Gazette-Times reporter

Matt Asiata’s first game as a running back for University of Utah was memorable, but Asiata’s not fond of that day.

Asiata and the Utes were playing at Oregon State on Aug. 28, 2007. He had finished his fourth run of the day when his season ended.

“I guess I was running the ball and one guy was holding me up and some other guy slid down my body into my leg and snap,” Asiata said.

The injury didn’t hurt, but Asiata knew the sound he heard meant bad news. His tibia and fibula were broken.

“That was a down point in my life,” he said.

Asiata was hauled to Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center, where a cast was put on his leg.

He was eventually released and returned to Reser Stadium, where he watched the end of a 24-7 loss to the Beavers from the locker room in Gill Coliseum.

He flew back to Salt Lake City with the team, but he went to the hospital when they arrived and spent nearly a week getting treatment.

Just like that, his season was over. No more practices. Instead, Asiata faced a long rehabilitation period.

It was a tough time.

“Probably a week after I got home from the hospital, I was ready to quit,” he said.

“But after I got home everyone started calling me and texting, telling me to hang in there and stay strong.”

He quickly recovered from the doldrums when he realized how much football meant to him.

“I’ve got so much passion for football,” he said. “I could never quit football. My teammates supported me during my down days.”

Six months passed before he could even think about getting ready for a game. There was no rushing the process. If he didn’t let the leg repair and gain the strength he needed, more damage could be done, and more time could be lost.

“It took quite a while to get healed,” Asiata said. “I had to be patient with it.”

He did squats, jogged some and did pool workouts. Gradually, strength returned to his leg. Finally, he was ready to return.

That meant getting back into the swing of the Utes’ spread offense. Asiata had never run the spread when he came to Utah from Snow College, but picked it up quickly.

There was more to learn.

“It wasn’t that bad,” he said. “You’ve just got to get some techniques down, but it’s not that hard to learn. It’s pretty easy. It was basically the same stuff, but there was more stuff during the season that I had missed.”

When Asiata went down, Darrell Mack took over and wound up rushing for 1,204 yards. Now they share the load.

Asiata has taken some direct snaps and has already scored a few times from the formation. He leads Utah with 283 yards rushing on 54 attempts, with four touchdowns.

He’ll see a few familiar faces on Thursday night, when OSU plays at Utah. OSU defensive tackles Stephen Paea and Sioele Nau both went to Snow College.

Any chit-chat will take place after the game.

“There’s going to be a little reunion going on, but we have to play football,” Asiata said.