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GOLD & BLACK ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 25, ISSUE 4 47 That's a reason why Purdue's of- fense spiraled: Anthrop had become the piece the Boilermakers so des- perately needed, a go-to playmaker, and when his knee violently buckled while he was racing down the side- line on a punt return at Nebraska, he was done. To an extent, so were the Boil- ermakers. They averaged only 15.3 points and 297.7 yards in the three games without him. "He was really playing at a high level and really making some plays for the ball in the air for the quar- terback," offensive coordinator John Shoop said after the season. "I think of the Nebraska game specifically where he went and got the ball, and I tell our wideouts all the time, 'That's what good players do.' What some of our guys think are sensational plays, those are common plays whenever we get good. That's what we expect our wideouts to do. Danny Anthrop and B.J. Knauf sure gave us a lot of juice in the middle of the season and losing those two guys maybe added a guy to the box that wasn't there in some of the run game." A n t h r o p knows his value, is fully aware what his loss meant to the offense. It's why he's so intent to come back stronger than before the injury. THE REHAB Anthrop won't go that far. When it's suggested he was de- pressed for a period after the injury, he balks. He'll admit it was "tough." He'll admit the physical pain was intense. He'll admit that — for the third time in his Purdue career — his ini- tial thoughts were "no way I'm going to be able to come back." "Some guys do take it pretty hard. I think for him, the difference was he was coming around and having a good season. Basically, it was the finality of it," said Purdue athletic trainer Salvador Vallejo, who was with Anthrop the day of the inju- ry and has been working with him during rehab. "That was pretty much it. He knew when we got him in the locker room. But once it was con- firmed, it hit him pretty hard. We brought his parents in and stuff, so it was pretty rough for him. "It was probably a couple days (until), 'OK, what now? What do we do now?' I think after it sunk in, it was, 'There's a process we have to go through. Where we do start?' Once he calmed down and had that in his mind, it was time to get going." Anthrop had surgery about one month after the injury, opting for Dr. David Altchek in New York and his contralateral approach of taking a graft from the patellar tendon in the same leg to repair the ACL. Anthrop was on crutches for four weeks. His knee brace was unlocked at six. He had another "giant" knee brace for eight weeks. That came off less than a month ago, a blessing to be able to wear "regular pants" and put shoes on, Anthrop said. Slowly, Anthrop was able to take joy in the small moments, each sig- naling progress, each an indication he's closer to being cleared. "Every little step is just so reliev- ing," he said in mid-February. "Es- pecially now, I can walk around and feel fine and people don't look at me like, 'What is wrong with him?' I feel like I can pass for a healthy person if nobody knew. I've got a long ways to go in terms of rehab, but I think the worst is behind me. It's nice not having to be on crutches or being in pain all the time." The challenge in the middle phase of the rehab is to overcome the mo- notony. During this period, it's three days of strengthening the knee and two days of cardio, but the exercis- es get repetitive. The progression is adding maybe a couple more reps, a couple more pounds. But it's neces- sary, though, to decrease the swell- ing and regain motion. More functional rehab could be- gin soon, Vallejo said, depending on how Anthrop's knee responds. But Vallejo will not push it. "I would say when we hit spring Danny Anthrop's rehab from signifi- cant damage in his right knee — which includes running on an underwater treadmill — will continue into the summer. He hopes to be cleared by May and be a full participant in training camp in August.