck brace on. It’s even tougher to watch Washington State’s football games on television.

But he’s also found he still has a lot to be grateful about.

“I’m just really thankful to be walking,” the senior quarterback said Tuesday, when he met with the media for the first time since suffering a broken neck against Portland State. “I just look at things a little different now. Just knowing there is life after football. Eventually football is going to end. It’s not going to be there forever.”

Rogers’ story is well known. A fifth-year senior who got his first chance to start for the Cougars, he struggled and lost the starting job. His replacement, Kevin Lopina, was injured in the first half against PSU. Rogers returned, only to be knocked out by the Vikings’ Aaron Dickson, his neck broken and the season, for him at least, over.

“That’s the biggest frustration I have, knowing that I’m not going to be able to go out there and play again and help the team,” Rogers said.

Over the course of his 15-minute press conference, Rogers, sporting the high plastic neck collar that restricts his movement, covered a range of topics.

•He doesn’t think the hit was out of line and he told Dickson not to worry about it.

“He actually sent me a message over e-mail,” Rogers said, “I think it was the next day. Just saying he was sorry and stuff like that. I told him there were no hard feelings – it’s football and these injuries happen. It was a freak thing and not to worry about it.

“I think it was really nice of him to do that, though. It just shows his character.”

•While he was on the field, he was unaware of the two teams gathering around or that his dad, Gary, was on the field with the Cougars’ coaching staff.

In fact, he wasn’t aware of much of anything, other than his arm being numb and that he was hurt. He didn’t really know what happened until he watched a replay of the game a couple of days later.

“The next day I saw some pictures, and the next day, or two days down the line, they played a replay on TV and I got to watch it,” he said. “That was definitely a pretty touching moment.”

•His parents were devastated at first. Now they’re a little frustrated because they understood better than most how much work he had put into his last college season.

“They’re just thankful I’ve got my health and I’m up walking around,” he said, before talking about his dad coming on the field without his mom. “She was at the game. My dad didn’t want her coming down on the field. She would probably get too riled up, so he came down. He’s more of the calm one of the family.”

•He’ll be out of the neck brace in about three weeks. At that time he’ll undergo more tests to see how it’s healing. As of now, he’s been told the injury should heal completely and he should be able to continue playing football if he wants.

“I think I’m going to get a shot to play again somewhere, sometime,” Rogers said. “I definitely want to try to play. … I’m looking forward to getting these four months over with, then I can start having contact again. … I definitely want to get ready for pro day and continue to play football.”

Notes

There was some good news on the injury front, with Brian Danaher (shoulder) back in his usual spot at right guard and Steven Ayers (neck and concussion) taking snaps at left tackle. “I’ve been through, as a coach, some years where we’ve had a tremendous amount of injuries,” Paul Wulff said. “But not this many.” … Wulff addressed a variety of subjects in his usual conference call, ranging from the Cougars penchant for penalties to the team’s morale. In talking about the former, he made a distinction between infractions based on trying to make a play to those of the “dumb” variety, using the penalty on the second half kickoff at OSU as an example. As for the morale and how it was holding up, Wulff said, “I think reasonably well. … The more positive we as coaches can stay, the more productive we can be.”