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Fresno State quarterback Derek Carr was one of the best quarterbacks in all of FBS last year, as he threw for 4,104 yards and 37 touchdowns while leading the Bulldogs to a three-way share of the Mountain West title. Carr also was named the Mountain West offensive player of the year in 2012. He did all of that while playing the entire season with a torn abdominal muscle, which he suffered in fall camp.
That is right, Carr had one of the best seasons for a quarterback and he had a torn muscle which required surgery in January. Carr did not want to tell any of his teammates because he did not want to distract the team. Only the coaches and training staff knew about the injury, and three weeks into the 2012 season the staff had to change how they handled practice as to not hurt Carr any further.
Carr said that it hurt to sneeze and he was always in pain. Also due to the injury the offense was unable to do any zone reads, roll outs and even some play action was unable to be called due to his injury. That apparently is a big chunk of the playbook that went unused for the majority of the season.
Criticism for Carr last year was that he had trouble getting out of the pocket when pressure came, and now it makes more sense that he could not move around due to being injured.
Now that Carr is completely healthy it is quite scary to think about how good he could be this season.