Healthy Scruggs happy to be back on field
The 10-month wait to return to full-fledged practice, caused by the pandemic, seemed interminable for almost every Penn State football player.
It was even longer for Juice Scruggs, the former four-star offensive line prospect who hadn’t been on the field since December 2018.
A week before spring practice began in March 2019, Scruggs suffered a broken vertebra (L3) and a concussion in a onecar accident about a halfhour from his home in Ashtabula, Ohio, not far from the Pennsylvania border.
He missed spring practice and the 2019 season while recovering from his injuries, a period during which his appreciation for football grew considerably.
No Penn State player was happier when the Lions began practice in earnest for the 2020 season last month.
“That first day back, it was like I was a kid on Christmas,” Scruggs said. “It was wonderful. It just felt so good to be back on the field and to know that I wasn’t going over there to my daily routine of stretching. I could actually play. It just felt so good.”
The 6-3, 281-pound Scruggs has received praise from his teammates and his coaches for his attitude and resilience. He wore a back brace and rode a scooter for most of last year. He attended every practice and every game,
observing, learning and waiting.
He naturally wondered if he’d ever play again.
“Yeah, there were times,” he said. “In adversity, there are going to be times that you start doubting yourself and things like that. But I had a great support cast with the team and my family and everybody that was on my side.
“I just kept that in my head that I was going to be back on the field. I just knew I had something to prove and show people.”
Scruggs played high school ball at Erie Cathedral Prep and led the Ramblers to a 28-0 record and back-to-back PIAA Class 4A championships in his final two seasons. He was rated the nation’s No. 4 center by 247 Sports.
He saw action in one game in 2018 as a freshman and expected to compete for a spot on Penn State’s two-deep depth chart last year. That was before the accident.
“When it happened, when I was in the hospital, it was hard to believe,” Scruggs said. “It didn’t seem real.”
He weathered the ups and downs of his recovery and expected to participate in practices leading up to the Cotton Bowl last December. He was feeling “great” before he had back spasms in Texas and had to keep watching from the sidelines.
“All of a sudden, I just had a crash,” he said. “My back just took a turn for the worse. I started having crazy spasms. When that happened, I was like, ‘Oh, man what are we going to do?’ The trainers just did a wonderful job of staying positive and staying with me, knowing that I was going to get through it.”
Scruggs has. Now he’s likely to serve as Penn State’s No. 2 center behind senior Michal Menet.
“I’m so excited to have Juice back out on the field doing his thing,” Menet said. “Ever since he showed up here, I’ve been excited about him. I think he’s going to be a really, really good player.
“He’s been through a ton of adversity but he’s rolled with the punches the whole way and has had a good attitude. It’s showing now and it’s coming together for him. I’m extremely happy to see that.”
A little more than a year ago, Scruggs could barely walk. It was painful when he tried. Now he’s nearly fully recovered and ready to make an impact this season.
“I just knew I was going to get here,” he said. “It just goes to show you that hard work can take you a long way.”