OSU's junior defensive back has overcome many setbacks in his career.
The journey back to the football field has been a long, tedious process for Clint Coe. In
fact, the process has been longer and even more tedious
than the Oklahoma State defensive back expected.
In the past two years, Coe's
football journey has been a
whirlwind.
- Following the 2004 season,
he gave up his football scholarship at Troy University to
transfer to OSU.
-
After sitting out last season
because of the transfer, Coe
tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee during
the first week of spring practice. Coe had surgery in early
April and rehabilitated the
knee all summer.
-
Shortly after getting
cleared to return to full physi
cal football contact work, Coe
suffered the cruelest fate of all
in late August.
At about 1:15 a.m. on
Aug. 27, Coe was walking on a
Stillwater street near the OSU
campus heading home. Instead
of making it home, Coe was
assaulted and left lying near
the street, unconscious and
bleeding.
Austin Lee Hutcheson was
charged with aggravated assault and battery. Hutcheson
has a preliminary hearing
scheduled for next Thursday in
Payne County District Court.
Coe has been subpoenaed
and is expected to testify on
behalf of the state's case
against Hutcheson.
"What does not kill you
makes you stronger," Coe said
this week in his first comments
since the August assault. "I believe that God does everything
for a reason. I just put it in my
head to try to overcome this.
"This is a sticky situation. I
really don't know what's going
on with the guy (Hutcheson).
The only thing I'm thinking
about right now is winning
football games and getting
back into the groove of playing."
It had been believed that
Coe would not return to football at all this season. Coe's father, Ward Coe, told the Tulsa
World last month that his son
sustained an eye-socket fracture, a broken nose and serious facial lacerations. Coe required surgery to rebuild of his
lower lip and repair damaged
nasal passages.
However, Coe has returned
to action. He played on special
teams the past two games and
is gradually being brought
along at defensive back.
Coe easily could have given
up hope for returning to football this year. Some were telling him prior to the start of
preseason practice that he
should look into obtaining a
medical redshirt season because of his knee injury.
But he figured missing last
season was enough torture.
Coe said it has been so long
since football has been routine
for him. During his high
school career at Edmond Deer
Creek, Coe had his sophomore
and senior seasons curtailed by
hip and back injuries. He originally thought the back injury
as a high school senior ended
his football career.
His sophomore season at
Troy two years ago was cut
short by a sprained shoulder
and fractured wrist.
But Coe has not let the aches
and pains keep him down.
"I've kept persevering. I've
kept my spirits up and kept
working hard each and every
day," Coe said. "Things will
work out for me. There are a
lot of people that have been
through worse things and
haven't had the opportunities
I've had. With all the injuries
I've had and been through, the
coaches here could have put
me on the backburner. But
they didn't."
Matt Doyle 581-8316
matt.doyle@tulsaworld.com
