Published: September 05, 2008 11:41 pm      

COLLEGE FOOTBALL: Albion's Kinder feels good, ready for UB

You can’t imagine Derek Kinder to be bothered much by the negative chatter now surrounding Pittsburgh football. He’s heard worse.

Speculation about head coach Dave Wannstedt’s job security, and hand-wringing over the prospects of a breakout season going down the drain with two home losses to Mid-American Conference teams before Big East play begins, sounds much better than the terrifying “pop” that accompanied Kinder’s season-ending knee injury 13 months ago.

Kinder (rhymes with cinder) is most famous for cementing two players with one block on a kick return two years ago, springing teammate Darrelle Revis, now a New York Jet, for a return touchdown that ultimately was named “College Football Play of the Year” at the 2007 ESPY Awards.

But it was the Albion product’s receiving skills that earned him first-team all-conference honors as a junior, and gave Kinder All-America aspirations heading into last fall.

Then, during a non-contact drill at the onset of training camp, Kinder tore his anterior cruciate ligament. His senior showcase was put in limbo.

“I was down, emotionally, for probably a month,” Kinder recalled this week.

His parents, Roland and Waunetta, came down the morning after Kinder got hurt, “because I live by myself in a one-bedroom apartment, and I couldn’t do anything by myself,” he said. After coming home for a few days to clear his head, he elected to have anatomic double-bundle ACL reconstructive surgery, a relatively new procedure performed by Pittsburgh-based Dr. Freddie Fu, which Kinder said required a longer rehabilitation effort, but would make his knee stronger in the end.

Rehabbing with the Panthers’ strength and conditioning coach Buddy Morris, a one-time Buffalo Bull, Kinder was ready for the first day of training camp, and last Saturday returned to the playing field to catch six passes for 47 yards and a touchdown in Pittsburgh’s 27-17 loss to Bowling Green.

“The first play of the game, I caught a pass, got hit, got the cobwebs out real fast,” said Kinder, who made the game-time decision to play without a knee brace. “It felt great. It’s been a while, and I missed it so much.”

“I was very pleased how Derek played for his first time back after missing a year of full-speed work,” Wannstedt said. “Physically, he held up well, from the standpoint of being tackled, the knee, and the strength. Mentally he was fine. I think that will be a nice boost forward for this year for him.”

Kinder came to Pitt as a possession receiver prospect, after playing running back his senior season at Albion. He emerged during a sophomore season that he finished with 37 receptions and 357 yards, and established himself as a willing blocker. The Panthers media guide touts Kinder as the would-be captain of a college all-Madden team.

As a junior, Kinder displayed his downfield ability. With scoring plays of 80, 78 and 55 yards, Kinder totaled 57 catches, 847 yards and six touchdowns in 2006, and was a finalist for the Biletnikoff Award won by Georgia Tech’s Calvin Johnson.

An NFL future seemed inevitable, but surely scouts are now waiting to see if the knee surgery has taken any toll on Kinder’s ability.

“I definitely feel I’m just as good, if not better, than I was,” said Kinder, who needs eight more receptions to move into the top 10 on Pitt’s all-time list. “Physically, I’m still able to do what I was able to do before. Mentally, being off the field for a year, I had to concentrate on watching the game.”

Kinder said he grew up watching UB football, but since the game won’t be played in Western New York, he isn’t adding any importance to today’s opponent.

“We need to get the nasty taste out of our mouth from last week,” he said. “And the only way to do that is to get a victory over Buffalo.”

GAME NIGHT

UB vs. Pitt

• WHEN: 6 p.m.

• WHERE: Heinz Field, Pittsburgh

• RADIO: WECK 1230-AM

• TV: SNY

• NOTES: UB defeated UTEP 42-17 last week, and can improve to 2-0 for the first time since 1983, when they opened the season with home wins over Cortland and Baldwin-Wallace. ... After gaining 179 yards on the ground last week, UB’s James Starks (Niagara Falls) is 14 yards shy of 2,000 for his career and needs 76 yards to move into third place on the program’s all-time list. ... UB is 1-10 all-time against Big East foes, with the lone win coming at home against Rutgers in 2002. ... This is UB’s only game on grass this season. ... Pitt’s LeSean McCoy rushed for 1,328 yards and 14 touchdowns as a freshman last season, but was held to 71 yards on 23 carries in last week’s 27-17 loss to Bowling Green.