After undergoing surgery on his broken left ankle, rising redshirt junior offensive tackle Jeff Baca has been ruled out for returning to spring practice.
Coach Rick Neuheisel said he was hopeful to get Baca back when the team begins fall camp in August.
“I’m sure there’ll be a ‘nursing him back to health’ portion of that, so I don’t know how much of the two-a-day stuff he’ll do,” Neuheisel said Saturday of Baca’s rehabilitation. “But if we could have him full speed in September that would be terrific.”
Baca was carted off the field Thursday after injuring the ankle during team drills.
“One of the advantages is, and this is a credit to our medical staff, they got him into surgery that night,” Neuheisel said. “With Kai Maiava, it swoll so much that we had to wait almost three weeks to get the swelling down to do the surgery.”
Rising redshirt senior Kai Maiava fractured his left ankle in last season’s fall scrimmage, causing him to miss all of last season.