University of Colorado Athletics
Brooks: Polk Eyes Return To CU Lineup, Trip Home
October 28, 2011 | Football, B.G. Brooks
BOULDER - Ray Polk is healthy again, which in Ray Polk's case is a relative statement. After missing last weekend's Oregon game, he returned to practice this week and has been cleared to play Saturday in his home state against Arizona State.
In a Colorado football season that has seen the injury report mushroom on a weekly basis, Polk managed to play through a couple of ailments (cracked sternum, ligament damage in his wrist) before a third finally sidelined him for a week.
Not only do team doctors now take a dim view of playing after a concussion, they don't allow it until a player is cleared through a battery of comparative (before/after) concussion tests. That's what sidelined Polk, a junior safety from Scottsdale, Ariz., for the Ducks' visit last Saturday. And by all accounts, it was among the few things that could have sidelined him.
"One tough, tough guy," said Polk's position coach Greg Brown, who also is CU's defensive coordinator. "People think he's been playing with the cracked sternum since Washington (Oct. 15) . . . hey, that happened the week before the Ohio State game (Sept. 24). And the guy hasn't complained once. Talk about playing with pain, my hat's off to him."
Polk ranks third on the team in total tackles (50, 35 solo), but the two players ahead of him - safety Anthony Perkins at 63, linebacker Doug Rippy at 62 - are out with injuries. Perkins suffered an ankle injury last week and is listed as questionable for ASU, while Rippy has undergone knee surgery and is out for the season.
Polk also has one of CU's three interceptions this season, as well as six touchdown saves, four passes broken up, three third-down stops and one tackle for zero yards. His absence from the lineup last week was his first missed game in two years. In his redshirt freshman season (2009), he dropped a piece of furniture on his foot, broke a little toe and missed one game. (Lucky he wasn't moving a refrigerator; he might have missed two games.)
When asked if he was fairly healthy now, Polk smiled and said, "I'll be good to go . . . (the wrist and sternum) are still nagging a little, but the concussion was the only thing that would have kept me out. But those precautions have been taken and I'm cleared."
Now, he's chasing tickets for Saturday's trip to Arizona. "Need as many as I can get," he said, citing "parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, friends - just a ton of people" as potential recipients.
CUBuffs.com caught up with the relatively healthy Polk for a Q&A session:
Q: Coach Jon Embree wanted this senior class to meet with him after the Oregon loss and talk about their goals for the final five games. What about the juniors? Have you and your classmates talked about this season's final five games and even next season?
Polk: "I talked to him during the (Oregon) game, and he wanted a bunch of guys who were going to be around next year to meet. We talked to him on Monday after practice . . . talked about getting the freshmen going, prepared, creating relationships with them for the rest of this season and into next season. That's really important - you have to have full trust in the people you play with."
Q: What would you like to see accomplished in this season's final month?
Polk: "We have to make whatever statements we can while we still have the opportunity. You can't keep dragging this out; at some point it's got to snap and we have to realize the potential we have here. You don't want to go into next season with this season having just dragged on, dragging out. There's still a lot to fight and play for, but we just have to take it a week at a time and focus on our jobs individually to make it go as a whole."
Q: Aside from injuries, what's happened with the defense this season?
Polk: "(Lack of) execution . . . one similarity that a lot of these Pac-12 teams show is that they execute, and their technique is something that has been worked through for years. They've always had somebody above them to look up to and see how they did it and then passed it along. That's what happens when you have programs that haven't gone through coaching staffs - that building phase. Not many programs with losing records turn around and become national champions. It's hard. But at the same time, none of us expected it to be like this. And none of us wanted to accept what our record is now. It's unfortunate, but we have to keep working at it. I think this program has a great future . . . we've got the right coaches and players. We've just got to put it together."
Q: What have the underclassmen learned from this season?
Polk: "They've learned that you can't make mental errors . . . you have to know your technique, your job, and you can't force plays. It's something even upperclassmen mess up on, but it's one of those things . . . this is a great learning year for them. The fact that so many young guys got thrown into the fire really is going to help them in the future."
Q: In August, there was a prevailing opinion that this particular CU team needed a fast start to build its confidence. Is that an accurate statement?
Polk: "I think it is, but it's pretty much the same with every team. If you start out the season bad, it's going to take even more to pull yourself out of that rut. We had a tough schedule starting out and it didn't go as we wanted. It's that much harder to start again when you've got a dirty slate than when you've got a clean one. It's just one of those things."
Q: This team had two close, very painful early losses. Would winning the Cal and Washington State games have made a difference in the confidence level?
Polk: "I think so, definitely. Getting wins from teams within the conference, it inspires confidence. You take that confidence and you roll with it. The thing that's been so hard on us is we've played good teams week in and week out . . . even our one win against CSU was in a rivalry game. It's a hard season; you have to take everything you can get and build from that."
Q: Do you feel like you've achieved a comfort level at your position?
Polk: "Yeah, and a lot of that comes with experience. I feel like this year, I've improved drastically from last year. It's exciting to see where I'll be a year from now."
Q: Are you looking forward to this game for more than the obvious reasons of going home and trying to get a road win - or a win, period?
Polk: "Yeah, it'll be cool to go home . . . but I think the moment you start getting too caught up in all that stuff is the moment you stop focusing on your job . . . you start playing too fast without technique. You can't worry about all that external stuff; you just have to play your game."
Q: How much have you thought about the NFL; is that a childhood dream?
Polk: "It's always been in the back of my mind, but more and more I think it's becoming a real possibility. But week to week, I have to keep improving. That's the only thing you can do. You either get better or you get worse. So you make up your mind to get better. You figure out what it is you need to get fixed and you do it. It's a simple method.
Q: Do you feel like you have a better future playing defense than at the position you came to CU to play initially?
Polk: "Yeah - and that's one of the things that made me ask to be switched to defense. I thought I could do some great things in the secondary. I knew it would be a learning process and some of it would only come with experience."
Q: And you have no regrets about making the switch?
Polk: "No, none at all."
Q: Even when there was so much fluctuation and uncertainty with the running back situation here?
Polk, laughing: "Well, Bieniemy (Eric Bieniemy is a former CU running back and currently coaches the position) has teased me every day. Oh yeah, he always teases me about it. But the thing is, another reason I made the switch is it's all about the team. At the time we had like eight running backs. At a certain point you have to look at your career and your interests. You don't want to get washed down (the depth chart) . . . is he a running back or is he a safety? You want to clarify that and specialize in one thing. It takes a lot more than people think to learn another position and be good at it. Yeah, I made the switch and I haven't looked back since."
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
