FORT COLLINS, Colo. — Don’t drive up to Colorado State to come see him play, John Ursua told family members in Utah.
Don’t waste a trip, Ursua counseled friends on the mainland.
The last thing the University of Hawaii slotback wanted to do was disappoint those who had stuck with him through 10 months of surgery and rehabilitation from a torn knee ligament last year.
Instead, the game he thought he wouldn’t play in became one to remember, with two touchdown receptions among his seven catches for 123 yards in the Rainbow Warriors’ 43-34 season-opening victory over Colorado State on Saturday.
“John is just a warrior, what else can you say?” said head coach Nick Rolovich. “His team needed him and he was there, big time.”
Ursua came back strong from the injury he suffered in mid-season last year, was cleared for training camp this summer, but then pulled a hamstring two weeks ago.
“It was on the right side, the same as the knee I hurt last year,” Ursua said.”So I wanted to be especially careful.”
But as the season opener neared, Ursua was concerned about his progress. “We tried to keep it quiet because I didn’t know if I would be able to go,” Ursua said.
His status was so much in doubt this week that Rolovich said, “We had a plan for John not playing. We scripted the first five plays without John.”
As of Friday night, Ursua said he had resigned himself to not playing.
Rolovich said Ursua’s status became “a game-time decision. That was a walking-out-the-tunnel decision.”
Urusa said, “I usually run a few 50-yard sprints in warm-up and I felt good. Nothing pulled or grabbed. I thought I could go.”
But “John came up to me and said, ‘Look, Coach, I feel good.’” Rolovich said. “The training room people did a great job with him.”
Ursua said, “I told them I wouldn’t try to overdo it, but I would give the team what I had.”
That turned out to be plenty, as he scored the first touchdown of the game on a 4-yard pass from quarterback Cole McDonald in the first quarter.
Ursua said, “I was able to run with speed, cut and move, so I felt confident after that it was going to be OK.”
He added another touchdown on a 19-yard pass from McDonald in the third quarter.
But one of his biggest was a 10-yard reception on third down with 3 minutes, 16 seconds left in the game to prolong UH’s final drive that resulted in Ryan Meskell’s 35-yard field goal.
“I’m just thankful to be able to play the game I love, to have my teammates believing in me and for all the help the training staff gave me to help me be able to play,” Ursua said.