Northwestern quarterback Dan Persa ruptured his Achilles tendon after a game-winning touchdown pass against the Iowa Hawkeyes in November, and the Wildcats lost their final three games of the season by an average of 25 points. When we sat in on an April 15 rehab session with Persa, he was six weeks ahead of his rehab schedule and will hopefully be able to give ‘Cats fans plenty more to cheer about this season.
On the play he was injured
“I just kind of threw it and I was looking, jumping up to see if [Demetrius Fields] caught it. I just put my foot down like I usually do and it just popped. It was, well, not painful. It was kind of more like a shock. I felt like somebody kicked me in the back of the leg. I just kind of laid there. I knew something was wrong.”
On watching the team lose their last three games from the sidelines
“It was tough because you always want to be out there helping your teammates and doing everything you can to help the team win. It was definitely a different role for me. It wasn’t too fun.”
On being named First Team All-Big Ten, despite missing the final two games of the regular season
“That was awesome. I think it’s a great honor coming from the coaches. I think those are the people that know the most about football so I was really happy with that honor.”
On rehab
“It’s going really well. I’m about five months out [since the injury] right now, about six weeks ahead of [the rehab] schedule. So I’m feeling pretty good.”
The original prognosis was being out 6-8 months, which would have had him back during the middle of May at the earliest and the middle of July at the latest.
“I’ll be fine by [training] camp. I should be cleared by the beginning of June.”On being out during spring practice
[He still goes to every practice.]
“You get to build different relationships with people that you didn’t have with before. But I think it’s more like a coaching role ’cause you’re not out there with the guys. So you just try to give pointers to the younger guys and help them be successful.”
On being injured
“I think just not being able to do the things you like to do a lot. Like spring practice, running with the guys and working out with the guys. I mean, I still work out with them, but I’m doing different stuff. Just being removed from everything.”
On positives
“I think just patience and appreciating what you have. Not that I didn’t before, but this makes you appreciate it a lot more.”
On Heisman buzz
“It’s cool to be mentioned with that, but at the end of the day it’s all going to matter on how we play as a team. All I really care about is winning. If we win every game and I don’t get any awards, that’s fine with me.”