Professor

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excerpt:

SPARTANBURG -- For Mike Rucker, the pain in his knee was one thing, the sleepless nights were another.

For Travelle Wharton, the ability to stand up to a guy like Kris Jenkins let him know he'd be fine.

For the Carolina Panthers, having the pair back on the field has been perhaps the biggest relief of training camp, and reason for optimism that their units will improve.

Even if Rucker doesn't start at defensive end tonight when the Panthers open the preseason against the New York Giants (and he might not even play), his comeback from last December's season-ending knee injury has been stunning. Wharton will be in the lineup at left tackle, the benefit of having his season cut short three months earlier than Rucker.

Rucker and Wharton each tore their left ACLs and MCLs last season, and they were similarly linked throughout the offseason as training and rehab partners.

"They were good for each other. They challenged each other," Panthers head trainer Ryan Vermillion said. "Travelle was a couple of months ahead, he was able to help Mike physically, mentally, psychologically from the early stages of rehabilitation.

"And then when we talk about position-specific stuff, one being a defensive end and one a tackle, we had them going against each other all the time, and that helped them out too."

As twisted as it sounds, the 26-year-old Wharton was lucky his injury happened when it did. His going down in the Sept. 10 opener (along with center Justin Hartwig) scrambled the Panthers' offensive line and the hopes at a running game, but it put him well on track to be ready for training camp.

Wharton, a former star at South Carolina, said he's been straining against the reins placed on him by Vermillion, who wanted to limit his offseason pupils to one practice a day during the early stages of camp.

"I'm ready ... any time," Wharton said. "Just to get back out there and get some sense of normalcy with practice and get going. It's hard watching the guys. You feel now like part of the guys again.

"I understand what's going on. We don't want any setbacks, now we're so close to the season. Really just taking the time, but I'm ready to get back out there."

The fourth-year left tackle said there were lingering doubts in his rehab, but they went away one morning when stunting defensive tackle Jenkins came across his face.

"The first day I caught a bull rush and planted, and there wasn't any pain," Wharton recalled. "I was like, 'OK.'

There was less certainty with the 32-year-old Rucker, since his injury came so late in the season. He went down Dec. 17 against Pittsburgh and didn't have surgery until the first week in January.

In the past, that would have meant he would have been doubtful this year, but the Panthers kept him on an aggressive plan.

Vermillion said he had Rucker exercising his left leg the day after, a new theory designed to keep strength in the surrounding muscles.

"Those two or three weeks before surgery, Mike worked his tail off," Vermillion said. "We got the swelling down, he was walking good, had good muscle tone. So when he came out of surgery, he was really ready to go in his rehab."

That's when the work and the discomfort really began.

Rucker said of all the trials, perhaps the most aggravating was the muscle stimulation machine he had to wear on his left leg for several hours each day. To get the appropriate amount of time in, he had to wear it to bed, which interfered with 32 years worth of habits.

"It was hard, because you have to sleep on your back the whole time," he said. "I do sleep there some, but I'm a roller. Now you get all hot and sweaty, your back's itching."

The timing of his injury also meant he's been going essentially every day since July 2006 without a break.

"One of it was having no offseason and not being able to go on vacation," he said. "Two, coming off that surgery, both legs were really down. I had to just hang around the house. I had to find something to keep my mind busy because there wasn't a whole lot I could do. I had a machine at night to keep it moving.

"It was hard on the family, too, because we had to hang around the house. So it was very tough, day-in and day-out, just going to the stadium. Having to go there every day, every day, every day."

With their injuries so similar (Vermillion said the repairs done to each by team orthopedist Pat Connor were essentially identical), and their positions a perfect complement, Wharton and Rucker became joined in the process, working against each other in position-specific drills by the spring. Joining them in their at-work family were Vermillion and assistants Mark Shermansky and Reggie Scott, the guys who became their guides and sympathetic ears as they made their way back to the field.

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