BOWLING GREEN — As Terion Stewart continues to work his way back from a right leg injury that he sustained late in the 2023 football season, there is one aspect about the Bowling Green State University standout running back that hasn’t wavered.
“Terion’s been the great leader that he’s always been,” BGSU redshirt freshman quarterback Lucian Anderson III said. “He’s a vocal guy.
“Even though he hasn’t been taking many reps, he’s back there, you can hear him. You can hear him every play, he’s helping the younger guys who are in front of him trying to get in and do the plays. He’s helping them out with what to do, and he’s just being a leader like he is every day.”
After BGSU wrapped up its final spring practice Saturday at Doyt Perry Stadium, Stewart said he was feeling “way healthier than I thought I was, honestly.” The 2023 second-team Mid-American Conference selection, who has led the Falcons in rushing in each of his three seasons with the team, has been busy with rehab during the past several months.
“I just have to rehab every single day, no days off,” Stewart said. “Wake up in the morning, like if I’m bored, I have to just do something, got to do rehab. I’d be in class either just moving my ankle around, get a tennis ball, move it around my feet. I’ve just got to stay busy on it.”
Through the first nine games of BGSU’s season a year ago, Stewart rushed for 762 yards and eight touchdowns on 125 carries. For his career, the 5-foot-9, 225-pound junior has rumbled for 1,469 yards and 17 touchdowns on 232 carries; his 6.3 yards per carry ranks No. 1 in BGSU history.
“He’s just been working to get back on the field, get his injury back to 100 percent, obviously,” BGSU senior offensive lineman Alex Wollschlaeger said. “So he’s been in the weight room with [strength and conditioning] coach [Kevin] Tolbert a lot, strengthening everything, getting ready to get back full speed in the summer.
“So he’ll be ready, and obviously not being able to go full go necessarily the whole spring, he was probably studying, getting in the books, making sure he’s getting all the reads right on plays, making sure he’s going to hit the gaps right and all the ins and outs of every run play and blocking scheme.”
Stewart was sidelined for the final four games after sustaining an injury against Ball State. He said that will serve as a motivator for the upcoming season.
RB room suffers tough blow
BGSU will be without one of its most versatile players for the 2024 season.
Running back PaSean Wimberly, a Whitmer High School graduate and special teams standout who is known for his ability to block kicks, suffered a season-ending injury recently at practice. BGSU coach Scot Loeffler said it was a non-contact injury; Wimberly called it a “tragic accident” in a post on his Facebook page last week.
“It sucked. There’s no other way to put it,” Wollschlaeger said. “Great guy, great student.
“He’s my locker neighbor for all five years, so seeing him, just like that, it really puts everything into perspective. We were expecting him to ball out this season, and we talked about it last night and this morning; it’s God’s plan. We don’t know why, but it’ll make him a better player at the end of the day and a better person.”
Loeffler said although he is sad that Wimberly won’t be able to take the field this season, this could be an opportunity for him to grow in other ways.
“The way that I looked at it and what I’ve told him is, he’s been such a great leader by example, and the next step that he needed to take regardless if he was on the field or not is the vocal, motivationally, holding others accountable,” Loeffler said. “His role has changed, and what he’s going to do is he’s going to be great motivation for our team.
“Our team knows how he does business, and we’re going to practice like him every day. We’re going to use him as motivation, and we’re expecting him — I’m expecting him, his teammates are expecting him — to be a great leader. Not a good leader, a great leader. He’s going to be a big reason why we’re going to win.”
Productive spring
Loeffler and his squad felt that spring practice went well overall. With a lot of key returners still recovering from injuries, including quarterbacks Connor Bazelak and Camden Orth, younger players and recent transfers had plenty of opportunities to get better.
“I thought we had a great spring,” Loeffler said. “We had two Mondays that we would love to have back. We didn’t, in my opinion, practice at the elite level that we want to be at. But considering all the guys that were out, all the youth that we had running around here, I thought it was a real positive.”
Added Wollschlaeger: “All of the new guys, they meshed right in from the portal. Nick Reimer, being on the O-line, he’s doing great. He’s fit right in, and I think we took pretty big steps. We got tougher, a lot of young guys getting more looks because of injuries … I think everyone took steps forward, and we got a lot better overall.”
First Published April 7, 2024, 10:22 p.m.
