Drake Kulick’s scream says it all. His recovery from last season’s broken leg is complete.
“Mentally you have a lot of days where you don’t know if you’re ever going to make it back where you were,” the Iowa senior fullback said. “There was a lot of days in camp where I was a little bit down on myself because I wasn’t performing up to the way that I knew that I could, but I’m glad I went through it. I think it made me a better football player.”
Kulick suffered the injury in the Hawkeyes’ 2016 regular-season finale against Nebraska. Saturday he caught his first career touchdown in Iowa’s 55-24 win over Ohio State.
“Anytime a fullback gets to touch the ball, forget about a touchdown, if they get to touch the ball, it’s a big moment, so that’s good,” Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz said. “But yeah, then you factor in Drake’s story, and it wasn’t that long ago when he was out there in a lot of pain.”
“I knew it was probably coming to me,” Kulick said. “We had run it in practice and I knew he was calling my number. When I’m old and washed up, it will definitely be something I think about and I’m glad that I was able to experience.”
Kulick’s role at fullback is especially important to Akrum Wadley, who says the Muscatine native is a one-of-a-kind guy.
“They enjoy the pleasure of forcing pain on somebody,” Wadley said. “You need guys like that. They’re really tough, they’re physical. And there’s no fake in them, you know, they’re one way.”
That toughness, and a strong support system, helped Kulick get back to 100 percent, making a day like Saturday possible for the senior.
“It was a long road, but back on September 3 or whenever we kicked off the first game, the road had ended and I was finally back,” Kulick said. “It was definitely a good feeling.”
Kulick’s hard-nosed style should play well against Wisconsin. The Badgers and Hawkeyes are two physical teams which need to run the football for success.
For more Hawkeye football coverage, follow @AdamJRossow and @HawkeyeHQ on Twitter — and now Facebook — and Hawkeye Headquarters on OurQuadCities.com all season.
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