Q&A: OU center Ben Habern
Last year’s offensive linemen were ravaged by injuries. Center Ben Habern among them. Habern suffered a broken fibula and a torn ligament, which out the outset was diagnosed to be a six-month recovery. Habern, however, has come back in five months, just in time to get a few spring practices in before the summer.
Habern spoke with The Oklahoman last week about how he has healed so fast, how his ankle is feeling now, and how the line is doing heading into the final week of spring drills:
Are you as surprised as we are that you healed this fast?
“Definitely, I was surprised. They told me I wasn’t going to participate in spring whatsoever when I had the injury and after surgery. They said it was going to be a six month deal. They honestly told me I was going to be able to be ready right when summer workouts started. I was kind of disappointed thinking I would be going into summer workouts out of shape.”
Do you have any residual pain?
“Yeah, I mean it’s not full speed yet, I can honestly say that I can tweak it every now and then. There’s still some pain, especially on the inside of the ankle. But I’m still taking the reps and basically once I’m in there running around I can’t feel it. But I start feeling it the next day and it starts to get sore. That’s just something that I have to keep dealing with and I have to make sure I get treatment.”
What exactly the injury was again?
“I broke my fibula and tore the ligament on the inside.”
The ligament damage took about as long as anything to heal, right?
“That was the hardest thing to wait for. The bone healed pretty quickly because they put the plate and screws in there, but the ligament is where the inside of my ankle hurts the most because I think the ligaments take the longer to heal. It’s just a long process with the scar tissue.”
The fact that you’re getting reps in during the spring with these last three or four weeks remaining will give you a boost into the summer, right?
“Definitely. Right when I got in on that first day I just felt kind of sloppy. It was kind of weird, I was kind of getting back into the groove of everything. Now after my third practice I feel like I’m where I was last year, I’m even starting to get better. I’ve gained some more weight so I feel really well out there.”
You are due for some good health after your first couple of years here
“Yeah, I broke my foot against Baylor my freshman year and then had the back injury right before last season and now my ankle. So I’m hoping I stay healthy this season and I don’t have to deal with those kinds of injuries.”
You said you gained some weight, what are you up to now?
“I’m consistently about 292-293. That’s really good because last year I played the season around 280, if that. So to gain 13 or 14 pounds is definitely a plus, and my body fat has stayed the same so it’s definitely just been muscle mass. I can definitely feel me coming of the ball and being able to block guys. I’m starting to move them off the ball and that’s starting to feel really well.”
There were reports suggesting you were going to move to guard. So are you working out at guard, center or both?
“Center all the way right now, I haven’t taken any reps at guard. I don’t know if they’ve talked about it or not, but the reps I’m taking right now have all been at center.”
How does this line look different as opposed to just four months ago in the bowl game?
“I would say that we’re a closer group right now. I feel like we all knew that we were a young line last year and we all started coming together during winter workouts. I feel like we’re finally starting to come together as a unit out there. We’re blocking together, we’re learning each other’s tendencies and stuff like that. That’s a huge plus because as an offensive line you have to have one unit, you can’t have five guys blocking all different ways. That’s where you get all of your rushing yards. That’s where you don’t have any sacks or things like that. That’s where I feel like we’re headed right now.”
Looking back at it, now that you’ve had some time to reflect, what, besides the injuries, was the problem with the line?
“Honestly, I think the injuries were the biggest part of it. Then it was just the fact that we had to keep rotating guys in and we just couldn’t find a solid five guys that would fit. You guys saw it, and everybody else saw the different guards and different tackles we had in there. We had tackles going to guard, guards going to center and tackles going to center, and tight ends coming in. It was just a weird year and we never were able to have that stable line that we needed to have. I feel like that’s where we’re getting right now.”
The silver lining is that a lot of those guys had to play in positions that they weren’t used to, and they played early. So now you could have maybe a more veteran line than you thought you would be.
“Exactly, we definitely have guys that know what they’re doing right now and we finally have depth with some of these freshman guys coming in. And I think there’s even more coming in this summer. So we’re going to have ten or 11 guys that may be able to participate and even play throughout the year. And that would definitely help down the stretch when we get into conference play.”
Coming back from the injury, are you going to play in the spring game?
“I hope so. They haven’t said anything to me but I’m taking enough reps out there and I expect to keep progressing through the next week and hopefully get some reps in the spring game.”
-JT
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Comments
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Love my Sooners. keep up the hard work Ben. And you guys Whoop some serious A** this year. PLEASE!