A pulled hamstring seemed like nothing to Delone Carter. He is, after all, the same player who battled back from a dislocated hip, an injury that some thought would end his career.

So a pulled hamstring seemed so innocuous. Innocent, even.

‘A hamstring injury shouldn’t be nothing,’ the sophomore tailback said. ‘But it’s something.’

Carter knows this now, because that nagging, left hamstring has kept him out of the Syracuse backfield for the last four games. Carter hasn’t seen the field since suffering the injury in the Orange’s blowout loss to Penn State on Sept. 13.

All signs point to Carter making his return this Saturday against Louisville (7 p.m., ESPNU). That could lift a Syracuse offense that has relied almost exclusively on tailback Curtis Brinkley this year. An offense that has managed one touchdown in nearly the last 10 quarters.

‘On Sunday, I thought he looked very, very good,’ SU head coach Greg Robinson said. ‘So, it sounds like all systems are go with him.’

Then again, this isn’t the first time Carter’s been proclaimed healthy. He told reporters he’d be ready to go three weeks ago, prior to Syracuse’s trip to West Virginia.

But hamstrings can be tricky. Carter, who’s never had the injury before, found that out in practice, the Thursday before that game.

‘I got a draw play and I got out and I was pulling away from the defense,’ Carter said, ‘and all of a sudden it grabbed at me.’

Carter wasn’t even on the travel roster for the Orange’s 17-6 loss to the Mountaineers. He’s played in three games this season, running for 139 yards on 21 carries (a 6.6 yard-per-carry average). Carter even carried the SU offense when given the chance. He ran for 77 yards in the second half of a loss to Akron, willing Syracuse back into a game in which it trailed by 14 at halftime.

Those performances have been overshadowed by Carter’s health problems. Since re-aggravating the injury, Carter has taken the safe approach in practice. ‘Any sign of me feeling something or getting a twinge, I just stop,’ Carter said.

Now, it looks like Carter will finally return this weekend, a well-timed bye week giving him plenty of time to recover. Carter said he hasn’t had any setbacks in practice this week and that he feels like he’s 100 percent.

Even if Carter does play, carries could be sparse. Brinkley has been Syracuse’s best player this year, breaking the 100-yard barrier in five of the last six games. What was a three-man running back rotation at the beginning of the season – Carter, Brinkley and Doug Hogue – has whittled to just Brinkley.

‘Time will tell,’ Robinson said when asked how he’ll use Carter. ‘We will see how that all works out. It’s good to see him back. Delone is a factor, but at the same time, Curtis has done a great job.’

For now, Carter will settle for just getting on the field. There are still five games left to salvage his comeback season. The playing time issue will sort itself out. ‘Whatever the coaches decide to do with me, I’m willing to do,’ Carter said.

Of course, the threat of that hamstring still looms. Even if Carter says he doesn’t worry about it.

‘It did, after I re-hurt it in practice,’ Carter said. ‘But I know I can’t play thinking about it, so I don’t think about it.’

jsclayto@syr.edu

Published on October 31, 2008 at 12:00 pm