Kobe Smith thought his Duke football career was over. How he came back

Hailee Young was eating popcorn in the stands of Sun Bowl Stadium in El Paso, Texas, when she watched her son, Kobe Smith, hit the turf.It was less than 10 minutes into Duke football's New Year's Eve Sun Bowl matchup against Arizona State when Smith collided with teammate Tyshon Reed. The impact left the second-year defensive end with a visibly broken left leg – soon discovered to be a broken tibia and fibula.Young didn’t see the hit."I’m thinking they just ran into each other," she told the Fayetteville Observer. "He’ll get up and he’ll walk it off."But Smith remained on the ground. Then the medical cart came out."That’s when it set in," Young said. Duke athletic trainers Jeremy Cobb and Kevin Siesel tended to Smith and placed his left leg in a vacuum splint, the stadium growing so quiet that a CBS broadcaster remarked you could hear a pin drop.As Smith sat stoically on the cart, the entire Duke team surrounded him. One by one, teammates came over to offer words of encouragement before he was carted off the field.Young, meanwhile, made her way down to the field to see her son. "Do I want to see it?" she asked him."No mom, you don’t want to see it," he replied.Smith was taken to Texas Tech Health El Paso at the University Medical Center where surgeons inserted a metal rod into his tibia, a procedure known as intramedullary nailing. His fibula was left to heal naturally.Smith's surgery was finished before Duke secured its 42-39 win over Arizona State, with the game playing in the background of his recovery room. For Smith, however, the road back to football was just beginning.'I thought it was all over'Smith initially wasn’t sure he would play football again.“When it first happened, honestly, I thought it was all over," he said.His only previous injury was a broken hand during his senior year of high school, which he played through while wearing a club."Nothing as bad as (my leg)," Smith said.Smith returned to Durham from El Paso on crutches on Jan. 2. A week after the injury, he began working with Duke sports physical therapist Ernest Miller.Recovering from an injury like Smith’s takes six months at a minimum, Miller said, and it’s often not until nine to 12 months that athletes start to feel like their old selves.Smith was determined to return by August, when Duke began fall camp.“His injury timeline-wise, if there’s such a thing as good timing for an injury, it kind of lined up well,” Miller said.The two met every day for about two hours, with Miller estimating 14 hours per week. They began simple.“When can I get off the crutches? When do you think I can work on my running again?” Smith asked Miller.The physical aspect was only part of it. Smith went from being fully capable to relying on others for everyday tasks.The unexpected loss of his grandmother, Hazel McDermott, from a heart attack on March 17 added to the mental strain.“I feel like I had more stress on me mentally than I did physically,” Smith said. “I think that was definitely the toughest time coming back then.”Through it all, Smith remained committed to his recovery, approaching rehab like he did football.“He came in every day and I had a plan for him, and he just executed," Miller said.Getting back onto the fieldIt took about two weeks after surgery for Smith to walk somewhat comfortably without his crutches. He was back with coach David Feeley and the team in the weight room at about the three-week mark. Running came between three and four months, but then came stopping and changing directions, which was even harder.Duke’s medical staff began by giving Smith a graded exposure to football, using GPS technology to track his workload and compare his activity with pre-injury data.On May 28, he was cleared for “Indy” periods of practice, position-specific technique work with little or no contact.The staff also measured his strength with an electromechanical dynamometer and his power with force plates. They wanted his strength to reach over 90% symmetry compared to his uninjured leg and his power within 15% symmetry of his uninvolved leg.Smith surpassed 90% strength symmetry on June 8 and was within 15% on power by July 9.By Aug. 5, the first day of fall camp, Smith was cleared for 50% of practice volume. A week later, he was cleared for 75% and one-on-one drills. On Aug. 18, he was officially cleared for full participation without limitations.“Amazing medical staff, amazing coaches behind me, amazing teammates," Smith said. "Honestly, just the biggest support system I’ve ever had.”Smith achieved his goal of being back on the field for Duke's season opener against Tulane on Sept. 5. Young was back in the stands, too, watching her son play again after seeing him carted off the field months earlier.“I thought the first game I would be nervous, but I was OK," she said. "I’m excited to see what the future has for him. In my head, there’s a metal rod in there now, so he can’t break that leg again.”Anna Snyder covers Duke for The Fayetteville Observer as part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach her at asnyder@usatodayco.com or follow her @annaesnydr on X.This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Kobe Smith thought his Duke football career was over. How he came back