Nine months after tearing his ACL, Nick Muse is back and ‘grinding forwards’
Nine months after a torn ACL ended his first season with South Carolina football, tight end Nick Muse doesn’t think his health is completely back to where it once was.
But the way he sees it, he’s more than close enough.
“I have been going full go. I’m about 95% in my eyes, but 95% in my eyes is usually 100% for everybody else,” Muse said after the Gamecocks’ second preseason practice.
Muse came to the Gamecocks in 2019 after two seasons at William & Mary — in seven games last season, he caught 17 passes for 158 yards, good for sixth on the team. A hulking 6-foot-4, 250 pounds, Muse helped shore up a position unit left perilously thin by injuries and transfers and earned praise from the coaching staff as a powerful athlete.
Then, in early November, he went down on a non-contact play and left the game. When he returned to the sideline, his right leg was encased in a large brace. A day later, coach Will Muschamp confirmed that he had torn his ACL. The injury ended his season and any chance he had of playing against his brother, Clemson safety Tanner Muse.
For some players, watching video of plays where they got hurt is something to be avoided at all costs. For others, it’s something they feel compelled to rewatch. As for Muse? He doesn’t really care.
“I don’t think I’ve watched the play, but I mean, if it popped up, it doesn’t matter to me,” Muse said. “Things happen. I mean, it was put in my life for a reason. So I had nine months to get back to where I am now, and now it’s just keep grinding forwards. I don’t know if I’ll ever be 100, 100% but I’m going to be pretty damn close to it, in my opinion. I just think, it was just something unnatural that happened that I just got to live with.”
Not being bothered mentally by such a major injury was a key component to his recovery, Muse said.
“I tried to make it more difficult for me physically than mentally, because when you get shut down mentally, you’re done,” said Muse. “But if you can just strive mentally, and then have your weaknesses on the physical side, of, you know, ‘My knee is hurting today,’ and other stuff like that compared to, ‘Oh I don’t know if I can do it.’ It’s just a different mentality, but I felt like I got through it pretty well for the most part. I still got some struggles but for the most part I feel like I’m back fully.”
And if Muse ever needs any perspective, he can always look to another member of the offense who transferred to USC — quarterback Collin Hill, who joined the Gamecocks from Colorado State this offseason, is coming off his third ACL tear and making a push for South Carolina’s starting job.
Hill has an “NFL arm already,” Muse said. And his ability to bounce back from multiple injuries is impressive as well.
“I’d say one (ACL tear) was pretty tough, so I don’t want to know how three is,” Muse said. “He has the dedication that not a lot of people have. A lot of people end it after one, maybe two. Either they can’t get their mind right or they’ll never be the same on the football field, but after three and still being as good as he is and still moving like he is, that’s dedication both on the field and off the field in the rehab room.”
