STARKVILLE — When Kendrick Market left Oxford last year after the Mississippi State football team’s loss to Ole Miss in the Egg Bowl, the safety didn’t know what the 2015 season was going to hold for him.
The Batesville native saw a ruptured Achilles tendon end his junior season. He watched from a scooter on the sidelines as MSU lost to Georgia Tech in the Orange Bowl at the end of December. He didn’t go through spring drills and was skeptical about playing this season.
But he participated in the first day of fall camp Monday.
“I was too excited. I was happy,” Market said.
Market played in all 12 regular-season games last season before the injury. He had 49 tackles (1.5 tackles for loss) and a pass breakup. With 16 starts since 2012, Market is the Bulldogs’ most experienced returning safety. Jay Hughes and West Point native Justin Cox are no longer on the team.
Market hit the rehabilitation scene hard this summer and began to see a clearer picture of his future and his senior year.
“I rehabbed like every day, three times a day,” Market said, “so I knew I was coming back fast. I was jogging and running on it. I went through the summer pretty good.”
Market is eight months removed from the injury, but he believed in the summer he would be able to make a full return by the time the season started. He said he was 100 percent when he participated in 7-on-7 workouts.
MSU seventh-year coach Dan Mullen knew Market was going to be ready for the season opener Saturday, Sept. 5 at Southern Mississippi, but he was shocked when the medical staff said he was ahead of schedule and was going to participate in the first day of practice.
Market and the rest of the Bulldogs didn’t wear pads Monday in what was a light practice. Mullen and his coaches are going to pace Market in the preseason to keep him healthy.
“We are going to be careful with him,” Mullen said. “He’s clear and he’s ready to go, but I still want to be careful with him. Missing a couple of reps today isn’t going to hurt him. He’s played a lot of football for us. It’s great to see him back there and seeing him feeling healthy and confident. We want to make sure we take care of him so he will be ready to play. He will be ready to play that game come Sept. 5 mentally and physical. We have to make sure he is ready to go.”
Market doesn’t want to push himself and re-aggravate the injury, so he will practice self control and take it easy when he needs to.
“I’m limited on most things, so whatever I can do, I’m going to do. If I can’t do it, I’m not going to do it,” he said.
Hughes suffered a torn Achilles tendon against Oklahoma State in the team’s 2013 season opener. The injury forced Hughes to miss the rest of the season. It also prevented him from participating in spring drills.
Hughes returned for fall camp prior to the 2014 season after 11 months of resting and rehabilitation. Hughes played in all 13 games as a senior. He had 26 tackles and two interceptions.
“I was scared,” Market said. “I didn’t know how long it was going to be because Jay took like a year. I didn’t know how long I was going to.”
Market sees Hughes as a big brother, so he reached out to him almost every day after the injury to seek help and to get perspective about the injury.
“Jay, he was leading and praying for me,” Market said.
Follow Dispatch sports writer Ben Wait on Twitter @bcwait
Ben Wait reports on Mississippi State University sports for The Dispatch.
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