During the first quarter of a 10-7 game against Marshall last fall, Ohio safety Xavier Hughes read the quarterback’s eyes the whole way, stepped in front of a 25-yard pass attempt at the last moment, and took the ball 24 yards in the opposite direction.
The pass was nearly identical to one that Marshall had scored on just one drive prior, but this time Hughes got in the way.
It was the second of a team-leading three interceptions that Hughes came up with in the first four games of last season. At that rate, Hughes was on pace to break Joe Callan’s record of nine interceptions in a season, which Callan has held since 1979.
But an injury would soon derail Hughes’ fast start. Just six games into the season, the safety suffered a season-ending shoulder injury.
Now, Hughes returns to a more-experienced secondary and is working toward getting back to full strength before the start of this season.
Hughes said he is not there yet, but he is close.
“I’m back at it every day,” he said. “I’m hitting and everything, but it’s still a process for me to get back to 100 percent. Come the season, I’ll be 100 percent ready and rocking. Nothing holding me back.”
Hughes was just one of many Bobcat defenders to miss time because of injury last season. He said the team does as much as possible to prevent injury, but in football, that can be a dubious task.
“It’s a bad-luck thing. It has to be,” he said. “Our training coach does a great job with us. He makes us do a lot of work. It has to be some bad luck because we put in the work.”
Starting cornerback Travis Carrie was among the Bobcats who missed time because of injury. He sat out the majority of last season’s loss at Rutgers with a concussion.
Having Hughes back in action is a sight Carrie welcomed.
“Injuries can kill and can put a dent in your defense or offense,” Carrie said. “Getting everybody back is very beneficial for our team because we’re complete as a team on both sides.”
Ohio defensive backs coach Fred Reed is equally happy to have Hughes back in the lineup.
With nine team interceptions, the Bobcats ranked in the top five in the country during the early portion of the 2011 season. However, in the eight games after Hughes’ injury, Ohio intercepted only six passes and finished 23rd in the country in that category.
“It was a tough loss for us, but it’s great to get him back,” Reed said of Hughes. “He’s got some really good ball skills, so that was something that worked in his favor early in the season.”
Reed attributed Hughes’ success as a pass defender to his ability to dissect a play as it happens and to read the quarterback, as he did in that early-season interception against Marshall.
“He’s got really good instincts,” Reed said. “He can track the ball really well and sees it off the quarterback’s hands really well. He’s instinctive that way. That’s kind of his strength as a football player.
“He’s got to be one of the top two guys on the defensive side of the ball in terms of instincts and ball skills.”
Although the Bobcats did not graduate a single player from the secondary last season, Ohio is without former starter Omar Leftwich, who was released from the team because of academics.
Reed said that, as a junior, Hughes has a chance to grow into one of the defensive leaders on the team during the next two years.
“As time goes on, hopefully, he does the right thing to put himself in position, both in school and on the football field to be in a leadership position and set a good example for us,” Reed said.
For now, Hughes is focused on counting down the days until the Sept. 1 opener at Penn State.
“It’s tick, tick, tick. It’s constantly coming,” Hughes said. “I can’t wait to get back out there and rekindle some flames of how it used to be. I just can’t wait. It’s going to be a great season for us.”
ro137807@ohiou.edu
