FAYETTEVILLE - Two September weeks into the Arkansas Razorbacks’ 2012 football season, Kiero Small got the break of his life.
A horribly bad break, it seemed.
Arkansas had won its season opener and advanced from 10th to eighth in The Associated Press football rankings before the senior fullback broke his foot during practice.
The break permanently braked Small’s 2012 season.
For that, Small now says “give me a break” with gratitude.
Small escaped the Hogs’ ensuing 4-8 disaster. Arkansas’ season hastily unraveled under interim Coach John L. Smith with the 34-31 upset loss to 30-point underdog Louisiana-Monroe in Little Rock marking the first game after Small’s injury.
The fullback’s 2012 eligibility was extended to 2013.
His extra encore coincides with the arrival of Coach Bret Bielema and a rebirth in Razorbacks excitement that Small first experienced in 2011 as the new junior college transfer clearing paths for the 11-2 Cotton Bowl championship team.
“Things happen for a reason,”Small said. “That’s one thing my parents always told me, that everything happens for a reason. When I got hurt I had another year, and I am happy to be back. So it happened for a reason, and I am going to make the best of this opportunity.”
Competitor that he is, Small would have tried to rush back into the 2012 fray if the broken metatarsal showed a hint of healing early. Fortunately for him, and Bielema, Arkansas’ misbegotten 2012 had turned into 2013 before Small was ready.
“Right after we first got back in January I was running and able to cut,” Small said. “With injuries, you do stuff and it gets sore and it did. But after the soreness went away, I went again and this time it didn’t get too sore and I knew I was back.” Meanwhile, as an on-campus recruiting visit host, Small won Bielema’s respect practically from the December day that Bielema was hired away from Wisconsin.
Small continued winning the staff’s respect by following strength coach Ben Herbert’s edict to “eat more vegetables” while skipping his chips and French fries favorites. He trimmed his still powerful 5-10 frame from 256 pounds to a quicker 246.
Now Small says he’s so aware of what he eats that he couldn’t fully enjoy the Sunday gorge he “penciled in” to celebrate last Saturday’s finish to spring ball.
“I ate some wings and stuff and they were pretty good, but after I walked out of there I felt like maybe I didn’t need that,” Small said.
By all accounts, Small deserved that one big splurge.
Bielema said he pulled seniors Travis Swanson - “probably the best center in college football,” the coach said - and Small after the first half of the Red-White game “because those guys have shown me that they can play winning football.”
For the dieting fullback to rate in the same breath with Travis Swanson is no small potatoes.
Sports, Pages 14 on 04/24/2013