Miami QB reflects on ‘the incident’ and how ‘breakfast club’ helped him get through injury
Old-timers might remember the movie “The Breakfast Club,” described on Wikipedia as a “1985 American teen coming of age comedy-drama’’ about “teenagers from different high school cliques who spend a Saturday in detention with their authoritarian assistant principal.’’
After University of Miami’s first spring practice Monday, soon-to-be redshirt freshman quarterback Jake Garcia described his own version of “The Breakfast Club,’’ a group of Hurricanes who came together at 6 a.m. this past season for daily rehab sessions.
Garcia, 20, said his breakfast club included offensive lineman John Campbell, running back Don Chaney Jr., receiver Mike Redding, running back Cam’Ron Harris and center Corey Gaynor.
Campbell practiced Monday, but will be limited this spring. Chaney (knee surgery) is still out for the spring. Redding (labrum surgery) is back and had a nice grab of early enrollee freshman Jacurri Brown’s 20-yard out route Monday. Harris (knee surgery) declared for the NFL Draft and Gaynor (knee surgery) transferred to North Carolina.
Garcia, the second-team signal-caller behind starter Tyler Van Dyke, is totally cleared and was running well Monday on his surgically repaired right ankle. He said he had been waiting a long time to be back practicing with his teammates and coaches.
“Since the day that I got hurt, the day that I got surgery,’’ Garcia said of “the incident” that occurred in his 45-yard run (that preceded Harris’s 2-yard touchdown rush) in the first half of UM’s 69-0 trouncing of Central Connecticut State on Sept. 25.
The incident, of course, was the high ankle sprain and torn ligaments. Despite the pain, Garcia returned in the second half to throw two touchdowns.
“That’s the thing. You can’t let anybody know,” Garcia said, laughing. “When I felt my ankle, you know how you know you messed up and it’s like, ‘Oh man, I cut my finger.’ Your body gets kind of hot. I felt that feeling right away and I was like, ‘I probably broke my ankle, but I can’t come out because I didn’t throw any touchdowns yet.’
“We had a long halftime, my ankle was acting up and I just kept moving on it, really. And then I ended up being able to throw my first college touchdown, and my second one.”
He said he was “super thankful” for the entire staff and his teammates that have supported him — and for “the rehab guys at the breakfast club.”
“All those guys have kept each other straight and their minds right throughout the whole process of everybody coming back... It was the early morning Breakfast Club. We kept it fun.
“...The last time you guys or anyone has publicly seen me run was the incident. But today felt great,’’ he said Monday. “It felt great with all the coaches out there, just having everybody together again. We’re obviously running new systems, offensively and defensively, so that’s a lot to process and handle. But we’re doing well with it and we’re just going to keep pushing it every day and getting better.”
