Junior running back Derrick Coleman has been cleared to play in UCLA’s upcoming contest at No. 7 Texas after sitting out this last week with a concussion and a strained neck.
The Bruins’ second-leading rusher last season, Coleman was injured in the team’s 35-0 loss to Stanford at the Rose Bowl on Sept. 11, but rejoined team practice on Tuesday wearing the red “caution” jersey.
By Wednesday, he was wearing the same white jerseys as his teammates and running just as hard.
“It feels good,” Coleman said. “I came out here yesterday with fresh legs.”
In his one-game absence, Coleman’s counterpart in the backfield, redshirt sophomore running back Johnathan Franklin, set career numbers, rushing for 158 yards and three touchdowns. Coleman had to watch the performance from the sideline.
“As hard as it is to know you can’t be out there to help your team, they went out there and pulled it off,” he said. “I’m a team player, so when it comes to making yards, whoever gets it, that’s great.”
Coleman was listed as the official starter for the team’s first two games of the season, but he was still splitting the majority of carries with Franklin. But after Franklin’s monster game last week, it appears to be his job to lose.
“I don’t think there’s any question right now that Johnny’s the first guy out,” running backs coach Wayne Moses said after Tuesday’s practice.
“(Coleman) will be in the mix,” head coach Rick Neuheisel said on Wednesday.
The situation might best be described by the “or” distinction that usually accompanies the two backs’ names on the weekly depth chart released by the school.
“It’s an “˜or’ in all truthfulness,” Neuheisel said. “I think Derrick and Johnathan both understand that.”
In his week off, Coleman underwent the standard concussion protocol, a regimen of testing and treatment to make sure that the injured player is ready to return to the potentially dangerous world of collegiate contact sport. Coleman said he was attending treatment sessions two or three times a day.
The issue of head injuries have been a hot topic in the professional ranks of the sport in the last few years, with the NFL releasing a study that claimed its former players had higher rates of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.
“This is my first and hopefully my last (head or neck injury),” Coleman said. “But like I’ve told everyone, with football, it’s either take it or leave it.”