Penn State's Drake casts off doubt

CURTIS DRAKE stands as a living testament to the wisdom of every mother who ever told her children to drink their milk because it was "good for your bones."

More than most, Drake's mother, Chante Smith-Roberson, had reason to impress that sentiment upon her son, now a redshirt sophomore wide receiver for Penn State. As it turns out, Smith-Roberson has a chronic calcium deficiency, a condition that requires medication to, yes, strengthen her bones. But most mothers aren't asked to catch passes over the middle, where they're apt to be drilled by a linebacker or strong safety.

What Smith-Roberson might not have realized is that her condition is genetic, which may never have come to light had the 5-11, 173-pound Drake, upon whom the Nittany Lions annually expect so much, not fractured his left tibia twice. The first time was on Aug. 9, 2010, during preseason practice, on a play that did not even involve contact. The preliminary diagnosis was that Drake would miss 6 to 8 weeks, but when the rehabilitation process dragged on, he reluctantly agreed with Penn State's coaching and medical staffs that it might be best to sit out the entire season as a redshirt.

"Drake's one of the better football players we have," Penn State coach Joe Paterno said after Drake - the West Catholic High graduate who caught eight passes for 98 yards, rushed four times for 24 yards and completed a pass for a touchdown as a true freshman in 2009 - went down. "He can throw the ball, he's a really good receiver, a good runner. That's a big loss for us."

It could be a big loss again this season. Incredibly, Drake again fractured his left tibia this year, less than a week into spring practice, albeit on a play where, "I got kind of rolled up on while running a route."

"I knew right away what had happened because I'd been through it before," Drake said last Friday of the more recent injury. "I knew it was some kind of break. I just didn't know how bad."

Penn State opens its season at home on Sept. 3 against Indiana State. Drake, who said he hoped to return to practice this week and will be with his teammates for Media Day this afternoon in the Lasch Football Complex, expects to be held out of the first game as a precaution. But he is determined to see action when the Lions host second-ranked Alabama on Sept. 10.

"It's looking real well," Drake said of his progress in this latest rehab. "I probably could be ready for the first game, but they'll probably hold me out, to give me another week to get ready for [Alabama]."

Paterno, however, is taking more of a wait-and-see attitude. He still loves the many things Drake can do on a football field, but he won't take risks with the player's long-term health.

"The doctors are still concerned about him," JoePa said at Big Ten Media Days in Chicago on July 29. "They've done a lot of blood work on him, to make sure he doesn't have any permanent injuries. We really don't know. Right now we aren't counting on him."

Dr. Wayne Sebastianelli, Penn State's director of athletic medicine, was alarmed that Drake had suffered an identical injury in back-to-back years. He conducted more extensive tests, which revealed that Drake also had a calcium deficiency, one that left the tibia in his left leg more susceptible to fractures than in other parts of his body.

To remedy the situation, bone marrow was extracted from Drake's hip and injected into the weakened part of his left leg for the purpose of making it more resistant to the sort of hits football players routinely take.

Only time will tell, however, if the procedure leads to the desired result.

"After I got hurt the second time, they ran some tests and found my calcium level was very low," Drake said. "The whole idea of the bone-marrow injection was to strengthen that spot in my leg. I think it went well. The whole thing only took about half an hour. They took a long, thin needle, put it in my hip, extracted the bone marrow and put it into the bone in my leg."

Should he prove that his body can withstand the pounding of big-time college football, Drake eventually could become as important a contributor as Paterno and offensive coordinator Galen Hall imagined when Penn State beat out Georgia Tech and Maryland for the multipurpose standout's services.

Although the duel for the starting quarterback job remains a two-way competition between sophomore Rob Bolden and redshirt junior Matt McGloin, a healthy Drake could occasionally take direct snaps from center in some version of the Wildcat formation, much as Derrick Williams did a few years ago.

Drake said he is "excited" about the possibility of finally being used the way Paterno has envisioned, as someone whose position on the field on any given play is something opposing defenses always must constantly monitor.

Before he got hurt, Drake said, Penn State coaches were "putting together special packages for me to take the ball under center, out of the shotgun, on reverses. That's one of the reasons I came here, because they said they were going to allow me to do all those different things. And they still talk to me about being that kind of player."

Drake knows he's had a bad break - make that two - but he has never doubted that his physical problem would be resolved in such a way that he can live up to his potential.

"I've been playing football for 13 years," said Drake, who set a record in the Big 33 game against a team of Ohio high school all-stars when he amassed 285 yards in total offense for the Pennsylvania squad. "Me sitting out a year isn't going to hurt me mentally. When I came back for my first day of spring practice, before I got hurt again, it actually felt good to get back out there and to take a hit.

"I'm looking forward to that again. Once it happens, and I'm all right, everything will be cool. Just you wait and see."