Arizona quarterback Brandon Dawkins (13) runs out of the tackle of Utah defensive back Chase Hansen (22) during the first half of an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Oct. 8, 2016, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/George Frey)
Chase Hansen will tell you how antsy he was, and at times, still is.
He couldn’t run the way he wanted to run.
He couldn’t lift the way he wanted to lift.
His teammates suited up, went through a month of fall camp drenched in sweat, while Hansen could do nothing but sit and wait. To the linchpin of Utah’s defense, it was misery to be sidelined. To pass the time, the junior strong safety, who many view as one of the premier talents in the Pac-12, studied film from fall camp and a year ago, hoping not to get caught up in the monotony of each passing day.
Hansen said after his first day back at practice this week that his family has an inside joke that without football, the 6-foot-3, 220-pounder would be “like a psycho.” With the game, he’s more tame, more set in the comfort of the routine he’s grown accustomed to. Without it, he’s restless, on edge, struggling to find a way to expel the pent up energy typically released by thumping a wide receiver coming across the middle.
CHASE HANSEN <br>Height • 6-foot-2 <br>Weight • 220 pounds <br>Position • Strong safety <br>Class • Junior <br>Age • 24 <br>Hometown • Highland <br>A much-needed presence • After missing all of fall camp with an injury, Hansen is easing his way back into the fold at strong safety, where he led Utah in tackles (90), started all 13 games and was an All-Pac-12 honorable mention a year ago.
“I think everyone has some madness in them,” Hansen said. “Everyone just gets it out in different ways. I guess my way is football, so when I don’t have that, I don’t know, figure it out.”
That was Hansen’s battle this summer. The unspecified injury had been pestering him for some time. Yet Hansen kept pushing himself. That’s what he does. Turns out, that just made it worse.
Workouts set him back, so much so that he eventually was forced to miss the entirety of fall camp. It was a wake-up call for a homegrown Utah talent projected to be next in the long line of Utah safeties who transition into the NFL.
“I want someone to tell me you can go 100 percent now and you won’t hurt this,” Hansen said. “It’s just, the body’s not like that. Say what you want, I feel like the way I play the game or whatever you say, I just get hurt too much, and I need to figure out a way to stay healthier.”
At 24, Hansen might be in the prime of his life, but in football years, time is extradited. “Prehab,” he said when asked how he can avoid further injury in a position asked to lay the largest of hits and make acrobatic plays down field.
“It was always, ‘Go hard, go hard, go hard,’” Hansen said. “Now it’s like, OK, I’m at the point I want to be, now I have to figure out a way to stop going backwards.”
Hansen was Utah’s leading tackler a year ago, started all 13 games and earned All-Pac-12 honorable mention — his first full season at the safety spot. Upon transitioning from quarterback to safety in 2015, Hansen proved his ability immediately but suffered a season-ending leg fracture at Washington.
Utah defensive back’s coach, Sharrieff Shah, recalls the days as a player when he thought he could heal faster in order to return to the field.
“We all think we can do more than we’re ever allowed to do,” Shah said. “It’s just about being smart, but we’re happy to have [Hansen] back in the fold. He looked really good.”
Hansen admitted he felt he let his team down as he tried to push his body this summer to what he believed would be an eventual return to the peak he felt a year ago. Watching Utah’s young defensive backs step in and catch on helped, he said. Now instead of looking ahead and trying to problem solve in the far future, he’s determined to be more patient.
Which, he said, he still must improve upon.
“Listen to trainers, not do my own thing,” he said, smiling. “I tend to do that. Just be more of a team player and not focus on, well, I need to hurry and get my reps. It’ll come.”
Shah concurs.
“It was good to hear his voice,” he said, “because that was lacking in the secondary.”