Linebacker Jack Cichy is coaching to help fill the void of a season-ending injury.
Shoulder injury tested linebacker
Arlington, Texas — Jack Cichy needed two weeks to sulk.
“The first couple weeks was extremely discouraging,” UW’s redshirt junior linebacker said. “I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t. You want everything for your brothers and you want them to be happy.
“But there is still a little piece of you — I was happy as hell that they were winning — there is an emptiness or a void.”
The void was created when Cichy suffered a season-ending left-shoulder injury late in the first half of UW’s 17-9 victory at Iowa.
“As I was able to spend more time around the guys ... and appreciate what I had here,” Cichy explained, “it is hard not to feel joyous and extremely grateful.”
Cichy and fellow inside linebacker Chris Orr (knee) have been serving as volunteer coaches since being injured. Both are expected to be on the sideline when UW (10-3) faces Western Michigan (13-0) on Monday in the Cotton Bowl.
Cichy has been able to do lower-body work in the weight room. He must wait another three weeks before he can resume running.
“I can do single-arm lifts,” he said, raising his right arm.
Cichy is in the midst of rehabbing his shoulder and pectoral.
“First we started with the shoulder and we’re gradually moving on to the pec,” he said. “It is going well so far. I’m just anxious to keep making progress.”
He has dropped about 10 pounds since suffering the injury and weighs 220.
“It is tough to look in the mirror,” he joked.
His goal is to return in time for summer workouts, which generally begin in the first week of June.
More than two months have passed since the injury and Cichy remembers every detail.
It felt as if his left shoulder exploded when he reached out with one arm to tackle tailback Akrum Wadley near the sideline.
“When it happened I kind of went into shock on the sideline,” he said. “I felt a pop and I knew something’s not right."
At first, he suspected a broken collarbone.
“But I felt my collarbone and it was still there,” he said.
He told the medical staff he could play the second half with a brace. Cichy donned a brace at halftime and lasted until about midway through the fourth quarter before the staff removed him from the game.
“As the game went on I could tell something wasn’t right,” Cichy said.
Something wasn’t right? Cichy could not move his left arm.
Before every play, he would grab the arm with his right hand and move it into position.
Cichy, unaware a tendon had been torn from the bone, told reporters after the victory he would be ready to play the next week against Nebraska at home.
“At that moment I thought I’d be back,” he said. “I can play through pain.”
Cichy learned the next day, after an MRI, his season was finished.
“I didn’t think it would be that severe,” he said. “I had a rude awakening in the training room. That was a tough day, probably one of my tougher days.”
Perhaps the most remarkable nugget of Cichy’s season is that despite missing six games, he still has the team lead in solo tackles (45) and is third in total tackles (60).
Asked if he would change anything he did that day in Iowa, Cichy smiled and said: “No.”
“The first couple weeks was extremely discouraging. I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t.” JACK CICHY, UW REDSHIRT JUNIOR LINEBACKER