QB well on road to recovery
story of Keller Chryst’s career at Stanford is yet to be completed, but it just developed a pretty fascinating plot point.
About six months after having surgery to repair the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee, the quarterback was in pads and throwing darts when Stanford opened training camp this week.
“That mentality started by the end of the bowl game,” head coach David Shaw said. “There was a look in his eyes. He knew what he had to do and that it was going to be a long haul. He’s not a young man who backs away from challenges.
“He accepts challenges, and it was a goal of his to be back before people thought he was going to be.”
Chryst endured the devastating injury during the Cardinal’s Sun Bowl victory over North Carolina, returned to the sideline on crutches to cheer on his team and had surgery in February. The typical recovery timetable for a torn ACL is six to nine months.
At the very beginning of that range, Chryst was able to take full-speed dropbacks and participate in all of the team’s scripted drills the first day of camp Monday. For precautionary reasons, Stanford kept him out of team drills.
Shaw said that Chryst still needs to pass some off-the-field hurdles, showing he can move laterally and cut in order to protect himself, before he’ll be released for full practices. The redshirt junior still appears on pace to be ready for the team’s opener against Rice on Aug. 26 in Australia.
“I’m just grateful to be out here,” Chryst said. “You put a lot of work in, and there are a lot of hands helping you out during this process. …
“When it initially happened, I knew the repering cussions of an ACL injury. But in my head, I told myself that I was going to get back, and I’ve done everything I could to get to this point.”
Rehabilitation is an arduous process, full of ups and downs. It also can be lonely, but Chryst said his spirits have been buoyed by senior fullback Daniel Marx, who had lower leg surgery at about the same time and has been adding to the sweat spilled in the Stanford facilities with the quarterback.
Chryst sometimes struggles to look too far past the next day of recovery, because it’s impossible to know how the injury will respond each day. Still, those close to him didn’t doubt that he’d shatter expectations in his return to the field.
“He’s falling right in line with who he’s been since he’s been here,” quarterbacks coach Tavita Pritchard said. “He’s on schedule, and possibly ahead, because he works his butt off, he listens to the trainThe staff, and he trusts everyone who’s taking care of him.
“We’re excited about where he is.”
Football is in Chryst’s blood. His father, Geep, has been an offensive coach for the 49ers and Chargers, and his uncle is the head coach at Wisconsin.
Chryst, who played his junior and senior seasons at Palo Alto High, said football was a common dinner talking point — sometimes to the chagrin of his mother and sister. Of course, that set the stage for what he does these days.
While going 6-0 as a starter last season and completing 77 of 136 passes for 905 yards and 10 touchdowns, Chryst was a regular in the video room. He also wore out the program’s virtual-reality trainer and has been known to coax teammates into doing extra voluntary preparation.
“He absolutely loves the game and loves to prepare to play the game,” Pritchard said. “… We talk all the time about the standard that has been set here. This place has such a rich history of guys playing that position, and I know he wants to do right by those guys.”
The stories of those who came before him — Jim Plunkett, John Elway and Andrew Luck — are already well documented.
Chryst’s has gotten started with a remarkable first chapter.
“I’m just grateful to be out here. You put a lot of work in, and there are a lot of hands helping you out during this process.” Keller Chryst, Stanford quarterback